Home cooking can be challenging, especially if you’re a busy person with no time. If you’re looking to have weight loss, you want to have more energy, and you really want sustainable health with sustainable results, home cooking is really important. I’m excited to share with you my 4-minute guide for people that don’t like home cooking!
What are these beginning steps so that we can really look at how we can make food as fuel and get the benefits out of home cooking without wasting a lot of time?
#1. You have to get organized. Within organization there’s a few things. You need to have a shopping strategy. It should only take you about 10 minutes when you’re in the grocery store to get all the supplies you need for the week. To me, it’s really important to have a shopping list, and just have a strategy so that you can go in, and get out, and you’re not wasting all this time.
Then you also want to plan ahead. I’m always looking at cooking anywhere from two to four days, and so to me, I always look at Sunday. Sunday is my day, and then usually Wednesday or Thursday I’m cooking another batch. On Sunday, I usually plan in the late afternoon or early evening to cook a lot of food, and get set up for the whole week. Also, with organization, you have to have kitchen inventory. Make sure that you have everything you need, so it sets you up for success.
#2. Prep. Prep’s a really big thing. Once you learn those basic skill sets can go really quickly. With vegetables and looking at different items, we really have to learn how to cut, chop, or dice, and to be strategic about that. Also, with the prep we’re going to be cooking enough for two to four days, and then sometimes we also need to soak certain things. We need to soak grains, or legumes, or nuts. During the prep, usually the night before I’ll be soaking things like rice because rice has phytic acid in it, and we want to make sure that is released. Then also we want to wash things off, like quinoa. Quinoa is stored in these barrels that can have dust and dirt in them, and even worms. Worms can poop, so you could have worm poop on the quinoa. We gotta wash that off. That’s part of the prep.
#3. Cooking time. We have to learn how long each item takes to cook. Especially with the strategy of looking at vegetables, for instance onions and carrots, those take a lot longer to cook than spinach. What I’m doing is a little multitasking when I’m cooking, especially on Sundays and then that other day during the week. If I’m cooking quinoa for instance, I’m going to wash that quinoa off, get that started, and add chicken broth or vegetable broth instead of using water. It really brings the taste out. Then once that starts cooking, I’m prepping and I start the onions, then the carrots, and then I go down the line. I also use lots of herbs, so I recommend my favorite herbs that are tarragon, thyme, oregano, and basil. That really brings out the taste, and so I’m getting that all set up for success.
#4. Storage. We’re going to get glass containers out. If you’re trying to lose weight, you’re trying to have sustainable health, getting those results, what’s nice is you can put it in portions, so you portion control. You can put the food in the glass containers, and you have it for the next two to four days.
So these are just four quick steps. There’s more here. If you don’t have much time or a strategy to cooking, start with these basics!
What do you do to save time cooking? Leave a comment, I’d love to hear your strategies!
