We have always worked, be it household duties, raising children or working for someone or in a firm. In our days, we work for long hours, return home after a long tiring journey and all we want to do is eat and sleep!
Not everyone loves to cook, but most of us do not have the time to cook.
Even if you do not love to cook, these tips will make your life a lot easier and save you time fixing good meals in minutes on a busy tiring day.
Meet your tools
1- The Wok: Stir-fry cooking
Stir-fry is a Chinese cooking technique that gives a fried taste to your ingredients with only quick stirring for minutes. It depends on having a really hot wok* (or wide and a bit deep skillet), with thin pieces of tenderized-meat or poultry that will cook quickly, and vegetables that are cut thinly or that can be eaten half-raw if they did not completely cook (carrots, mushrooms, broccoli, zucchini, leafy greens, tomatoes, bell pepper…etc.).
Have batches of these ingredients frozen ahead then quick defrost in the microwave. Toss your ingredients by order of ‘what needs more time to cook?’ in a greased and very hot wok (or skillet) and stir until cooked then finish by adding a fluid for a little sauce (water, milk, soy sauce, cream…etc.). The whole process should take 15 minutes, preparation and cooking!
*A Wok is a Chinese cooking skillet that has a deep round bottom and is made of metals that are thinner than usual and conduct heat quicker than stainless steel or iron. They are a bit expensive, but they are designed to quickly cook your meats and vegetables.
2- The Pan: Pan grill cooking
There is nothing quicker to cook, in the meat world, than a pan grilled steak or a chicken or fish fillet. We are talking 2 to 10 minutes depending on thickness and kind of meat. By the time you boil some potatoes for a mashed and throw some frozen vegetables in boiling water or the microwave for a quick sauté, your meat will be done and you have an easy, rich and fancy dish!
Meet your devices
3- The Kettle: Boiling water
When cooking almost anything (rice not included), that requires adding water and waiting till it boils, you can use your kettle to boil water while working then use the already boiling water to save time.
When adding non-boiling water, the heat of your pan and ingredients is brought down in a sudden and they stop cooking. You should then wait until it reaches boiling point again and continue cooking. Adding already boiling water saves that time, although it is not recommended for cooking rice.
4- The Microwave Oven: It cooks too!
Microwave ovens are underappreciated in most of our homes. They are not just to re-heat! They defrost your frozen foods very quickly (yet make sure to set the right microwave power and defrosting level when thawing raw meats and vegetables so they do not cook!).
More importantly they cook too! You can cook rice in a microwave, jacket potatoes, vegetables (mushrooms are done in 1 minute!), and even cakes!
All that without requiring any special tools. Go through your manual and the the Internet for recipes, and try things out. You will find treasures!
All that without requiring any special tools. Go through your manual and the the Internet for recipes, and try things out. You will find treasures!
5- The Freezer: Freeze up!
You should invest in a deep freezer if your fridge freezer will not be enough because believe it or not, most food (cooked or raw) freeze up extremely well! All you need to do is defrost on medium heat in a saucepan or quick defrost in the microwave and voilà, fresh and ready!
Here are some ideas:
- When you cook rice, meats or vegetables in sauce (Fasolya, Besela, Ol2as... etc.) double your cooking quantity then freeze half of it. Some carbs-rich food will have a mild change of texture when defrosted (pasta, potatoes...), they will be good again by giving them a boil.
- Raw vegetables that will be cooked later, also freeze well (even potatoes since you will still cook them). So cut your vegetables ready for a quick sauté or dice them for a vegetables soup. Also store your raw vegetables leftovers for quick additions on pasta, stir-fry or stew dishes.
- If you have tomatoes that are close to going bad, throw them in the freezer then use them for tomato sauce. Same for whole lemons.
- Prepare portions of blended tomato and onion mix, for your tomato sauces that are ready to put in the pan.
- Minced garlic, minced onions, minced fresh herbs, juiced lemon and sauce or gravy leftovers freeze good as well.
- When you buy meat, separate it in portions in freezer bags to avoid defrosting a quantity that is more than what you need and then freezing it again (it makes the meat extremely tough and tasteless).
- When you boil vegetables, don’t discard the water, it is a very good vegetables broth that has mixed flavors and a cocktail of vitamins. Instead, freeze it and use later to cook rice, make sauces or soups.
- Same goes when you boil meats or poultry, stock the broth in the freezer and you can divide it on 1 Litter portions before freezing, for easier measuring later.
6- The Fridge: Salad vegetables
Salad seem to be easy but cutting all these vegetables actually takes time!
Some vegetables like cabbage, carrots, cucumber, lettuce… will keep for days if cut and stored in a plastic fridge bag or a well-sealed box in your fridge. With that in your fridge, having cherry tomatoes and previously prepared batches of dressings, you can fix fancy salads in 2 minutes!
7- The Oven: Oven dishes
Oven dishes are a time saver because you do not have to be there all the time. You just put everything in there once and leave it there! Cook vegetables and meats or pasta in red sauce or béchamel, in the oven and freeze your oven dishes as they are. The night before you want to eat it, thaw it in the fridge then reheat it in the oven before serving, it will be good as fresh.
Beware to have a kitchen timer though!
Recycle and re-think your dishes
8- Recycled Soup and Salad
Soups and salads are quick fixes, fillers and healthy! Use your cooked vegetables and meats leftovers and recycle them into soups and salads. It works!
When you do not like how your salad looks, play on different cutting shapes, add a crunch with some nuts, improvise in the seasoning, and when your soup looks like chunks of food in water, blend it, add few cream and here you go a Cream of Whatever-that-was-in-Chunks Soup!
9- Enrich your Pasta
Be friend of pasta. It has 12g of proteins per 100g, makes you full and is extremely quick!
By enriching your sauces, using leftover vegetables, pickles, meats, and spicing things up differently every time with your spectrum of herbs and spices, you can make a rich and delicious meal in a different way every time and in 15 minutes or less.
10- Switch to quicker versions
When short on cooked rice and have not much time to make some, switch to quicker versions like bulgur wheat, long grain or basmati rice. They are easier and quicker to cook and will sure make a change to your menu routine.
In conclusion the idea is to look for smart swaps and replacements and choose ingredients that will cook faster, tools that will speed up your cooking, saving food ideas that will speed up your meal-fixing…etc. Be inventive!
