No time to cook need tips to cut time

michellegilbe

new to this app. I have been working hard counting. I have never counted calories before so I am new. Anyways I am super busy. I work two jobs and I don't have lots of time to cook. I find myself eating junk. I need tips of how to prepare or cut time with meals cuz the last thing I wanna do when I come home is cook for an hour and a half. Help!!!!!

livingleanlivingclean

Make bulk everything - it doesn't take much more time to prepare 5 servings than it takes to prepare 1.

Eg. Steam X serves of vegies, divide and freeze some for later in the week.

Bake X serves of chicken breast/meatballs/beef roast

Cook X serves rice/pasta/quinoa

Boil a dozen eggs

Bake a tray of vegie frittata and portion it out for breakfasts (or lunch or dinner)

Pre cut vegies for stir fry

Etc.

Having a meal plan for the week helps - eating the same thing every day isn't bad, change it every week if you feel like it. It makes prep easier, buying easier, less waste etc.

hncary

Try meal prep. Throw some rice and veggies in the steamer and bake some chicken in the oven. Package them in tupperware in portioned sizes for the week. Takes very little effort and you always have a healthy meal to reach for. You can definitely get more creative than this, but that's just one basic idea. You can do it with basically any meal by cooking in bulk and portioning everything out. Keep fruit and veggies around to snack on. Portion out some almonds or whatever other nut you like into proper portions and bag them so you can grab them on the go. Canned soups and salads take very little time. Boil some eggs at the beginning of the week for snacks. You can also make large batches of oatmeal and portion it out for the week. Greek yogurt, rice cakes, protein bars... Basically just keep good options around that won't cause you to go over on your calories. Also, take advantage of the crockpot. Throw in some chicken and a cup of salsa with some cumin in the morning and let it cook while you are at work on low and then shred it when you get home (literally takes 5 min or less) and you can make some tacos with it. There are tons of simple crockpot recipes that don't take much prep time at all and dinner can be ready when you walk in the door.

Rocketqueeen

I'm in the same boat as you. I work long hours and my commute each way to and from work is almost 90 minutes. The last thing I want to do when I get home at 9pm is cook ANYTHING. on my day off, I precut a lot of veggies, boil eggs, portion out salads so I have them and can make when I get home or to take for lunch. It's all about preparation in advance. I also portion out healthy snacks to take with me. It's so easy to go for a candy bar, chips, or cookies when I don't have anything else on hand.

Unknown

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LKArgh

There are tons of recipes that require no more than 10-15 minutes preparation and cooking: omelettes, scrambled eggs, pasta with simple sauces, slices of meat/chicken/fish in the broiler, rice dishes, stir fries, salads, sandwiches. And you can prepare more time consuming dishes when you have time, then freeze them in single portion containers.

michellegilbe

Great tips thanks. I am going to prep lots of good snacks cuz I am more of a snacker. Recently I have been in love with the flavour tuna

jonathansilas1984

One word "Crockpot" learn it, live it , love it.

Ang108

One of the best tips someone gave me many years ago is to not complain about not having time, but to make the time for things that are important to me. Healthy nutrition is one of them.
During the week I do not spend more than 30 minutes a day in the kitchen ( that does not count cooking or baking time) for the two complete meals I eat a day. I have never spent 90 minutes on a meal , unless it's a special occasion. I cook all my meals from scratch and have not eaten in a restaurant for a couple of years. It can be done.....you just have to organize yourself !
Good Luck !

Camo_xxx

I don't think even June Clever took an hour and a half. LoL
With a bit of practice and some Google-foo you can learn to cook great meals from scratch in 10-15 minutes

maroonmango211

jonathansilas1984 wrote: »

One word "Crockpot" learn it, live it , love it.

YUP. Just like others mention with prepping by cutting veggies, steaming them, cooking meats etc I would add cook a huge batch of beans in the slow cooker one day, portion and freeze. All it takes to make one giant meal is a couple portions of each mixed with some broth thrown in and crock turned on low all day and you have a big pot of soup ready and extra portions can be stored or frozen for all week. I also tend to make double batches of anything that DOES take a lot of time like stuffed peppers, cabbage rolls, lasagna, spaghetti sauce and I freeze the second batch so its ready to pop in a pot or the oven whenever I need a no cook meal.

