Would you like to know how to cook faster at home? Here are 10 tips to spend less time cooking & save time in the kitchen.

 

As a busy mom, I’m always looking for ways to cook faster and save time.

If you’re like me, you probably want to prepare home-cooked meals for your family, but you don’t have all day to do it. (There’s probably a gazillion other things on your to-do-list too, right?)

In this Podcast or Post, I’m sharing 10 things that have helped me to cook faster and save time in the kitchen.

 

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➡ Download our free Flavorful Meal Plan Guide here. This will teach you how to find & plan flavorful meals while saving time & money.

✅ Join our Calm Kitchen Clutter Course here. Go through this course at your own pace & get a step-by-step guide for how to declutter your kitchen & keep it clean and uncluttered.

➡ This is the Betty Crocker cookbook I use that has fast dinner recipes. They’re easy to make and most of the ones I’ve tried taste pretty good.

✅ Grab the freezer meals cookbook I recommend here. It’s full of freezer-friendly recipes and gives the ingredient amounts for multiplying the recipes as well. I’ve enjoyed many of the recipes in here, and they’re easy to make.

➡ This is the pot I use to make pasta that has a pull-out strainer.

✅ Check out the slow cooker I have on Amazon here. (I love this one because it’s big, makes a lot of food, and is easy to use.)

 

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1.) Meal plan in advance before you go grocery shopping and make a list of any ingredients you need.

 

 

Pick out the recipes you want to make in advance for a week, a couple of weeks, or more. 

I personally will typically meal plan for the length of time between shopping trips, which for us is about a week. When our family size was smaller, I would plan meals and shop for 2 weeks at a time.  

But since our family size has grown, a week’s worth of groceries fills up a shopping cart and our fridge. So I just meal plan for a week at a time now.

Write your meal plans down and if you’re using recipes (and not just going of off memory or winging it,) note where the recipes can be found.

Are you using a recipe from a cookbook? Jot down which cookbook it is and the page number. 

If the recipe you’re making is online, save the link in a place where you’ll be able to find it again.

And bonus points if you print out the recipe or screenshot it for easy access.

This isn’t a bad idea because someone can always choose to remove a recipe from their site, their website may be down, they could decide to make you pay to subscribe to access the recipe, or you could have internet issues.

Read the comments and reviews on recipes when they’re available. They’ll help you decide if the recipe is worth making to begin with.

And sometimes multiple comments will mention making specific adjustments to a recipe, which in some instances may help you make the food faster or easier. 

✅ If you want help to get started with meal planning or you just want some tips on how to do it better, download our free Flavorful Meal Plan Guide here.

 

2.) Choose recipes that are fast or don’t involve a lot of active time.

 

 

If you want to save time in the kitchen, I recommend recipes that are either fast or simple with not too much work/active time. 

✅ I have a cookbook with fast dinner recipes and they are also pretty simple to make.

You can also make simple crockpot/slow cooker recipes, which will take longer, but they pretty much cook themselves after initially prepping and tossing in the ingredients.

Crockpot recipes are great for preparing meals while you may be working or busy during the day, or if you’re like me and it works out better for you to prepare food in the morning than the afternoon/evening. 

➡ If you don’t have a slow cooker, I highly recommend getting one. The one I have is a decent size.

✅ There are cookbooks specifically with crockpot recipes.

You can also find a lot of crockpot recipes online for most types of foods. 

It’s great to be able to prep food and let it cook without needing to constantly stir it, like you do on the stove. 

You just need to keep an eye on when it’s done, be sure the slow cooker isn’t touching anything you don’t want to get hot, and make sure it’s out of reach of young kids. But that’s about it. 

 

3.) Make sure you have all the cookware you need for the amounts of food you typically make.

 

 

If you need to cook separate things in different pots or pans for a meal but you don’t have enough cookware, that’s going to be an issue.

