They say that the way to a man’s heart is through his stomach. But experienced men and women will tell you that the best way to impress anyone these days (including your boss and kids), is to cook for them. Kitchen skills are critical for survival and everyone from young students living alone to working and stay-at-home parents, should know how to stir up a good meal.
Given below are a few hacks to help you ace your cooking game!
- Vegetables rock. Make it a habit to cook and serve one portion of vegetables everyday. Veggies are great sources of rare vitamins and minerals. However, both adults and children these days prefer animal protein over greens. It’s only a matter of habit and only you can help inculcate the same in your loved ones.
- Set some rules. In your kitchen, only your rules should thrive. Put up a meal-plan and adhere to it everyday. It can get boring, but will surely make your life way easier. Allow the family/friends/kids to decide the menu only once in a while, especially if they “earn” it.
- Invest some time in advance. Make preps like chopping veggies, kneading the flour dough, making cold sandwiches, grinding the spice paste or cooking up a gravy dish, a night in advance. Pack and stock the fool in portions with labels for the next day.
- Plan and organize. Go grocery shopping at least once a week if you have too many mouths to feed and/or kids! In case making trips 4 times a month seems too much, plan in advance and shop once in 30 days. Get all the ration in bulk and pile up your pantry well in advance.
- Involve friends and family. Cooking has to be cozy bonding time. Seek help from your friend or spouse and call upon your kids or anyone else, to keep you company in the kitchen, while you cook. This can turn into a great bonding hour and the meal cooked with love, tastes all the more delicious afterwards!
- Repurpose your recipes. If you have an age-old recipe from your mom or grandma, you can experiment with the spices and condiments to make it taste different. For instance, a traditional red-sauce pasta can actually evolve into a white-sauce spaghetti dish with chunky mushrooms or cottage cheese!
- Leave the workstation clean and ask the same favor in return. Cleanliness is close to godliness, they say. And a meal prepared in a clean kitchen is 100% tastier than one that comes out of a filthy one. Pass this value down to your kids and friends too.
- Pile up instant and ready-to-eat stuff for hay days. You cannot give a 100% everyday, 365 days a year! There will be days when you may not feel up to it or you may be just too busy, and so would be your spouse or roomie. That’s what the others (like kids at home) can help themselves to, like emergency canned or packed food items.
- Use tools and technology! These days gadgets have crowded the kitchen marketplace! Invest in good quality tools to save time, like: microwave oven, food processor, fruit slicer, juicer, coffee maker, egg boiler, rice cooker, toaster, grill, induction heater, can opener, nut cracker, spiralizer, smoothie maker, mixie grinder, sandwich grill, electric breakfast maker, air fryer, butter spreader etc.
- Follow cooking hacks. Take advantage of the digital era by following connoisseurs and hashtags related to kitchen hacks on Instagram, Youtube and Facebook. Learn from the fresh tips shared on these platforms and apply them in your daily life as a practice.
- Cook more in quantity. Whenever you cook something special, cook a little bit more in quantity so that the leftovers have you covered the next day!
- Lastly, you are no genie who pleases everyone. So do not try too hard and only do as much as you enjoy to do. In case it doesn’t make sense to toil so much, drop everything and order a takeaway!
Cooking your own meal is always a healthier choice than eating out. It can be easy and enjoyable, but not always. To spice up your kitchen hour, follow the tips listed above and apply these time-saving kitchen tricks to make it both easier and fun to don your home-chef hat!