With everyone being at home more often and the economy declining, most American citizens have tightened their purse strings and started preparing meals at home. On the bright side, it saves money and improves your overall health. On the downside, finding the time, patience, and energy to prepare delicious meals three times a day for multiple people, is a lot of work. Short of serving microwaveable meals and canned goods, you’re desperate to find a solution.
If preparing meals at home has become a chore for you, these practical solutions are sure to make things a lot more manageable.
Get Quality Cookware
Whether you have beginner or expert cooking skills, the kitchen instruments you use impacts the time and outcome of the dishes you prepare. Sauces, marinades, broths, and stews get stuck to the bottom of the pan, the meat gets overcooked or burned, and vegetables quickly turn to mush without proper pots, pans, and cooking utensils.
Brands like Made In Cookware make it easy for you to browse their large selection of products. Shop for items based on the types of meals you like to prepare. For instance, if you love stir-frys, fried rice, or sauteed veggies, you’d want a durable wok. If your family enjoys pasta dishes, you’ll want a pot large enough to boil water for the noodles.
Switch Things Up with Recipes
One of the most challenging parts about cooking at home is deciding what to prepare. After you’ve gone through your specialty dishes and family recipes a few times, things tend to get boring. You can liven things up throughout the week by searching for easy recipes and perhaps adding gel based food thickener to enhance the texture of your dishes. Trying one or two new dishes each week can make a world of difference.
Look For Quick Fixes
Not every meal you make throughout the day has to be overly involved. There are a lot of quick solutions that can lighten your load. For example, a bowl of cereal or oatmeal can work just fine for breakfast. Add a piece of fruit, toast, and fresh juice to the side, and they’ve got a well-balanced meal. Lunchmeat sandwiches, soup, and salads are fast solutions for lunch and don’t require much effort.
Try Meal Delivery Kits
Whether you’re an essential worker or a parent working from home with a full house, finding the time to go grocery shopping, create a meal plan, and prepare your food is impossible. If that’s the case, you might benefit from a membership with a meal-delivery service provider. For an affordable per-person rate, you can search through thousands of recipes and get the ingredients shipped right to your front door. You’ll have everything you need to prepare a delicious meal for your family without the extra prep time or shopping.
Cook in Batches
If you’re trying to conserve time in the kitchen, batch cooking is a practical solution. Find a day or a window of hours to set aside for cooking. Prepare large batches of items that are used frequently throughout the week. For example, grilled chicken breasts can be served with a wrap, salad, or pasta dish. Rice, quinoa, and potatoes work perfectly as dinner sides. You could pull out the crockpot and make a few batches of soups or stews. Depending on how soon you plan on eating these items, you can store them in the freezer or fridge for easy access.
Tag Your Family In
Before the pandemic, you were likely in charge of preparing dinner for the family. Now that you’re cooking three times a day per person, there’s nothing wrong with asking for assistance. Your significant other and children can be instrumental in lightening your load and making home cooking more comfortable to manage. While your kids may not be able to prepare a meal alone, they can assist you with specific tasks. You and your partner can break up the week and take turns cooking meals.
There are a lot of perks to cooking at home more often. You can control the types of foods and ingredients you feed your family for improved mental and physical health. You also save a lot of money by shopping for groceries instead of ordering takeout. The only problem is, it gets tedious and time-consuming. Fortunately, the tips mentioned above should help make things easier to manage.