In that case, you’ll have to cook certain things first, then store them elsewhere, then clean out the pot or pan, then cook something else in it, which is going to take extra time. 

But if you have enough cookware/bakeware, you’ll be able to cook or bake everything at once. 

You also want to make sure that your cookware is large enough for the portion sizes you make. 

 

4.) Double recipes so you have enough for leftovers. 

 

 

Leftovers are your friend if you want to spend less time in the kitchen.

When you make enough for leftovers this means you’ll save time cooking because you won’t need to cook as often.

Doubling a recipe will take a lot less time that making 2 different regular recipes. 

You just want to make sure, as we discussed in the last point, that you have adequate cookware. 

So that means you’ll have large pots and pans and storage containers that are big enough to hold extra food. You don’t want to start making a recipe only to realize that not all the ingredients are going to fit in the pot.

Just a Note: Pay attention to how many servings the original recipe makes before multiplying it. If you’re using a recipe that already makes several servings, you may not need to double it in order to have enough for leftovers.

On the other hand, you may want to triple or quadruple other recipes if the original recipe only makes a small amount or if you have a large family.

And Another Note: When multiplying a recipe, you may not need to multiply all the ingredients depending on what they are or how they‘re used. For example, if you’re tripling a recipe that involves sautéing vegetables, you may not need to triple the amount of butter or oil used to sauté them in. And some strong-tasting ingredients, while you may want to add more than the original recipe calls for, may be overpowering if you multiply them as much as the other ingredients.

Multiplying recipes will also affect the cooking, baking, and/or cooling/chilling times if you make everything all together. So those are just some things to keep in mind.

Often when you make recipes that are posted online, there will be comments from people who doubled them and report how they turned out. So those comments can help you decide if you need to make any adjustments.

 

5.) Make sure your kitchen is clutter-free and your dishes & cookware are clean.

 

 

Starting with a disorganized, messy kitchen is definitely going to lengthen the time you spend cooking.

You want to have clear counters so you have space to work.

And you want all the cookware, dishes, measuring cups, kitchen tools, and so on that you need to prepare your meals to be clean and ready for use.

When everything is decluttered and clean and ready for you to grab you’ll be able to prepare food a lot faster. You won’t need to stop prepping food because you realize the pan you need is dirty and needs washing.

Just seeing clutter can visually distract us and make us take longer as well. 

I’m always more productive and efficient with cooking and doing other tasks when my environment is clutter-free.

➡ If you’re currently struggling with a cluttered kitchen, I have a course I made called Calm Kitchen Clutter, which you can get on sale for a limited time. 

It walks you through how to declutter each area and category of clutter in your kitchen.

And there’s also a lesson on how to maintain a clutter-free kitchen after you’ve made the effort to unclutter it. 

 

I know what it’s like to struggle with kitchen clutter and a messy house. And I’ve also learned how to overcome it, even though I didn’t consider myself a naturally organized person.

That’s why I made this course, to help others get out of the kitchen clutter rut, because it’s a stressful place to be in. I would know, because I struggled with a messy, cluttered kitchen for years. 

And if that’s where you’re at, it’s possible to turn things around and have a kitchen that is both user-friendly and uncluttered.

When your kitchen stays uncluttered and clean, you’ll find it easy to cook quickly and without feeling stressed out.

 

6.) Use prewashed, precut, or prepared ingredients to save time in the kitchen. 

 

 

When some of the work is already done for you, it will save you time in the kitchen.

Granted, prewashed and precut ingredients aren’t typically going to be the cheapest option. (Produce generally costs more when it’s already washed or cut, but it will save you time.) 

Buying other foods that are already prepared or partially prepared may or may not cost you more depending on the type of food it is. 

And usually foods you buy prepared will not be as healthy as making them completely from scratch. 

But making meals at home with some processed or premade ingredients will overall still usually be healthier & less expensive than grabbing fast food or going out to eat. 

