10 Time-Saving Food Tips
Saving minutes (or even seconds) can add up to save you substantial time while you’re in the kitchen.
Here are some tips to help you out.
1. Double the amount you cook and freeze half of it to make your own frozen dinners.
2. Cook dinners in a crockpot so the vegetables and meat cook while you’re at work.
3. Plan meals a week ahead of time and include the necessary items on your shopping list.
4. Roast in foil and use non-stick Teflon pans to speed up cleaning afterward.
5. Use only one or two sizes of plastic food storage containers. Make sure they stack inside each other to take up less space in your cabinet.
6. Arrange all tools and ingredients for meal prep on the counter before starting to cook. It can save you time.
7. Use transparent containers for leftovers so you can see what you have in the refrigerator.
8. Make up casseroles in double quantities and freeze them to reduce future meal preparation time.
9. Organize the refrigerator so that everything can be readily seen. My colleague, Seana Turner says “conduct a quick review of the shelves, drawers, and door, removing anything that no one will eat“.
10. Don’t store items in the refrigerator if they don’t need to be refrigerated.
Saving minutes (or even seconds) can add up to save you substantial time in the kitchen. Click To Tweet
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Janet Schiesl
Janet has been organizing since 2005. She is a Certified Professional Organizer and the owner of Basic Organization.
She loves using her background as a space planner to challenge her clients to look at their space differently. She leads the team in large projects and works one-on-one with clients to help the process move quickly and comfortably. Call her crazy, but she loves to work with paper, to purge what is not needed and to create filing systems that work for each individual client.
Janet is a Past Board Member of the National Association of Productivity and Organizing Professionals and a Past President of the Washington DC Chapter of NAPO were she has been named Organizer of the Year and Volunteer of the Year.
Janet Schiesl
Janet has been organizing since 2005. She is a Certified Professional Organizer and the owner of Basic Organization.
She loves using her background as a space planner to challenge her clients to look at their space differently. She leads the team in large projects and works one-on-one with clients to help the process move quickly and comfortably. Call her crazy, but she loves to work with paper, to purge what is not needed and to create filing systems that work for each individual client.
Janet is a Past Board Member of the National Association of Productivity and Organizing Professionals and a Past President of the Washington DC Chapter of NAPO were she has been named Organizer of the Year and Volunteer of the Year.
Thanks for the shoutout, Janet!
I think I do almost all of these. They are simple, but they get the job done. Cooking with aluminum foil is a lifesaver. It is also great to know that aluminum foil, as long as it is clean, is highly recyclable!
Yes. I’m a fan of the foil tips as well, especially if I’m cooking for a crowd. Then there is a lot less clean-up.
I do most of these but they are good reminders. It took me a while to realize the importance of organizing and prepping food before actually starting to cook.
Prepping is a time saver. I like to at least get all the ingredients out on the counter before I start cooking.
I replaced all my plastic storage containers with glass, and they are nice and neat because they stack easily. It is amazing how little space it uses if you have the storage containers stacked. Thanks for sharing these time-saving tips.
I also replaced my plastic with glass a while back. When my kids moved out I didn’t need nearly as many containers, so it was doable. I’m particularly happy with the glass containers I have, so I’m looking for another option. Do you have a brand you like?
What great tips! I especially like storing in clear containers that easily stack so I can see what we have and they are well organized on the shelves. It’s worth investing in a single style of containers. Coming off of Passover and cooking for a lot of people, we have more leftovers than usual. And you know what? It’s great! We don’t have to think about what we’ll be eating for quite a few days.
I love to batch cook. Then we have leftovers too. I like to cook, but don’t do it as much as I used to. So when I do, I cook a big batch and eat out of the frig for days.
Great tips, Janet! I do almost all of these. I’m not great at cooking in large quantities – something I would like to do more often.
Hi Diane. I was never a fan of batch cooking until I didn’t want to cook every day. Now I do it quite often. It does save me a lot of time. I shop and prep everything and cook a lot of it on Sundays, so I’m ready for the week.