With all the things we have to do every day, like working, shopping, cleaning etc., cooking our own healthy meals often becomes a challenge that makes many give up. We then seek our refuge in fast food that we pick up on the way home and ready-made meals out of the freezer which are neither good for our budget nor for our health when we eat them too often.
But did you know that there are some great shortcuts you can take to prepare meals in less time? Half an hour can be all you need to get a tasty and healthy meal on the table. Let me explain to you how to cook faster by using foods which take less time to prepare!
- Focus on little and easy-to-prepare ingredients
- Base your meals on foods that are ready for use
Trick #1: Focus on little and easy-to-prepare ingredients
- It can be quite challenging to handle a wide variety of ingredients when you are in a hurry. To keep the overview, rather stick with a small number of ingredients, about 3 to 5 for the most.
- Also make sure you choose foods that are quick and easy to prepare, that is for example everything that does not need to be peeled, does not have pips or seeds to remove and is cut very easily, like marrow, mushrooms or tomatoes.
- Thirdly, use foods that don’t take long to cook (even if you cut larger pieces to save time), e.g. leek, aubergines and peppers.
Trick #2: Base your meals on foods that are ready for use
- Buy fresh foods that are already cleaned and cut so that you just need to cook them.
- Canned or frozen fruit or vegetables are another great asset for fast cooking. Canned foods just need to be warmed, which is an issue of minutes. Frozen foods can be cooked straight from the freezer and are done in about half the time as if you would use the same amount of fresh food.
- Foods that can be eaten raw are also marvellous if you don’t have much time. Think for example of a green salad with cucumber slices and pieces of pepper. Or add canned pineapple pieces and chopped walnuts, or shredded tuna and cherry tomatoes.
- Left-overs often make you create great meals. Try to plan left-overs that can help you. If you have grilled chicken filet one day, prepare enough so that you can cut it up for a salad or pasta sauce. Cook more potatoes than you need so that the next day you just need to bake them quickly.
These are two simple but powerful tricks that you can apply easily. Fast cooking is not magic, all it takes is to know some basic rules and techniques, and you can prepare healthy meals yourself in little time, leaving you and your family healthier and with more time and money to spend on other things you enjoy.