When I was raising my family, it seemed that there wasn't enough time to get everything done each day. One of the ways I cut time was to learn how to be much more efficient in the kitchen while still putting nutritious meals on the table. You may scoff at this because I have been obese most of my adult life but let me just say that my husband and my kids were all lean and mean during those years. The kids were year round athletes and my husband just has good genes. I doubt that many of you are as passionate as I am about cooking but some of these tips will still help if you try them.

Always start with clean counters and a sink of fresh dishwater (it doesn't matter if you have a dishwasher, it is faster to clean as you go).

Make just one trip to gather all the ingredients you will need to cook. Have you ever watched Rachel Ray pile the ingredients in her arms? This is one of the reasons she gets it done quick, she doesn't make trip after trip for ingredients.

Prep all the raw ingredients before you start cooking. If you need to wash veggies and chop them, do it all at once. Be sure to save the raw meat for last so you don't have to clean the chopping board before continuing.

Once you start cooking, as you add ingredients to your dishes on the stove, wash the bowls, plates and utensils that you used for them in the prep period. It only takes a few seconds and there is less clean-up at the end.

Put everything away when you are finished with it. For instance, you may want to leave the salt and pepper out til you give the dish a final taste but as soon as you adjust the seasonings for the last time, put the spices away. If you are using flour or other thickening agents, put it away as soon as you use it. Doing this will leave your counters clear and you will not have a big mess to put away after dinner.

Have a plastic grocery bag on the counter to put clippings and cuttings in that you are throwing away. Then, when you are finished, the whole bag goes in the trash in one trip, not many.

If you serve your family at the table in serving dishes, consider using containers that will go in the refrigerator as the serving dishes. You will save effort washing the serving dishes after transferring the leftovers to refrigerator safe containers.

Make sure all the dishes that you used to cook with are washed before you sit down to dinner. That way, it takes less than 5 minutes to clean up after dinner.

If you are going to pack a lunch for yourself with leftovers, do it before you sit down to eat. Then, when you are finished with dinner, you can pack the rest of your lunch and put it in the fridge. Now you won't have to pack your lunch in the morning! If you pack a lunch for the kids, you can do that while dinner is cooking and you will be ahead of the game in the morning.

Plan ahead. Decide what you are going to fix the next night and go ahead and take it out of the freezer and put it in the fridge to thaw. By the time you get home the next evening, your meat will be ready to use.

When you go grocery shopping, cut up whole chickens before you freeze them. This saves a lot of prep time when you cook it.

Wash fresh produce and tear, don't cut lettuce for salads and place it in plastic bags in the crisper. For other salad fixings, you can peel, slice and put in bags too. You will always have ready made salad on hand for a quick addition to a meal. The only exception for me is tomatoes. I don't like to refrigerate them chopped. They get really mushy. I do peel and slice cucumbers, celery and green onions and I peel and grate carrots for salads too. If you squeeze the air out of the plastic bag before you seal it, this will keep for at least a week. I also cube cheese to add to salads.

Buy snack sized plastic zip bags for kid snacks and when you get home from the store, divide the cookies, crackers, chips or whatever it is into single serving bags and store them where the kids can reach them. This will stop them from eating too much and will keep you from finding empty boxes in the pantry.

If you made too much soup or stew, consider a freezer container and a great premade meal next week is in the freezer.

If you are making a recipe that is easily doubled and easily frozen, double it and freeze half for a meal in a week or two. It doesn't take any more time and you do half the work. It is like making your own TV dinners.

When my kids were growing up, I did everything from making my own stocks and broths to making their school lunch snacks. I don't expect all of you to do that but using some of these shortcuts will make your time in the kitchen more productive and you will have more control over how much your kids AND YOU are eating.

Wow! Those are some great tips! My husband has been cooking for my family since my surgery and I've just been doing my own thing. You may have just convinced me to get back into the kitchen again. Thanks, Celadon!
Jean

Wonderful tips Celadon (as usual) Les always says I leave a hurricane in the kitchen when I cook. I REALLY need to follow some of your suggestions. I can clean as I go for simple things but once you put a recipe in front of me it all goes out the window. Small steps though. Pre-cutting my meat is one that I do and something I picked up from working in my store. If you can reach in a grab a bag of frozen chicken cubes half the work is done already.

Thank you again for sharing!

Thanks, Celadon....... I kind of feel like Grasshopper at the feet of Mr. Miagi. Wax on, wax off. You have so inspired me to take charge of my own cooking needs that at one month post op, I cooked Valentine dinner for out of town company. I started with a baby spinach salad with low carb sweet poppy seed vinagrette dressing with feta cheese crumbles, fresh sliced strawberries, and toasted slivered almonds. The entree was a marinated pork tenderloin (OMG tender and moist), and the sides were chilled asparagus (fresh) with a homemade chipotle sauce, and roasted new potatoes with french onion soup mix crusting.

It was my first day back on real food, so I only ate 1/2 slice of pork, but the company raved about the dinner. I very much enjoyed preparing the dinner and especially watching them enjoy the meal. You have created a convert. Whatever I put in my mouth from now on is going to be the most healthy and best tasting item it can be.

PS - It's nice to be retired so I can spend some time learning this........Also, the kitchen was clean when dinner hit the table!!

Thanks for all the tips!
There some in there that I will definitely try!

Barbara,

THANK YOU SO MUCH !!!!

I do the opposite of almost all of these tips, and my kitchen is always a mess.
I'll definitely try some of these.

Doug, your dinner sounds devine! Just think, a couple of months ago it would have been take out. One of the best things about having surgery is that we learn to take our time and actually enjoy what we eat and since we eat in such small amounts now, we want that to be quality food. You will love cooking great food! I am very proud of how far you have come in such a short time.