To eat healthy and balanced, it is true that it is mandatory to spend some time in the kitchen.
Fortunately, there are tips for preparing your meals and ingredients in advance — and thus save time in the kitchen .
The advantage of doing it in advance is that you can prepare everything in large quantities. So you can take advantage of promotions and save money .
And for those who are afraid to cook, fear not, all these tips are simple and fast!
With these pro tips, you will eat healthy, balanced and delicious meals!
Without further ado, here are 11 ingenious tips to save time in the kitchen:
The problem with lean meats like chicken is that after a while, you get tired of their tastes.
To save time and awaken your taste buds, prepare 3 varieties of chicken recipes in one go!
The trick is to use aluminum foil to make 3 small containers. But it works just as well on the baking sheet or in another dish if you don't want to use foil.
Then let yourself go! Try 3 different recipes in one plate:hot sauce, barbecue sauce, mustard sauce.
There you go, that's 3 dishes in 1 cooking :-)
Eggs have an excellent supply of protein, vitamins (A and B) and good fats.
But there is just one small problem:hard to fit more than 5 eggs in a pan.
Luckily, there's a little trick to cooking a dozen eggs all at once:bake them in a muffin pan.
Half an hour, and voila! You have a dozen perfectly cooked hard-boiled eggs .
A word of advice:do a little cooking test with just 1 egg before trying to cook a dozen. This way you can be sure that your oven is working well (neither too hot nor too cold).
Smoothies are good, especially in the morning.
On the other hand, who has the time to cut and put all these ingredients in the blender every morning?
Save time by buying all your smoothie ingredients in bulk quantities .
Then put them in the blender and freeze the smoothies in small doses , in a pan or muffin pan.
And There you go ! Now making a great smoothie only takes a few moments.
Just take 2-3 smoothie scoops out of your freezer. Put them in the blender and you have a quick breakfast and easy .
Was the day tough? You do not want to take the time to prepare a good meal?
Normal, when you come home from work, you really don't want to waste precious minutes cutting vegetables.
To save time on busy weeknights, cut your veggies ahead of time—and plenty of them.
Using a spiral vegetable cutter, prepare vegetable spaghetti (zucchini or squash). They keep in the refrigerator up to 5 days .
You can also cut carrots, onions and peppers. In an airtight box or food bag, they can be kept up to 1 week .
Roasting vegetables in the oven is one of the best ways to bring out all their flavors and take advantage of their high nutrient content.
But waiting 30-40 min for each batch of vegetables takes way too long.
The trick to saving time is to roast several varieties of vegetables and, of course, always in large quantities.
But to make it work even better, you can group these vegetables according to their cooking time .
For example, put vegetables that have a reduced cooking time (asparagus, mushrooms, cherry tomatoes, etc.) in the same baking tray.
Similarly, put vegetables that take longer to cook (carrots, cauliflower, onions, potatoes, parsnips, etc.) in the same pan.
Do you tend to snack too much?
The solution is to make small individual portions of those little foods that make you crack (nuts, pretzels, vegetables).
Then, store these individual portions in freezer bags or small food boxes, which you can easily take with you.
It works well, because when you have a whole packet of food to nibble in front of you, it's hard to resist and not finish it in 1 go!
With this trick you have the perfect portion for lunch or a snack — and you avoid finishing the whole package too much at once .
Rolled oats are high in fiber. Plus, they keep you feeling full until lunchtime.
The problem is that oatmeal preparations often contain added sugars.
If you like homemade recipes, use small to-go jars to make your own oatmeal mixes.
That way, you're in control the quality and quantity of each ingredient.
Dried bananas, dried coconut, raspberries, raisins, chocolate chips:it's up to you to find the perfect mix to thrill the taste buds!
The other problem with smoothies is that by dint of putting a little bit of each ingredient, you end up with a huge portion that you have trouble finishing!
To avoid all those unnecessary calories, freeze individual servings of your smoothie ingredients in freezer bags.
This way you can measure and keep exact portions in advance of each ingredient:fruits, berries, yogurt (frozen in an ice cube tray) and green vegetables.
Result:a perfectly balanced smoothie every time!
You can make delicious omelettes, every morning of the week — but with your oven only 1 only once .
The secret ? Make Egg Muffins!
The advantage is that you can prepare several varieties of muffins in advance (they will keep for up to 5 days in the refrigerator) - so your breakfast will never lack originality> .
Tip:wrap the egg muffins in paper towels. This prevents them from drying out and it is easier to put them in the microwave.
Skewers aren't just for barbecues.
To save time, measure portions of meat (chicken, salmon or beef) and put them on wooden skewers.
The advantage is that it will allow you to control what you eat during your meals.
FYI:120 g of chicken =36 g of protein, 175 g of salmon =38 g of protein.
Cook several skewers at the same time and save them for the rest of the week.
Tip:Don't forget to soak the wooden skewers in water before grilling or baking them!
This will prevent them from catching fire.
Many people prefer to avoid making salad for lunch because the leaves may go soft.
But if you put your salad in a jar , it stays fresh until lunchtime.
Here's how:put the vinaigrette at the bottom of the jar . Then, add dense vegetables or fruits (peppers, beets, apples, etc.).
Then add the green salad leaves.
And last, add a paper towel, folded in four, to absorb the humidity (especially if you store your salad for several days).
All you have to do is mix the ingredients when you're ready to eat.
And There you go ! Now you know our 11 tips to save time in the kitchen :-)
And you ? Do you know any other practical tips to save time? Share them with us in the comments. We can't wait to read you :-)
