Preparing your food at home is usually the healthiest way to eat. Your meals might not all be salads, but you can use fresh ingredients whatever you choose to make. You know what’s going into your food, and you can make sure you prepare balanced meals. The only problem is cooking can often be pretty time-consuming. This might be fine if you enjoy cooking or have plenty of time, but it’s not so good if you have other things to do. And a lack of time can lead you to give up on cooking thoroughly. Fortunately, there are ways you can cook and save time.

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Get a Crockpot
A crockpot, a slow cooker, or whatever you call it – it’s a great kitchen appliance to have. With a slow cooker, you can turn it on in the morning or afternoon, and you’ll have food ready by dinner time. You can also cook things overnight or whenever is most convenient for you. Some recipes for slow cookers might require a little preparation, such as sauteing vegetables before you throw them in the pot. But others allow you to toss in all of your ingredients and turn the cooker on.

Use One-Pot Recipes
In addition to the actual cooking, you can find your time taken up by washing the dishes. Even if you have a dishwasher, loading and unloading it is time-consuming. If you want to save time, a one-pot recipe is excellent for reducing the number of dishes you have. You can cook everything in one pot, and that’s all you’ll have to wash. Try something like pork medallions with apple cider sauce, which can all be cooked in one skillet. These types of recipes can save you time on cooking too. You won’t have to monitor several pans at once.

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Batch Cook
Cooking in batches is another excellent way of saving time on cooking. By cooking more than you need and saving some for later, you can enjoy some days when you don’t need to cook. Instead, you can heat your leftovers. It’s easy to double a recipe or times it by however much you want to make. Then, you can divide it up into containers and either put it in the fridge or freeze it. Some things will keep better than others, so be careful about what you choose to batch cook.

Cook as a Team
Unless you live on your own, you don’t have to be the only one who does the cooking. Sharing the task can make everything a lot easier and mean you spend less time in the kitchen. There are several ways you can do this. You could cook with a partner or even get the kids involved. This could speed up your cooking, but it might slow you down in some cases. Or you can split cooking duties between your household. Even children can learn to cook simple meals with minimal supervision.

Cut down on your time in the kitchen by finding shortcuts that work for you and using your time wisely.