Cooking Doesn’t Have To Take Long or Be Challenging With the Right Approach
Cooking is often seen as a long and difficult task. It’s one of the reasons why people tend to eat out or just order food. They don’t want to bother with buying loads of ingredients and deciding what to do with them, and they don’t like the idea of all the cleanup and maintenance on kitchen tools. They just want to eat food when they’re hungry and then continue with their life.
However, cooking doesn’t need to take long and it doesn’t need to be challenging, especially if you’re willing to learn a few tips to make it easier.
Buying kitchen tools and equipment? Stick to things that are actually helpful
There are two categories of kitchen tools; ones that save time and ones that open up new preparation and cooking opportunities. Things that save time include a food processor instead of manually chopping ingredients, and the latter category could be a spiralizer because it’s difficult to cut long vegetable strips otherwise. If you’re going to invest in equipment, it needs to serve either purpose and actually be used on a regular basis, otherwise, it’s just going to take up space and require a lot of cleaning now and then. Ideally, you should learn how to use basic kitchen tools such as your knife so that you don’t need too many additional tools, but it doesn’t hurt to have a few extra utensils and appliances now and then.
If you’re learning to cook, then always follow recipes at first
Learning to cook can be quite time-consuming and you can expect to fail a few dishes. This can be disheartening because you might feel like you’re wasting ingredients. However, there are plenty of simple recipes to try out if you’re willing to learn. For example, you could try this simple and easy pizza sticks recipe. It’s unique, it’s different, and all the instructions and ingredients are clearly laid out for you. Even if you’re experienced at cooking, it’s a good idea to make the process easier by just following recipes.
Set up reminders for ingredients that you’re low on
One of the easiest ways to ensure that your pantry and fridge are always stocked is to have a reminder for what you’re running low on. This can be as simple as having a small whiteboard attached to the front of your fridge that you just write on whenever you’re low on something. You could get a little more advanced and use voice commands on your phone to set up a reminder as well. This will help you avoid the annoying situation of wanting to cook something but realizing halfway through your prep that you’re missing a crucial ingredient!
Freeze things that you don’t plan to use for a while
Some people are worried about freezing food because they’re not entirely sure what they can and can’t freeze. This guide to freezing food can be a great help if you’re unsure. There are plenty of benefits that come with freezing food, such as being able to save certain ingredients for later use if you bought them in bulk, and also freezing meals that you cooked too much of so you can serve it later. Some people also use freezing together with food and meal prep. For instance, they’ll cook many meals on the weekends and then freeze them so they have quick and easy meals throughout the week when they don’t want to cook.
When cooking, get in the habit of preparing everything first
People tend to start cooking without any real preparation because they want to go fast and get their meals finished as quickly as possible. However, spending five or ten minutes preparing your ingredients before you start cooking can make things a lot simpler and will save you a considerable amount of time. Make sure you chop up all your ingredients and place them into small bowls or containers, get all of your seasonings and sauces prepared, then start to cook once everything is in place. This leads to a bit more washing up afterward, but it’s easy to just rinse your bowls as your food is cooking to save time and space in the sink.
We hope that these tips have helped you learn to love cooking. We believe that cooking doesn’t need to be challenging or daunting and that everyone should be open to the idea of cooking for themselves once in a while. It’s a fantastic way to cook your favorite meals, it can save a lot of money, and it’s a skill that can be developed throughout your entire life.
