Kitchen Tips For Busy Family Life

KitchenAid 5 qt. Stand Mixer, designed in 1937 by Egmont Arens, remains very successful today (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Busy families have become common place in our modern community and anyone who has ever been part of one knows that cooking a well balanced meal for everyone can be a difficult chore to fit into the day. Gone are the days of stay at home mommies and with both parents at work eating out seems to become a regular choice. However, despite its convenience, it can become very expensive. It is possible to prepare fresh meals quickly and stop eating out. Check out these handy kitchen hints for busy families:

1. Simplify Your Menu – You can still enjoy a nutritionally balance meal by using the simplest of methods. Why not add dishes like tacos, tortillas and burritos to your menu list. These are tasty and so easy to prepare in under 30 minutes. You will even get faster the more you make it. I have tacos down to about 15 minutes now!
2. Stock Up The Pantry & Prepare In Advance – It is important to have a well stocked kitchen. You will find that many simple recipes contain very similar ingredients, so by ensuring you have these ingredients at hand you will be able to cut your prep time in half! My must have ingredients include onions, garlic and vegetables. To save time I dice and chop these on the weekends and store in air tight containers for easy access to them throughout the week. If you know what ingredients you use alot of then stock up, often you can get discounts for bulk buying. I will also cut meat up and store in freezer bag. I can just pull one out of the freezer in the morning and it is ready to cook after work.
3. Invest In Appliances – Some kitchen appliances can be expensive, but they can be well worth it in terms of convenience it can be worth the investment. If you have a large family to prepare food for and a limited time, there are gadgets to help. The KitchenAid Artisan stand mixer is my best friend! I can mix up to 5 quarts of food at once! That is 7lbs of mash or enough dough for 5 loaves of bread! A Slow cooker or crock pot is also ideal for making family meals .

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Bachelor Cooking With Crock Pots

a slow cooker Oval Crock Pot (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

My brother has flown the nest and moved into what I can only describe as a bachelor pad, so I'm helping him brush up on his cooking skills so he isn't forced to live on cereal or hang out at my place! I'm a massive supporter of crock pot food preparation. As soon as I purchased my crock pot not too long ago, it's made a huge difference in the standard of my home-cooked dinners on days when I am pressed for time. Let me quickly add up the advantages:

• Cuts down physical preparation time.
• Makes meals more delicious.
• Can't beat that, can you?

Home Cooking Without Slaving

Just imagine you're having one of those "don't want to venture to the store" days: you've got haphazard foodstuff inside the refrigerator, perhaps some frozen chicken breasts, somewhat wilted celery, a clove of garlic clove, perhaps a bag of rice. You've got dinner!

Here's another example: In the early morning you get one pound of inexpensive, low fat stew beef, slice some carrots, potatoes and also a small red onion, add a bullion powder package and include with water. Give it a stir, set the crock pot on low and go to work. When you come home after a long day at work, your house smells incredible, like you have hired a chef and they've got dinner waiting for you! Salt and pepper the stew to taste and enjoy. The remainder of the stew can be refrigerated or frozen to provide 3 or 4 more meals. Stew often tastes better the next day anyway! This dish costs about 12 bucks for the ingredients and five minutes of prep work and gives you 4 or 5 meals! Bachelor's dream? I think so!

Get the Most From Your Pantry

It gets even better: the crock pot's magical talents include things like tenderizing even the roughest meats. The least expensive cuts of beef are generally also the leanest, providing you with all the advantages of consuming red meat without having the extra fat you'll see in the expensive marbled cuts. Slow-cook a tough cut of beef for 8 hours and it will melt in your mouth.

Importantly for the bachelor, a crock pot is a great way to improve cooking skills while keeping it basic and tasty. With a few common spices like basil, paprika and rosemary you will soon figure out which taste best with different meats or vegetables. Experiment with chopping your ingredients larger and smaller. Chili, soup, even stuffed peppers turn out great in a slow-cooker.

Cooking at home is the best way to make sure you eat right, and there's no easier way of creating delicious and healthy food than with the help of a slow cooker. 

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