Manage Your Meals The Easy Way
Meal

Manage Your Meals The Easy Way

Magda Warner 2022-02-14 02:45:25

Life can be pretty busy with so much to juggle in a short amount of time. Work life can be very hectic if you are a working person. With strict project deadlines to be met, presentations to be prepared, and proposals to be made. Amidst all this an equally busy personal life, most people do not get enough time to eat healthy let alone cook their food. However, no matter how busy your life gets, cooking your food at your home is better for both your health and budget than taking takeouts. There are tons of cooking hacks and trips available for busy people who don`t have enough time to manage their cooking.

We have articulated some of the tips and tricks for you here:

1. Keep a Well-Stocked Pantry

Keeping your pantry well-stocked is most important if you want to avoid takeouts. If your pantry is empty and you don`t want to go grocery shopping, you may be tempted to eat out. To avoid this, make sure your pantry is well-stocked with a variety of ingredients to make interesting yet easy dishes.

Some of the suggestions we have for ingredients are:

  • Purchase long-lasting veggies such as potatoes, carrots, and onions to use in stews and soups.
  • Buy lots of pasta variations like spaghetti, fettuccine, macaroni, and spirals.
  • Other long-lasting carbs to keep on hand are rice (white, brown, arborio, and jasmine varieties), Asian-style dry noodles, lentils, and couscous.
  • For pasta sauces, soups, and casseroles, use tinned tomatoes, tomato paste, canned corn, and other veggies (search for "no added salt" types).

 

2. Plan Your Meal In Advance

Planning your meals and doing meal preps in advance can save you a lot of time and mental peace. Planning for meals might feel tiresome because you want to have takeout on weekends, but trust us, a little planning can help you in saving both money and time. Being mentally prepared about what you will be cooking can help you in purchasing the right kind of grocery without any extra stuff.

3. Make Extra Portions

Cooking up extra portions of food can be life-saving when you come late from work and want to have a quick homemade meal. We suggest you make extra helpings of pasta sauce, lasagnas or soup and freeze them. Freezing the extra portions will help you in times of emergency when you`ve guests over or when you do not want to cook. Simply thaw the frozen meals and bake or heat them. If you are a fan of Indian food you can make extra chapati or puri batter and freeze it to use later.

4. Use Your Fridge and Freezer

The best way to save your time with busy work and personal life is to keep your fridge and freezers stocked up with healthy and easy-to-make foods.

We suggest you to

  • Purchase frozen vegetables because they last longer and can also retain high nutrient value.
  • Make jars of fresh ginger, garlic and chili paste to reduce your cooking time.
  • Keep jars of fresh herbs in your fridge.
  • Refrigerate lemon, orange, and other citrus fruits.
  • You can also purchase bottled lemon juice or can squeeze out the juice from fresh lemons at home and store them.
  • Grated cheese should be stored in freezers.
  • Make small portions of meat. This way it will take less time to thaw and cook.
  • Marinade your fish and chicken with different spics and store them in the freezer for a quick dinner.

5. Stock Up Instant Food

Instant foods like ramen, frozen pizza, and crisps are perfect for quick meals when you`re too preoccupied with work to prepare. Chicken and potato nuggets, for example, are delicious instant meals that only need to be deep-fried. However, don`t grow overly reliant on instant foods, as they might be harmful if consumed in excess.

6.  Use Cooking Tools

To save both your time and energy, use cooking tools. Use chopper, slicer, or grater to chop vegetables instead of using a knife. You can also use a chopper to grate cheese instead of grating it with your manual grater. Use instapots if affordable to cook quick meals. You can also use a pressure cooker if you can`t afford instapots. A Rice cooker is another time-saving tool and makes perfect fluffy rice. If you want to save your time in the kitchen, it is necessary to invest in good quality and creative cooking tools.

7. Follow Cooking Hacks

Internet is filled with different types of cooking hacks. Many blogs, websites, and youtube channels make hack videos that save both your time and help you in making delicious food. By following these channels you will learn many cooking hacks from trials and errors that will save your time. Cooking one-pot meals are a great hack to save time in both cooking and washing. You can cook delicious one-pot meals such as soups, risottos, stews, pasta, etc. You can also use the microwave to cook some food if you are short on time.

8. Do Not Burden Yourself

While eating a home-cooked meal is great for your health, it is important not to burden yourself. If you are not feeling well mentally or physically and do not want to cook but simultaneously want to eat healthy food, then don`t worry. Dinnerly can make your life easier by providing you with delicious meal kits with all the fresh ingredients and recipes that will help you in making your dinner without a hassle.

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