After work, I just want to come home and lie down, and I also need to cook dinner and do household chores. In the morning we are in a hurry for the labor landing again, so we want to sleep longer, and not have breakfast. And at lunchtime you need to have time to eat something in a hurry and have at least a little rest. Sound familiar? Novate.ru will share a couple of tips on how to stand less at the stove.
1. Do not throw away, but use the leftovers
If you cooked dinner, but didn’t eat everything, do not rush to throw away the food or send it to the container. A microwave-heated dish will no longer be as tasty, so we offer other options that will make something new. This way you can use leftover food rationally or cook more on purpose to save for later.
- Leftover cereals can be added to soup or salad. The dish will be supplemented with new flavors and will suit those who want to diversify the menu.
- You can make an impromptu shawarma or burrito from the leftover meat. Brown the product in a skillet, stew vegetables or add fresh ones and wrap everything in lettuce and pita bread.
- Yesterday's side dish can be fried in a pan with butter, scrambled eggs and vegetables. A couple of minutes - breakfast or lunch is ready.
- You can also mix cereals with legumes. For example, couscous with bulgur, rice with lentils, beans with buckwheat. Add herbs, seasonings, and oil to taste - a new side dish is ready.
- Smoothies can be made from lettuce, herbs, juicy vegetables or fruits by first throwing them into a blender.
-It's easy to whip up a pizza. To do this, keep the purchased dough in the freezer. Take out the workpiece, put pieces of sausage, meat, vegetables on it, grate the cheese on top and send to the oven for 10-15 minutes.
2. Inspect the kitchen
Once again, rummage through the cupboards and see what kind of kitchen tools and utensils you use. Cooking is much faster and easier with convenient utensils. For example, with a high-quality baking dish that is easy to clean, you can more often cook baked goods, casseroles and not worry about scrubbing the baking sheet for an hour.
With a toaster and blender, you don't have to worry about what to make for breakfast or lunch. In a multicooker, it is more convenient to cook side dishes, cereals, stews. Using a mixer, the pancake and baking dough is obtained in a couple of minutes. And in a grill pan, it's easy to quickly fry vegetables. Think about what dishes you like and buy the necessary equipment and utensils. This will make cooking not only more convenient, but also more enjoyable.
3. Remember the freezer
We often store raw meat, fish, dumplings, dumplings and other semi-finished products in the freezer. However, even ready-made food can be left there. For example, if you feel like you've cooked too much, put some in the freezer. You can also put seasonal fruits, vegetables, berries, herbs there, make mixes like a Hawaiian or Mexican mixture yourself. If you don't feel like cooking, just take out the blank, fry for a couple of minutes, and the dish is ready.
Distribute food into containers or airtight bags. For convenience, stick stickers on them with the contents of the contents and the date of freezing. Remember that the maximum freezing period is six months to a year. Another life hack - make a whiteboard with a list of all the blanks and gradually cross out the ones used. This will make it easier to navigate what is stored in the freezer.
4. Come up with a menu in advance
In order not to rack your brains over cooking every day, set aside one day, make a menu, buy groceries (or order delivery) and proceed according to plan. You no longer have to examine the refrigerator with a doomed gaze and realize that there are not enough eggs, or oil, or buckwheat is not purchased.
It is enough to come up with 10-15 simple dishes that you love, and just combine them with each other from week to week. Also, do not forget about delicious snacks like bread, yogurt, bars, muesli. Products can be washed and cut in advance, so that all that remains is to quickly fry / stew / cook everything.
A menu in advance does not mean that you have to cook three different dishes every day. No, for example you can make chicken porridge on Monday. Then next time fry the rest of the grits with scrambled eggs, and garnish the meat with vegetables. So you will save not only time for cooking, but nerve cells and even finances. Continuing the topic, we advise you to read about 9 simple actions that turn a dish from the category of ordinary to the category of "lick your fingers."