Eating healthy, homemade meals for busy families with limited time can be tricky. Adding a few easy changes can be a huge game-changer. These simple culinary hacks aim to optimize our kitchen time.
Grocery prices are unpredictable, so cooking at home is even more important now than before. Now we can stop swiping on that food delivery app when we are short on time!
With just a little pre-planning and a few culinary hacks, we can make a world of a difference in the kitchen. We can still eat healthy, homemade food without sacrificing precious hours from our busy schedule to cook.
From making instant almond flour to using game-changing appliances and batch-making pantry ingredients.
1. Homemade cauliflower rice in a blender
Store-bought frozen cauliflower is ok as long as it’s not flavored.
What would be even better is to make a big batch of our own and store it in the freezer for months on end.
Transforming a head of cauliflower into rice, but it’s possible to make it quickly in a blender. One cauliflower can be turned into rice within 5 minutes.
First, cut the head into smaller florets and drop them into a blender. Blend the florets for a few seconds until they resemble rice grains — it’s that simple. Freeze or refrigerate this cauliflower rice in seconds for future use, or cook it right away by steaming or sautéing.
Make cilantro lime cauliflower rice and also serve it as a side to air-fried tempeh. It’s so good!
2. Time-saving smart kitchen tools
Everyone has either an air fryer, crock pot, Instant Pot, or all three!
Are we maximizing these appliances to get out of the kitchen even faster?
Instant Pot
Editor’s note: I am not saying I have a favorite appliance, but the Instant Pot is the one appliance I can’t be without! So, I may be biased here, but with good reason.
What is an Instant Pot? It is a multicooker that functions as much more than a pressure cooker. It can steam, sear, and sauté food like on a stovetop, but much faster.
For example, this Chunky potato soup can take about 45-60min to make stove-top. In the Instant Pot, it will be ready in just 30 minutes.
The Instant Pot also makes it easy to eat our veggies. Cook green beans, green peas, broccoli, and purple sweet potatoes.
A big batch of these veggies can be steamed in the Instant Pot and frozen for future use.
Get my favorite (Affiliate Link) Instant Pot on Amazon.
Air Fryer
An air fryer is also a popular, time-efficient appliance. It’s unique because it circulates hot air, giving the same texture as deep frying but with little need for oil.
It’s a healthier and more efficient cooking method. Even cleanup is a breeze since only the tray needs to be washed or wiped down.
The air fryer can make the best beet chips, hasselback sweet potatoes, and garlic bread.
Amazon has a wonderful (Affiliate Link) air fryer that can be delivered.
Slow Cooker
This appliance is often overlooked because of that one word: SLOW!
Who wants to wait 8 hours for dinner to be ready, especially for busy families? No One!
However, it’s a very useful appliance for making dinner. There are many dump-and-cook types of healthy recipes that take 10-20 minutes to prep. Dump ingredients in the morning, and it will be ready by dinner time.
(Affiliate Link) Modern slow cookers can be programmed to be turned off after 6- 8 hours of cooking. After that, it will keep the meal warm. This is so useful.
Easy slow cooker recipes to try: 3 Bean Chili, red lentil stew, slow cooker herb bread, Mexican pinto beans, and mushroom asada.
Honorable mention: Blenders
It’s surprising how many of us will drink smoothies if the ingredients are ready to be dumped in a blender and it’s ready to drink in one minute!
In these (Affiliate Link) silicone bags, dump all the ingredients for a smoothie (including protein powders and ice) and freeze them. When ready to drink, just dump the ingredients into the blender! Bam, it’s that easy.
Blenders and food processors are also good for making soups like acorn squash soup, salad dressings like this strawberry balsamic vinaigrette, and healthy sauces like chermoula.
3. Homemade flours
This may sound too boujee, but it’s very easy to make at home. It may be as simple as one ingredient and one food processor.
Run out of chickpea flour or not available in stores? No problem! Get dry chickpeas and turn them into flour. The Butter Half shows us how to easily make chickpea flour at home.
Almond flour is very hard to find, and the price is usually marked up. So here is the best recipe for almond flour! It’s simple enough to make in minutes.
Grain mills are becoming popular with millennials. For those who own one, it’s easy to make whole wheat flour in it.
4. Batch cook for later
By carving out some time on the weekend to plan and prepare meals for the week ahead, we can all put together diverse meals with little effort during our busy work days. Batch make different ingredients in large quantities that go well together.
That way, we are not stuck eating the same dish for the next five days.
Some ideas include
- Making tofu and tempeh crumbles to add to salads, rice, pasta, or sandwiches.
- Roasting our favorite vegetables, like zucchini, broccoli, or mushrooms.
- Have rice ready to go with any meal. It’s the perfect side dish to so many recipes, including vegan, vegetarian, and omnivore recipes.
- Advance cook grains like farro, amaranth, and quinoa in advance, and they will freeze well. Put these grains into tabouli or quinoa bowls.
- Make soups and freeze them. Most soups, like sweet potato soup, tomato soup, and butternut squash soup, can be frozen for up to six months.
5. Mise En Place!
“Mise en place” is a French term meaning to set out everything we need before we start cooking. It’s a basic concept that has been used for decades by Italian mothers, and it will save us time! It means that we are doing less scrambling and all our ingredients are at arm’s length.
The steps for mise en place include understanding the recipe, preparing our ingredients, arranging them logically in the order of use in the recipe, gathering our tools, and preheating the oven.
Having a ready workstation means that we won’t fumble around and will be able to churn out meals fast. An organized workspace means that our meals churn out faster, and we are out of the kitchen that much faster!
This is the best of all culinary hacks because it means more time to stream our favorite shows!
6. Home-grown produce in a pinch
Does gardening feel like too much effort? We want the rewards of fresh organic produce, but are afraid of failing at gardening? Try planting quick-growing microgreens like broccoli sprouts,
Broccoli sprouts are a great health booster for our bodies. According to the National Library of Medicine, these vegetables can reduce inflammation, diabetes, and the risk of cardiovascular illnesses.
Learning how to grow broccoli sprouts requires a few simple steps, and the microgreens are ready to eat in five to seven days. The process involves sprouting broccoli seeds in a mason jar — no crazy equipment or space is needed, which is good news for beginner gardeners.
These sprouts can be eaten raw in salads, rice bowls, or tomato sandwiches. It will add a refreshing, crunchy texture to any meal.
Growing fresh herbs like lemon balm, basil, parsley, and rosemary is also very easy and will instantly add freshness to all our meals.
Don’t compromise on nutrition or flavor
For every excuse we may have about not making nutritious meals at home, there is at least one easy hack we can employ! We have no more excuses not to find one or two things to incorporate that will make our lives easier
Which culinary hack is your favorite?
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This article originally appeared on Food Drink Life.