So if time is an issue, it may be the best balance you have between your time, your money, and your health.

 

7.) Make freezer meals or freeze extra leftovers for a future meal.

 

 

There are meals that can be prepped and frozen until you’re ready to cook them. Or you can cook meals and then freeze them to reheat for later.

You may also want to freeze extra leftovers of meals you’ve made before they go bad, if you aren’t able to eat them all. 

It’s important to make sure you’re freezing foods that are freezer-friendly. While most foods can be frozen, there are some that don’t freeze well.

When freezing foods, you also want to ensure you’re storing them properly and using them before they would go bad. 

Frozen foods do last longer than refrigerated foods.

But how long something frozen will last well depends on the type of food and how it’s stored. Some foods will last well for months in the freezer. And some last for a year or longer. 

If you’re new to freezer meals, I recommend picking recipes that have been specifically freezer-tested.

✅ I have a cookbook I like called Don’t Panic- Dinner’s in the Freezer.

I like it because all the meals are freezer friendly, they’re pretty easy to make, and the ones I’ve tried taste pretty good. 

There are a few I added more seasoning to, because I like very flavorful meals. 

But I don’t think there are any recipes in there I haven’t liked that I tried. 

I also love that the recipes show different ingredient amounts for how to multiply the recipe if you want to. And there are instructions for how to cook & thaw the food on the day you want to serve it. 

Some people take an hour or part of a day to prepare a week’s or month’s worth of freezer meals. 

(I don’t do freezer meals too much currently. I don’t have a lot of space in our freezer for the portion size I need for our family.)

But we’re probably going to purchase an extra freezer at some point. And after that, I would like to start doing freezer meals again.

The recipes in the freezer meal cookbook I recommend can also be made without freezing them. (You can easily just serve them the same day/week.)

 

8.) Accept help from others in your household and teach your kids to cook.

 

 

If you have a spouse or another responsible person in your household who offers to help, accept it. 

Also, if you have kids, start having them help with age-appropriate tasks at a young age. 

Our younger kids will help with washing vegetables, sorting lentils, grabbing ingredients, stirring, and other tasks. 

And our older kids can help with chopping things up, cooking on the stove, and baking in the oven. 

Whenever I have the kids help, I always explain what we’re doing and why, along with any tasks I’m doing. This way they’re learning how a recipe comes together, even with tasks they aren’t personally doing.

Of course, it’s important for kids to learn how to cook, which is a life skill. But it can also save you time in the long run. 

Yes, at first you’ll need to take time to patiently teach them what to do and how to do it. But it will benefit both you and your children when you teach them to cook.

You’re investing in their future skills and saving yourself time in the future when you do. Because eventually they’ll be able to do everything on their own quicker and without supervision.

 

9.) Use good quality kitchen tools and appliances when appropriate to save time cooking.

 

 

Good quality kitchen tools can help you spend less time cooking. 

✅ Using a hand mixer saves time mixing wet ingredients. 

✅ Having a good quality blender can make certain recipes go faster too. 

✅ For pasta, I like using a pot with a pull out strainer, which is super fast to drain. 

(I wasted a huge amount of time accidentally dropping the pasta in my sink multiple times. This was before I had a pot with a strainer, when I was trying to drain my spaghetti with a lid in a regular pot.) 

10.) Save and make a list of any recipes you want to remake.

 

 

This will save you time in the future with planning meals. You’ll eventually have a long list of options to choose from that you already enjoy. 

You’ll also save time cooking when you repeat recipes because you’ll get faster at cooking meals you’ve made before.

 

So those are 10 tips to save time cooking. By planning ahead and being intentional about the meals you make and how you make them, you’ll be able to cook quickly and spend less time in the kitchen.

 

➡ Don’t forget to download our free Flavorful Meal Plan Guide.

 

In our next Podcast or Post, we’ll discuss how to clean your house faster.

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Thanks for reading & have a great day!

 

 

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