5 Tips to Save Time and Stress in the Kitchen

Food isn’t just about sustenance. It’s one of the greatest joys in life, offering an outlet for creativity and bringing family together. But cooking can be incredibly time-consuming and exhausting—especially for working parents—and can take the fun out of the kitchen.

Whether you’re making a snack for yourself, lunch for the kids, or dinner for the whole family, if you’re ready to cut down the time it takes to prepare delicious food, you’ve come to the right place. Read on for some kitchen hacks that will surely make meal prep less of a chore.

1. Make a Meal-By-Meal Grocery List

Chances are, you already go grocery shopping with some type of list, whether that be a Notes app entry or just a mental note. But how often have you gotten home from the grocery store to realize you forgot to pick up an essential ingredient for a dish you wanted to make? It’s a frustrating feeling.

Rather than continuing to use a flexible (but frankly chaotic) grocery list, set aside time to plan and write down what meals you’d like to make in the coming week. Then, list the ingredients you need for each meal underneath it. Not only will this minimize the stress of deciding what to make during the week, but it’ll also lessen the chances of you forgetting anything you need at the store.

2. Prepare Ingredients Before Combining Them

Multitasking is a great skill, but it can also lead to stress in the kitchen. Rather than chopping veggies and seasoning meat intermittently throughout your cooking process, get all of the preparation done before there’s a sizzling skillet on the stove or a tray in the oven.

If you’re trying out a new recipe, read the recipe and preparation instructions in their entirety before you do anything else. This way, you’ll know everything that needs to be taken out of your cabinets and fridge (and everything that needs to be chopped) before you start cooking.

3. Strategically Organize Your Kitchenware

The last thing you need is to forget where you put your strainer right when the pasta is cooked and ready to be drained. By strategically organizing your kitchenware, you won’t be running to the other side of the kitchen (or, worse, another room in your house) to find your essential kitchenware. 

Remember to organize things strategically, keeping pots and pans in cabinets near your stove and keeping your favorite utensils within arm’s reach. Ideally, your most-used utensils should be on the counter in a storage vessel like a large jar rather than stuffed into a drawer where they can get buried by other items.

4. Invest in the Right Equipment

You don’t have to be alone in the kitchen—technology is on your side. Rather than doing all the cooking with a stovetop, oven, and your own two hands, invest in kitchen gadgets that are designed to save you time and energy.

Here are a few examples of devices worth considering:

• Air fryer: [easyazon_link identifier=”B07FDJMC9Q” locale=”US” tag=”chapbrea05-20″]Air fryers[/easyazon_link] are one of the most convenient appliances you can have in a kitchen, cooking up entire meals with the push of a button. Plus, they’re great for crisping up or reheating food without using any unhealthy oil, keeping your meals low in calories. Multipurpose would be an understatement.
• Pressure cooker: [easyazon_link identifier=”B00FLYWNYQ” locale=”US” tag=”chapbrea05-20″]Pressure cookers[/easyazon_link] are a huge step up from crock pots, quickly cooking up delicious one-pot dinners. Just be careful when releasing the pressure—it can make a mess if not done carefully.
• Mixer: While hand mixers have their time and place, a [easyazon_link identifier=”B09BVDKSTN” locale=”US” tag=”chapbrea05-20″]standing mixer[/easyazon_link] will save you lots of time and energy, especially when preparing dough for baking. They can be an investment, but it’s well worth it as long as you put it to use.

5. Use Tools to Help with Measurements

You’re not alone if you scratch your head when encountering metric system measurements (like grams) in recipes. Rather than guesstimating how many cups of an ingredient you need when encountering grams, use tools to do the math for you.

We’ve included a grams to cups conversion printable below to do just that. Hang it on your fridge for easy reference whenever you encounter a metric measurement you aren’t sure about.

 

Hopefully, with the help of the above kitchen hacks, you’ll be able to save time and stress, making cooking more enjoyable. What matters most is that your kitchen suits your unique needs—experiment with new equipment and organization strategies to find what works best for you.

Thanks to Instacart for these tips!