Hounds In The Kitchen » Cooking

Tips to Save Time Cooking

Rachel — Wed, 03 Feb 2010 16:17:24 +0000

I recently revealed that on a fairly average week, we spend a little less than 13 hours cooking. That’s a lot for some families, but there are ways to spend your time in the kitchen efficiently and still prepare whole food driven meals. Here are some tips:

Prepare or pack lunch the night before, ideally as you are cleaning up dinner leftovers.
Prep veggies for the week on a single day. Cut apples can be kept fresh in the fridge with a splash of lemon juice, carrot sticks can be kept upright in a little water, washed dry greens will keep for a few days in a barely closed container.
Build bread baking into your weekend routine. Maybe start it before brunch, allow to rise during, and bake after. Or, start on saturday night, rise overnight in the fridge, and bake on Sunday morning.
Unload or load the dishwasher as breakfast is cooking. I typically put a pot of oatmeal on the stove, heat up water for french press, and then unload the dishwasher as those are cooking. By the time I sit down five minutes later, the kitchen is ready for the day.
Keep knives sharp. Sharp knives cut better, saving you time and making the task more satisfying.
Plan simple meals. Home made cooking need not be complicated. Soups are great simple meals often made in one pot. Vegetables can be roasted alongside a simply seasoned serving of meat or tofu and served with a salad.
Use leftovers. Eat them as is for lunch or transform into the next night’s meal.
Eat fresh raw foods. Sides at dinner are often cut fruit or veggies. Lunch usually includes a whole piece of fruit. Snacks are nuts, dried fruit, or veggie sticks. Not only are raw foods easy to prepare, they are great ways to get vitamins and fiber in your diet.
Use high heat quick cooking methods. Trim foods into bite sized portions and cook over high heat for a stir fry. Invest in a pressure cooker to cut roasting and bean cooking times by half or more. Use a hot pan and sauté individual servings of meat or tofu.
Try quick cooking grains. Pasta, quinoa, and couscous can all be made in under 30 minutes. Look for whole grain varieties to get a little more fiber in your diet.
Double your recipes. Freeze the extra portion for a quick heat and eat dinner sometime later. This works especially well for soups, stews, and casseroles.
Practice. The more often you trim carrots, peel potatoes, or bone chicken, the faster you become. As you become more proficient at cooking, it will also become more fun.

What helps you save time cooking?

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Tips to Save Time Cooking is a post from Hounds In The Kitchen
We love to hear from you! Please add your comments or send Rachel an email.

Time in the Kitchen

Rachel — Mon, 01 Feb 2010 16:13:26 +0000

We aim to make most things from scratch. To that end, we spend plenty of time cooking. Because we love to eat, cooking does not feel like a chore. Still, I was curious exactly how much time we spend in the kitchen.

Like last year’s gardening time study, I recorded every person hour in the kitchen this week. This was a fairly typical week for our three person family with one lunch at a conference, one dinner at friends’, one dinner at family, two dinners hosted here, and breakfast and lunch at home every day where not noted. Our menu for last week is here. There were also two ‘special’ events: sausage making and stock making. In sum, we spent 12 hours 40 minutes cooking this week.

The breakdown is as such:

Sunday – 10 min. breakfast, 2 hours sausage grinding and stuffing, 15 min. prep dinner at friends. (We snacked our way through lunch.)

Monday – 10 min. breakfast, 10 min. lunch, 30 min. beans, 20 min. dinner

Tuesday – 20 min. active bread mixing, 60 min. bread baking, 10 min. breakfast, 15 min. lunch prep, 20 min. food saving, 30 min. dinner prep., 15 min. dinner serving.

Wednesday – 10 min. breakfast, 10 min. lunch packing, 30 min. dinner prep, 30 min. making stock, 10 min. loading stock in freezer

Thursday – 10 min. breakfast, 5 min. knife sharpening, 15 min. cookie prep, 20 min. cookies baking, 10 min. lunch prep, 30 min. dinner prep, 30 min. dinner cook

Friday – 10 min. breakfast, 5 min. lunch prep, 5 min. afternoon snack, 30 min. pizza prep, 15 min. bread prep, 15 min. pizza baking, 60 min. bread baking

Saturday – 10 min. breakfast, lunch at volunteer event, 15 min. dinner salad prep (communal dinner with Rachel’s parents)

I know that nearly 13 hours sounds like a lot. For us it is time well spent because we enjoy cooking and eating simple made-from-scratch foods. We also know that home cooking is healthier than processed food and cheaper than dining at quality restaurants.

Coming later this week: Tips to Save Time Cooking

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Time in the Kitchen is a post from Hounds In The Kitchen
We love to hear from you! Please add your comments or send Rachel an email.

Our personal blog begins

Rachel — Wed, 26 Nov 2008 03:09:32 +0000

We cook a lot and most people don’t seem to do that these days. We’ll blog about interesting food finds here, as well as updates to our kitchen. We plan to renovate it in December 2008 – January 2009 to make cooking and eating even more enjoyable.

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Our personal blog begins is a post from Hounds In [...]

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Our personal blog begins is a post from Hounds In The Kitchen
We love to hear from you! Please add your comments or send Rachel an email.