1. Consider doing all your veggie prep in one hit. Try chopping up all your veggies for the week in one go – and stick them all in a container in the fridge. Trust me, you are way more likely to actually cook the veggies
when dinner time comes around if they are all ready cut up! Doing one big lot of prep can save you time because it’s more efficient to cut up a whole bag of carrots than it is to do two carrots – especially if you use a food processer, and obviously it will save you time once you’ve done the initial big prep. This tip also saves money, because you are more likely to actually use your fresh produce, rather than just tossing out mouldy broccoli after a week, because you didn’t cook it because you didn’t have time to cut it up, and just ordered pizza instead! It saves sanity, because you can do your prep at a calmer time of the day/ week than ‘the witching hour’, and you can feel all relaxed and smug knowing that your veggies are all ready for the week!
2. Reuse cups when appropriate. If your child has had a drink of juice, and will have another drink of juice in an hour’s time, a quick rinse of the cup will be fine. Saves time and sanity, because at the end of the day you only have one juice cup to wash, not five. Also saves sanity because you don’t have heaps of cups all over the house – only one!
3. Use your leftovers. Freeze them and you or your partner can take them for work and heat them up for lunch. Heat them up again for dinner another night, if you don’t mind eating the same meal two nights in a row. Some leftovers can be repurposed – intentionally make heaps of bolognese to go with your spaghetti one night, and turn the rest into lasagna for another night. Obviously saves money because you’re not wasting food, but also saves money because you may get a ‘free meal’ and save money on buying lunch or on buying food for dinner another night. Saves time and sanity because you have to cook less!
4. Got some ham or veggies that might be going south soon? Don’t wait for them to go off – make them into fried rice. If you don’t have time to make fried rice today, chuck it all in the freezer – the ham and veggies will be fine once you have cooked the fried rice. Saves money because you have made a ‘free meal’ out of food that would have otherwise gone off, and saves sanity because you can freeze the ingredients until you can make them up at a time which suits you.
5. Know you daily/ weekly routine, and do most of the kitchen jobs when things are less stressful. If evenings are a busy time in your household, can you prepare some parts of dinner at lunchtime? If getting everyone up and out in the morning is chaotic, can you pack school lunches the night before, or make something like pancakes which can be frozen and then heated up in the morning? Do you manage better when you keep up with the washing up as the day goes by, or do you prefer to do it all in one go after the kiddies are asleep? Knowing your own patterns and planning your kitchen work around these saves money because you will call for take away less, and saves sanity because you will feel more organized and less stressed and everyone will feel less frazzled.
6. You had a crazy week full of sick kids, last minute mix ups, dinner out, quick takeaway and who knows what else and most of the food you bought hasn’t been eaten. There’s no way you will get through a week’s worth of veggies in a day or two before they go off. BEFORE they go off (that’s the catch) scoop up the veggies (which are all chopped up and prepped because you followed step one… right? :-) ), pop them in a plastic bag and bung them in the freezer. Next time you are making a meal which has cooked veggies in it (like Shephard’s Pie or lasagna), just grab the bag of veggies, and toss it in. Saves time, because you already chopped them up anyway and you saved that time from being wasted. Save money, because you didn’t have to buy new veggies for the second meal. Saves sanity because you saved time and money!
7. Shop with a plan. Instead of just wandering around the supermarket and buying the same stuff every week, consider what food you have and what you week is like. Already have four boxes of biscuits in the cupboard – no need to buy more (unless they are on sale, of course!) Having guests to stay – grab a few extra treats at the supermarket now, so that you don’t have to buy them form the convenience store for a higher price later in the week. A few minutes spent planning before you go will save you time, money and sanity!
I hope these seven steps will being you at least seven smiles when you save yourself time, money and stress in the kitchen!
(August 1st) (
