Cooking either for yourself or your entire family is a time-consuming chore. According to the United States Department of Agriculture, women spend 51 minutes cooking and cleaning after. On the other hand, men only spend an average of 22 minutes every day completing the same chores.
Spending time in the kitchen is an excellent stress reliever. But if you’re spending too much time — to the point where you have to sacrifice other chores or no longer enjoy life — that’s another story. Fortunately, there are many ways to spend less time in the kitchen when you’re cooking, namely:
- Invest in the Right Kitchen Appliances
You can prepare countless meals by hand, but doing so will require a lot of time. Your meal prep time will likely run for a few hours if you have to chop and mix everything by hand. This is especially true if you’re preparing an entire course for your family or expecting guests over.
To save time when cooking in the kitchen, check out the Argos online catalogue of 2022 and invest in the right kitchen appliances. For one, a food processor will save you time as it processes batches of food. You can use this device to chop, cut, and mix different ingredients within seconds.
Another must-have kitchen appliance that can save you time is an electric multi-cooker. This can cut your cooking time by at least half, which means that if you cook corned beef in a slow cooker for eight hours, using an electric multi-cooker will only require you four.
- Plan Your Meals
Realizing that you ran out of ingredients just when you’ve started cooking is one of the worst experiences anyone can have. This will cost you more time because you have to pause what you’re doing and head out to buy additional ingredients.
Planning your meals is an easy way to save time in the kitchen. When you know what you’re going to prepare, you can easily determine what ingredients you’ll use and then buy them before you start getting busy in the kitchen. Meal planning will also save you time in the grocery stores.
Do you want to lose weight without spending a lot of time cooking meals? Are you looking for meals with more protein? Through meal planning, you can enjoy different dishes without spending hours in the kitchen.
- Organize Your Kitchen
Not finding the ingredients and tools when you’re in the kitchen can be frustrating. Instead of preparing a salad for a couple of minutes, you’ll end up spending several hours in the kitchen looking for vegetables and silverware.
You can save time in the kitchen by making sure that the space is organized at all times. You won’t have any problems preparing meals if you can find everything you need the moment you need them. A clutter-free kitchen is also easy on the eyes and relieves stress when cooking.
Depending on the condition of your kitchen, organizing the space might require you to invest in a renovation project. Taking this route enables you to install overhead and under-the-sink cabinets and convert an unused room into a walk-in pantry.
- Prepare Quick Meals
Many people still believe that cooking, in general, will require long hours. However, this isn’t true — there are plenty of recipes available today that anyone can finish within minutes.
If you want to lessen the amount of time you spend in the kitchen, opt to prepare quick meals. For example, if you want to serve pasta for your family, choose one-pot pasta recipes. You can also make baked feta pasta, one-pan creamy chicken and gnocchi, or black bean tostadas in less than an hour. You can also marinate meats overnight and then cook them the next day for a couple of minutes.
- Ask for Help
Cooking in the kitchen doesn’t have to be a one-man (or woman) show. You can actually use this opportunity to bond with your family, especially if you have kids at home.
Instead of cooking alone, ask for help from your family. The task you’ll assign to them should depend on their ages. For example, if your kids are three years old or younger, you can let them rinse the fruits and vegetables, scrub potatoes, or tear greens into pieces. For kids four to five years old, you can let them juice lemons, set the timer, or whisk vinaigrette.
Pursue Your Love for Cooking
Your love for cooking shouldn’t require you to sacrifice time with your family or your ability to accomplish other responsibilities. Follow all of the tips mentioned here whenever you’re in the kitchen, so cooking becomes a fast and easy process!
