Time Saving Kitchen Tips from a Test Kitchen Reveal!
Turn your kitchen nightmare into child’s play.
I love my husband! He is acting as my test kitchen and preparing meals from Snap Pea Sheep.
However he is really slow. PAINFULLY slow!!! He prepared a whole meal yesterday of tacos, rice and a hot sauce and it took him 4 hours! Who wants to be in the kitchen for 4 hours for one meal? So here are 10 time saving tips based on my observations.
1. Read all the recipes in your meal plan before starting!
Ensure that you have all the ingredients and equipment you will need.
Harry realized halfway through the food prep that he didn’t have any Jalapeño’s and he didn’t want to use another kind. Off to the store (30 minutes).
2. Plan your meal! Write down meal tasks starting with the most time consuming first.
Not every task has to be listed. Just note if something needs to be chilled, cooked, baked or prepared in advance and write the tasks down in order of execution time.
Base the timing of the tasks on YOUR time. If you are slow to cut produce like Harry, you don’t want to heat a can of beans before you start cutting the vegetables for your tacos.
3. Get all ingredients and equipment out that you will need.
This is referred to as Mise En Place: When you get all of the ingredients out before getting started.
One of the recipes called for my Mexican Spice blend. This added another 30 minutes for him to find a jar and measure out the spices for the blend.
Deciding on the equipment you need for each task will prevent digging around for something in the middle of food prep…..which reminds me of another tip:
4. Keep your kitchen organized!
If you keep everything in the same place all the time, you don’t have to hunt for it while the beans burn on the stove! (I LOVE that Harry is doing the cooking because he is learning about this organization thing!)
Keep spices organized and in alphabetical order. This saves tons of time if you have a lot of spices like I do.
5. Be mindful of break times.
Get the timeliest tasks out of the way before taking a break!
Put the rice on, bring it to a boil, turn the fire off and let it cook while you run to the store for a six pack. (Another 30 minutes).
6. Prepare like items all at once.
Harry’s meal plan called for peppers and onions in three dishes. He could have diced, chopped or sliced all of them at the same time for each recipe. Instead he prepped each dish before moving on to the rest. He did the tacos last which added 30 minutes cooking time to his overall meal prep.
Cut multiple items at the same time. If you need 4 green onions, bunch them up and cut all four with each knife stroke. If you can’t SEE, wear your glasses! This will avoid the trip to the medicine cabinet to tend your knife wound (Another 15 minutes)!
7. Avoid distractions and watch the clock.
Just add water to that pot of burned beans. Clean the pan after the meal! (15 minutes).
Don’t stop to water the lawn between courses (30 minutes).
8. Re-use items if you can.
This saves on clean up time and reduces frustration trying to find counter space. I wish I had taken a photo of the disaster that my kitchen was after this meal.
Rinse out mixing bowls and re-use them.
Mix items together on your cutting board if you can! Save on using another bowl.
If everything is going into a blender, add your ingredients to the blender as you prep rather than grabbing another bowl or cutting board for your ingredients.
Learn to eyeball your measurements so you don’t have to measure everything out. All of those measuring cups and spoons add up!
Remember that thing about identifying equipment? If you are going to need a colander for multiple items, use the one that will work for them all.
9. Keep your counters clear of clutter.
There is nothing more frustrating than taking something hot out of the oven only to find there is no place to put it! The flash light, car keys, Amazon package, empty cat food can, cat, garden shoes and fire extinguisher do not belong on the counter – especially while you are preparing food!
Keep that fire extinguisher handy though. Mine is on the pantry wall.
Use a garbage bowl to collect peels and such while preparing food. Thank Racheal Ray for this gem! I’ve been using one for years. Lately I bought a compost bucket as well so I use the bowl for items that don’t belong in my compost (like empty cat food cans).
10. Find an APP that will help with your meal plan, shopping list and recipes.
I found Anylist. It works on my IPhone and Harry’s Samsung. It has a nominal cost of $9.99 a year for personal use or $14.99 a year for a family membership.
Anylist has a Lists feature:
Use the list feature shopping! I have a list for each store and I share it with Harry. Harry might actually be at the designated store when I need another can of beans added to the list.
I can also be working in the kitchen and ask Siri to add an item to the list! That’s cool!
The lists can be categorized. You might just want to create a list of items you want to take on a trip.
Anylist has a recipe feature!
Go to SnapPeaSheep, open a recipe, click on the save to button and add to Anylist. (View instructions here).
You an also browse the web for recipes directly from Anylist, but to get Snap Pea Sheep recipes, select them from the website! The Anylist App searches for recipes from top food website like All recipes or Food Network. I’m not there yet! ?
Anylist Meal Planner:
The meal plan feature allows you to create your meal plan for the day and label them as breakfast, lunch and dinner (or what ever labels you choose). You can create a new recipe for your plan or import one from your recipe feature.
Once your recipes are imported into your meal plan, you can add any or all of the ingredients to your list.
If you ever change devices, you can add your content to your new device from your Icloud backup (included in your membership).
Anylist could make your meal time planning child’s play!
Mexican Rice with Cilantro and Tomatillo
Chili Verde Sauce with tomatillo and lime
While Harry was making lunch, er… dinner, I made this ceviche to snack on. I used hearts of palm instead of artichokes the recipe calls for. I have made it with oyster mushrooms as well.
Grab a cup of herbal tea and feel free to browse my site! This is a friendly zone and I welcome your comments on Baa-baa-blog and my recipes!
My husband cooking this meal would make a great movie?