Today, more and more women are becoming career focused. Gone are the days when women were expected to sit at home. Nowadays, most women are working and developing their career because of financial independence and personal freedom that comes with that. According to research, “more than 60% of women in the United States are working”. However, choosing a professional lifestyle does not mean that home cooking can should fall by the wayside. After a long day in the office, it is hard for anyone to find the motivation to come home and prepare a full meal. However, you can’t live off delivery and take out every night. Don’t worry. Here are a few tips that can make cooking easier for you.
After a long day at work, you want to relax and spend more time with your family or friends and less time in the kitchen. Believe it or not, cooking good food is possible, even with a busy work schedule. You just need a little bit of planning to do that. Below are the few tips can help you save time, money and also helps you to keep a balance between your career and family:
Make a menu:
Prepare a list of meals you would like to eat for the week ahead and check whether you have all the ingredients required to prepare those meals. It relieves you of the stress of trying to decide what to cook. It is said that cooking doesn’t actually take much time, but thinking about what to cook is difficult and time-consuming. Once you are prepared and have a menu in your mind, it will make your cooking faster. So, don’t waste your time on deciding what to cook.
Schedule time for grocery shopping:
Shopping after work is very difficult as you are already in a rush to go home. Also, it makes you shop fast, buy older stuff and you may miss the discounted deals. Schedule time to visit the grocery store on weekends, so that you will have ample time to shop and choose the best. Remember, go to the grocery store with a list based on the meal plan for the week and stick to it.
Stock the pantry:
Make sure you always have the easy, basic items available, so that you can quickly prepare a meal. Always keep a stock of potatoes, onion, tomato paste, coconut milk, noodles, spaghetti, and more. Having these on hand means that you have a good nutritious meal available on the table, even when there is no food in the house.
Opt for whole grains:
Choose quick cooking whole grains such as wheat, rice and oats for dinner. It takes only 20-25 minutes to cook them. It will not only save you time, it will also add nutritional value to your meal. Whole grains help control cholesterol level, blood sugar and prevent constipation.
Love leftovers:
Always be creative with your leftovers. Leftovers are said to be a cook’s best friend. Stir-fry your leftover vegetables or meat with tomato, onion, herbs, and make a wrap. Anything can be a soup, stew or pasta. Also, it will help in saving money and stop wastage of food.
Batch cook:
It’s one of the best ways to save cooking time. Batch cooking means preparing most of your meal or snacks in advance. Spend 1 or 2 hours extra in the kitchen on weekends and prepare all of your meals for the week ahead. Trust, you will feel relaxed once you reach home after a hectic day at work and have half of your dinner ready.
Improve your knife skills:
Check out your knife skills and practice how to chop faster. You can do so watching cooking shows or videos on YouTube. It saves a lot of time; you can multitask by getting the vegetables cut while preparing other ingredients. Get a good set of sharp knives such as a serrated knife for bread, a knife for chopping meat and veg and a small paring knife.
Use your oven:
Choosing the oven is the most energy-efficient cooking method. Cooking food in the oven is great because you can set it and forget it. You don’t need to stand over it like you do with a gas stove to ensure nothing burns or overcooks. Cook everything from roasted veggies to grilled steak. Also, you can easily cook in batches and use all the space and heat of the oven.
Hopefully you found these tips easy and useful. Homemade food is healthier and nutritious, so we should be making the effort to do more of it. A recent study suggested people who eat homemade food are much healthier, consume less calories and generally lead a better lifestyle than those who eat out regularly. Moreover, you can involve your family members in preparing the food, spend quality time together and make the cooking process fun filled. Simply put, implement these basic tips in your cooking style and make a pledge to cook fast and healthy food.
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