Have you ever had those days where you feel like you have been in the kitchen ALL DAY? I know what that feels like all too well. With four small children, it doesn’t take much to keep me in the kitchen all day.
I make them breakfast, then clean up breakfast. Then it’s lunchtime, and of course clean up time after lunch. Then there’s dinner and yet another cleanup project. And let’s not forget about the snacks in between meals. Sometimes it drives me absolutely crazy!
Luckily, I haven’t gone crazy…yet! Instead, I’ve taken these trying times and learned ways to be more efficient. I still have days where I feel like I am in the kitchen all day. But thankfully, those days are less frequent. Following are my top 10 time saving kitchen tips that help me escape the kitchen. Hopefully they will help you, too!
1. Meal Plan!
Proper planning is probably the single most important skill to have when saving time in the kitchen. I don’t think I could stress this enough. I have learned that without a proper meal plan, I am lost. And if I don’t know what I’m serving or what is available to feed my family, then I have 4 hungry kids staring at me and it doesn’t take long for the whining to begin.
I, at a minimum, have a meal plan prepared a week in advance. I know approximately what I will have available for breakfast, lunch, dinner and snacks for all 7 days. This might sound like a lot of work, but it really isn’t. I often rotate making a beef, chicken, fish or pork dish for dinner. This rotation of meats narrows down my menu choices for certain days. I also try to keep breakfasts and lunches simple during the week.
The key is to just pick a night that isn’t too busy. Sit down and brainstorm what you or your family like to eat and jot it down on a piece of paper. Sure, things might change during the week. Life is always changing. But at least you will have a plan. And if something does change and you don’t have a meal you planned to make, make it next week instead!
2. Limit Shopping
Once I have my meal plan prepared, I prepare one grocery list to make my grocery purchases for the whole week. I may purchase different foods or products from different stores. But hopefully, if I’ve written everything on my one list, I only have to go to each store once.
Occasionally, I do all of my shopping in one day. Sometimes, I shop at different stores on different days of the week. Heck, sometimes I just buy online and have it delivered! It really depends on my schedule for the week. We all will do whatever works best for us. But, hopefully, making a list will keep you on track for what to buy, so you are not running back out to the store for something you forgot in the middle of the week! It might also help you to stick to your list and not buy unnecessary things.
3. Fresh Produce
We eat a lot of fresh produce in our family, since we eat a real food diet that includes very little processed food. So, I often come home with lots of fruits and vegetables that need to be washed.
I’ve found that if I wash everything right away, or within a day, we are more likely to eat the fruits and vegetables, as opposed to letting them rot. If I forget to wash all of the produce, or I just don’t take the time to do it, I find that I often postpone making those dishes that I planned to use those items for. Then, it becomes a cascade of rotting food in my refrigerator.
So, if you can, always wash your produce within 24 hours. It might just help you be less wasteful.
4. Breakfast
In order to continue eating a real food, ketogenic diet, I’ve discovered that making breakfast casseroles work well for my husband and me. I generally make one casserole on Sunday that will feed us all week long. We will store the casserole in daily portions that make it easy to reheat each morning. For an example of a casserole, see me recipe for a 3 Cheese Turkey & Spinach Breakfast Casserole.
However, perhaps you are not a casserole person. Or, perhaps you don’t like eating the same thing every morning. Everyone is different. But if you find a breakfast you love, prepare it ahead of time so that you don’t have to spend the time preparing it each morning. Perhaps that means portioning out your smoothie ingredients for each morning of the week. Once again, plan ahead!
5. Lunch Preparation
I don’t personally eat lunch, nor does my husband. We generally practice intermittent fasting, where we eat our breakfast later in the day, around “lunchtime.” In fact, he often brings his daily portion of breakfast casserole with him for lunch! This is a great way to save some time and money. Just don’t eat as much!
But, perhaps you don’t think you can skip a meal. You can very easily make many lunches ahead of time. My children eat lunch just about every day. However, I only make their lunches on one or two days during the week.
Sometimes, I’ll make lunch for all 5 weekdays on Sunday night! This especially works if I’m making sandwiches. It’s not hard to make more sandwiches if all of the ingredients are out on the countertop. Then, I just have to pack, or serve, their lunch each day.
I have also been known to provide my children with the same lunch every other day of the week. For example, they may get ham and cheese roll-ups with gluten-free crackers and apples on Monday, Wednesday and Friday. On Sunday evening, I might make that lunch for all 3 of those days. Then, on Monday, I might make a different lunch for Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday.
