Making an effort to learn how to cook more can be financially rewarding, and promotes more positive health and lifestyle choices. However, if you’re wondering how to get into cooking, know that a lack of time is perhaps the number one reason people don’t enjoy it.
Although having a busy schedule can definitely interfere with cooking every meal from scratch, that doesn’t necessarily mean that you don’t enjoy it. The truth is, everyone is busy and we all could benefit from implementing stronger time management skills in our lives.
Here are some fantastic tips that will help you cook more:
Easy Meals To Cook For Beginners
Whether you are just starting out or trying to rekindle that relationship with the kitchen, it would be helpful to make cooking as easy as possible before you even begin.
So, start planning everything before you go grocery shopping, and try to shop just once a week.
Don’t lose time trying to create new pretty dishes. Instead, make a list of your favorite meals and plug them into a weekly menu template that you can happily recycle throughout the month.
As you start to cook more, it will become much easier to substitute one or two new dishes into the weekly rotation.
To maximize time, it is essential that you start prepping before cooking day arrives. Rinsing and chopping vegetables, pre-measuring ingredients, and thawing meat are great time savers leading up to cooking day.
So, even with a busy schedule, doing what you can throughout the week helps you cut your time in the kitchen in half.
Have Designated Days to Cook
One of the best strategies for cooking more on a busy schedule is to choose one or two designated cook days.
Typically, for people working a traditional schedule, this will more than likely be the weekend.
In any case, finding the time that suits you will help make the entire experience that much more enjoyable. So, look over your weekly schedule and choose the days that you have a little room for moving things around and dedicate those times for cooking.
How to Get Into Cooking: Cook Enough for Leftovers
As you start to cook more at home, you’ll find that making enough for leftovers is a fantastic way to save time. Even if right now you only have one two two nights a week with enough spare time to cook a meal, simply double the recipe, and Voila!
You now have leftovers that can be stored in the fridge or freezer for another night during the week or for those days where time has just slipped away.
Some basic recipes for beginners that make excellent leftovers include casseroles, Crock-Pot meals, soups, or chili.
In just three easy steps, you’ll be on your way to eating more home-cooked meals, without wasting too much time in the process. So remember to keep it easy, designate cook days, and make enough for leftovers.
If you have a family, then there is one thing you can do to get into cooking and love it…
How to Cook Well: Get Help in the Kitchen
Let your kids help! When they keep coming into the kitchen to ask if dinner is ready not, why not put them to work? Depending on their ages, they might be able to prepare a salad, chop vegetables, stir soups or gravies, or even set the table.
Every little task that you can get help with from other household members is one less thing you need to find time for yourself.
If you’re wondering how to get into cooking, making it fun is a great way to enjoy it more. Hopefully, these tips will help you go from saying, ‘I don’t enjoy cooking’ to finding joy in the kitchen.