Praying_Mantis

I understand completely. With my new job came a longer commute. Agree with @jonathansilas1984, I use crock pot just about once a week. This week was pinto beans. I had three lunches out of that. Bought two lbs. of carrots, peeled those and put in Tupperware & covered with water, kept refrigerated. They stay fresh that way & I can just grab 3 or 4 to add to lunch bag. Plus easy-peasy snacking item when i get home. Cut & skinned entire cantaloupe all at once for easy servings each morning into individual container. (I found that parsing out into single serving-sizes right away the food didn't stay as fresh as long. Besides, my fridge is only so big - easier to slice right away all into one container, then serve from there into smaller Tupperware for lunch transport.)

Frequently I have lunch meat that I can quickly eyeball the correct number of slices in the morning to make a protein+ sandwich. I used to only use 1 serving of meat in my sammich, but now double it up and find myself my better satiated.

I'm all about leftovers, too. A 9x12 pan of lasagne? Good for 2 or 3 days of lunch & dinner. I keep a couple of cans of soup at work, too. I have an "earthquake drawer" when I kept a stash of non-perishables. Canned chicken, juice box, microwave popcorn, can of chili. You get the idea.

Also found the setting on my microwave for baked potato. I wash & salt a potato stab the fork holes in it & let the microwave cook it while I get dressed. Let potato cool while grabbing a yogurt and a can of chili, then put it all in lunch bag. Use only 1/2 chili on the potato, put can in work fridge & bring another cooked potato in tomorow's lunch. Of course this works best if you job has refrigerator & microwave on site.

BananasananaB

My go to is a can of black beans (low sodium), a can of corn, and some salsa. Put it all into a bowl, throw it in the microwave for a minute or two, and boom! It's delicious and super filling!

Sweet potatoes are also easily baked in the microwave in a few minutes. I eat mine plain.

chloeelizabethm

Make bulk items as everyone else has said and also put stuff in the slow cooker and turn it on in the morning. I often make pulled meats if I know I won't have much time later in the day, just put the oven on when I go to work and let the meat cook at a really low temp all day - it tastes good, serve with salad/coleslaw and veg plus there's always lots left over as I put a huge joint in so no cooking the next day.

duckykissy

I cook LOTS and freeze on days off, cook extra serves on days I have time, and crock pot on days I have time only in the morning. Additionally I buy specifically for meals I want to eat within the month (week/ fortnight) and divide them up- e.g. I have 1.5 kgs of cubed meat frozen for a stew I'm going to make next week, 500g mince lamb, 100-200 g individually wrapped chicken breasts. That way I can just pull out exactly what I need, but till buy & plan in advanced.

I'm also saving my pennies and waiting for my pressure cooker to go on sale. If you can afford one or have one, a pressure cooker is a GREAT way to save time. My aunt cooked this brined whole chicken in 40 minutes. It was lean and very tasty. I've also got friends who like to make paella in theirs which takes like 15-20 minutes. And I'm sure there's tons of recipes out there for pressure cookers. If you're into a bit more fancy cooking or never seem to have time to bake several meals on a day off, this might be something for you to look into.

lauracups

jonathansilas1984 wrote: »

One word "Crockpot" learn it, live it , love it.

This x 10

OldHobo

No time to cook need tips to cut time

I bet this is the theme a million internet posts. The answer, in my humble opinion, is rarely a recipe or appliance or technique. I mean it could be any or all of those, but they all boil down to learning some skills which involves time and effort. Mind you it's the learning that takes time and effort, not doing. It takes practically no time at all to pan fry a cutlet, make an omelet, or stir fry some vegetables with some kind of protein ---if you already know how. It takes very little of a cooks time to roast vegetables or start a crock pot meal providing (s)he knew to buy the right stuff in the market day before yesterday and didn't need to agonize over how to go about it in the kitchen after a long day.

I'm not being a smart alec. Not everybody wants to learn to cook. Nothing wrong with that. If that's the case , the answer to the question involves restaurants, take out, delivery, and the sections of the supermarket that sells stuff you don't have to cook.

If you want to learn to cook there's a lot of ways to it.

• Books. Mark Bittman, Rachael Ray and Mario Batali are authors that spring to mind. I suggest you look at books that teach techniques using basic ingredients.
• Internet. DiscussCooking.com and ChefTalk.com are two discussion forums I'm familiar with. Mario Batali's How To tuesdays are cool, Google it or search on you tube. Speaking of you tube, enter a technique like poach, sear, blach, braise, etc. and you'll get a bunch of short how to videos. Helen Rennie and Rockin Robin are two non-celebrities that have a lot of instructional cooking videos I like.
• TV. If you don't have cable,or even if you do, America's Test Kitchen and Mexico, One Plate at a Time are two of the many PBS cooking shows I've learned from.
• Maybe the best way is to ask grandma or abuela.

