Eight Time-Saving Cooking Tips
By Rachel Paxton
Cooking often takes time, which most of us have very little of these days. So why not learn how to prepare meals for your family and still have time to enjoy one another? Rachel Paxton, author of the Creative Homemaking Recipe of the Week Club Cookbook, shares some advice!
Plan ahead
1. Plan meals at least a week in advance to incorporate the use
of leftovers. For example, have baked chicken, mashed potatoes,
and gravy for dinner Sunday, and then use the leftover gravy as
the base of beef stroganoff Monday.
2. If you know you're not going to have time to cook one evening,
prepare two dinners the night before and just reheat one the next
night.
3. When preparing a meal using grated cheese, chopped onions,
etc., prepare more than the recipe calls for and refrigerate the
rest for another meal.
4. Clean your kitchen workspace as you go. When you're done, there
will be little left to clean.
5. On grocery shopping day, have your children help individually
wrap their cookies, snacks, etc., for their lunches. Makes lunch
preparation for the rest of the week a breeze and snacks don't
disappear before lunches are made.
1. Plan meals at least a week in advance to incorporate the use of leftovers. For example, have baked chicken, mashed potatoes, and gravy for dinner Sunday, and then use the leftover gravy as the base of beef stroganoff Monday.
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6. Don't hide your cookbooks away. Organize them where you can get to them easily, and you will use them a lot more.
7. Keep a notepad on the front of the refrigerator for your
shopping list. When you run out of something write it on the list
right away. Encourage family members to do the same.
8. Prepare favorite beverages like lemonade, tea or Kool-Aid in
gallon-sized pitchers, and you won't have to make them as often.
Links, information and more for you
About the author: Rachel Paxton is a freelance writer and mom who is the author of the Creative Homemaking Recipe of the Week Club Cookbook, a cookbook containing more than 250 quick easy dinner ideas. Check out Rachel at her Creative Homemaking site and in the Home and Garden section of Suite 101.