You get the idea. Once again, plan and prepare ahead of time!
6. Salad Preparation
I think most people know that salads are good for them, but I don’t know how many people actually eat a salad every night of the week. Perhaps part of that reason is because making a salad can be time consuming.
When my husband and I decided to eat a real food, ketogenic diet, eating a salad was a must! Salads are so healthy for you. In fact, I would almost say that you would be better off just eating a salad or some type of raw vegetables, if nothing else, every night of the week! Raw vegetables, especially when combined with the fat included in salad dressings, provide the body with the digestive enzymes needed to digest the rest of your meal. Therefore, we make it a priority, even for our 2 year old, to eat a small salad daily.
So, how do I serve a salad every night? I only make a salad once a week! I make 2 to 4 bowls of salad at one time. If the greens are fresh and placed in an air-tight container, they should last all week long. We then just portion out a small salad for each person before dinner each night. All of the sudden, having a salad every night is much more doable!
7. Double Dinners
When I had my first child, I remember family members, neighbors and friends bringing me meals to eat so that I didn’t have to cook. It was wonderful! I don’t think I had to cook for a month!
Then, my second child was born and I didn’t have all of those wonderful meals. I may have had a few from our parents. But, for the most part, I was on my own. It was then that I started doubling my meals.
I learned that if I had all of the ingredients out on the counter, it wasn’t much more work to make two meals, as it was one. So, why not make two meals and freeze one? Before I knew it, we were buying a second freezer so that I could stock up on meals to give myself a break.
Fast forward to today, I now have anywhere from 10 to 20 extra meals in the freezer at any given time. On days when I’m tired, I just pull a meal out of the freezer and stick it in the oven. Talk about real “fast food”!
8. Leftovers, Anyone?
I am not ashamed to say that my family loves leftovers. And thank goodness, because if I had to make a home cooked meal every night of the week, I’d never leave the kitchen! In fact, I plan for a “leftover” night just about every Wednesday evening.
Every Wednesday, I clean out the refrigerator and gather up whatever was left over from the last week’s dinners. I reheat these leftovers in the oven, or, if I have time I’ll stick them in our warming drawer for an hour or two. It’s like an encore of all of the fabulous meals I’ve served all week long. Everyone gets to pick their favorite dish and there are rarely any complaints. Yay!
It’s also a great way to not over eat. If you know that you are going to get a chance to taste a meal again, perhaps you might be less inclined to go back for seconds. This method seems to really work well for us. In fact, “leftover” night has actually become our favorite night of the week! And I absolutely love having a break from cooking in the middle of the week!
9. Label, Label, Label!
With all of the meals I prepare ahead of time, it’s easy to forget what you made and when. Therefore, I have gotten in the habit of labeling EVERYTHING! I put a name and a date on absolutely everything I make before I put it in the refrigerator or freezer. That way, there is no question about how long it has been sitting there.
I try my best to consume foods that have been in the refrigerator within a week’s time and foods that have been in my freezer within a year’s time. The only way I can keep track of all of our meals is by labeling.
I also keep a list on my refrigerator of the meals I put in the freezer, listing the name and date. I add meals as I put them in the freezer and I cross meals off when I pull them out of the freezer. Every so often, I might take an inventory of the freezer and make sure that what is in the freezer is actually in the freezer. Occasionally, I find some discrepancies. But for the most part, my list stays pretty accurate and we consume our meals before they get too old.
10. Storage Containers
And last, but not least, I have chosen to use glass storage containers. I did this on purpose, not only because plastic is so toxic, but also because glass containers are so versatile. I can put a glass container in the refrigerator, freezer or oven. I can pull a glass container out of the freezer and put it directly in the oven, without having to defrost the item first so that I can transfer it to a glass container suitable for baking. I can also put a dish in the refrigerator on one day and decide to freeze it another day, without having to transfer it to a container suitable for freezing.
Do yourself a favor and invest in some good glass containers. I love the Pyrex brand, since their containers come with lids that are usable in the refrigerator and freezer. When baking, you simply have to remove the lids. However, Anchor Hocking has a similar line of glassware that is comparable to Pyrex. Either way, stock up on your glassware! This saves me SO much time!
Perhaps you are already doing some of these things in your home. Or, perhaps you’ve never thought of these methods and I’ve given you something to think about. In any case, I truly hope that these time saving kitchen tips have been helpful in making your time in the kitchen more efficient. They have certainly saved me time and energy as my family has grown.
How do you save time in the kitchen? Please share! I’d really love to know.
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