So its possible that you, the original poster, is already an accomplished cook and I misread your question. If so, I meant no offense and apologize profusely.

Queenmunchy

I like to cook a few dishes on the weekends (usually 2 soups, at least 1 stew or chili) and portion to freeze, and I make sure that I always have certain easy foods on hand in my freezer: homemade burger/veggie patties, squash/chicken nuggets, zucchini/turkey meatballs, cauliflower cheese sauce, marinara, burritos - I can share recipes if you'd like.

If I'm cooking once, I might as well cook a lot so I have a variety of healthy meals ready in under 10 minutes all portioned and labeled with calorie counts.

Usually on Sundays I make one casserole type dish. That can be a baked pasta, a quinoa bake, lasagna, chicken divan, layered enchiladas, etc. On Monday after work I pull it from the fridge and we have dinner for the night - sometimes I keep the cut portions for later in the week, or I freeze them for another time. You can also chop vegetables on weekends and put them in a bag to just pop in a pan and roast during the week.

I also try to keep cooked chicken on hand. That chicken can turn into a quick stir fry or noodle bowl (frozen Asian vegetables even work here), a chicken/veggie quesadilla, a bbq chicken flatbread/pita pizza, a Thai chicken flatbread/pita pizza (or any pizza!), chicken sandwiches, or just mixed with a grain or vegetable noodles/rice and some vegetables.

I hardly cook during the week, but we always have a lot of options for fast meals.

SunflowerCat74

Make it a priority to do food prep one day a week. It makes a huge difference!

Crockpot is a must! I recently had surgery so Im unable to cook and did a bunch of freezer dump meals. Cut up my meats and veggies, bagged them up in freezer bags with the other ingredients so all I have to do is take it out of the freezer and put it in the fridge the night before, dump it in the crock pot in the morning and bam...dinner is ready. Google freezer meals or dump meals for some ideas.
I also make time every month to prepare a big batch of meat. I might bake turkey veggie meatballs, 6lbs of chicken breast at a time in my crockpot (cube some, shred some), make pulled pork or beef which is great for tacos, salads, sandwiches, wraps, etc... I just portion and freeze it, so it's ready to go when I need it.

I also found that making mini fritatta (in a muffin pan), breakfast sandwiches or burritos is very helpful too. I have a tendency to skip breakfast and that results in bad choices if I'm outside the house.

JoRocka

make friends with your crock pot- and carve out time to go to the store and buy all your food- then carve out time to cook- usually 1-2 hours of prep- then you're prepped for the week.

The more you can do in advance- the more time you'll save- like- carrots- either cough up the money for the pre cut carrots- or buy a big bag-then take 10 minutes to peel them and cut them and put them all in little baggies or whatever containers you have.

I make a lot of scrambled eggs with veggies- so one thing I set aside 5 minutes to do - is to chop of my favorite veggies and put them in a tupperwearsies- then they are all set up.

The more you can do in advance- put in individual containers- the more time you save and the easier it is through the week.

mysticlizard

When I get home from the grocery store, I prep and cut all my veg and friut and put them in the fridge. That way we can eat them for lunch and snack as is or cook them up for supper. It takes a little time when I come in from the store but we eat more veg and fruit with no time taken up later.

NewMeSM75

Transform leftover into new meals.

Kenellen1

Google salad in a jar...works like a charm. Takes max 15 mins to put together 3 or 4 jars that are one meal each...all you do is grab and go. Plus they look really nice when you open your fridge. Good luck!

kristenlarkin

I love my crock pot!

LovelyIvy466

Crockpots are a must! If you want crockpot ideas, you can find s ridiculous amount on Pinterest.

jlohcook

You can practically oven bake, grill within 30 mins for most meat items. If you like fish, bake in 20-mins 180 degree Celsius about 380 F, just add salt, a little olive oil, pepper, any dried herbs. Keep lots of vegetable salad, just wash , eat. But baby carrots, cherry tomatoes. Again wash only. Even chicken breast, you can marinate overnight, if not, just marinate with a little teriyaki, grill function, 25-30 mins. You get a beautiful piece.

Like what many say, cooking does not require lots of time, just some planning ahead of time, and stick up the fridge with healthy fresh foods.

SherryTeach

I've gotten this down to the point where I only cook maybe twice a month. In my freezer right now are individual portions of pork tenderloin and rice, sausage tortellini in pesto, spaghetti and marinara, chuck roast and mashed potatoes, ham and bean soup, and turkey chili. During the week, all I have to do is steam veggies and prep fruit. My BF and I cook together on weekends, play music and drink wine. Then we each have all our food ready.