Cooking – people either love or hate it, and chances are, since you’re reading this article, you’re part of the latter group but are looking for ways to enjoy it more. Maybe you haven’t been cooking as much because the recipes never come out like you expect them to, or maybe cooking a meal after a long workday just takes up way too much of your precious time, especially when you’d rather be doing something else. Today, we’re here to tell you about eight things you can do to make cooking easier. Cooking shouldn’t be a draining task you dread but an enjoyable activity that results in delicious, homemade food. Don’t leave those steel pans just sitting in the cabinets; keep reading to be convinced that it’s time to start getting use out of them again.
1. Meal Plan
Planning your meals is a great place to start if you want to make cooking easier. Proper meal planning is necessary to know what ingredients to get and when. At the beginning of the week, sit down and write out what meals you plan on cooking on which days of the week. This will help clear your mind, show you when you should buy the necessary ingredients, and motivate you to make those recipes.
2. Keep Your Pantry Stocked
Cooking can go from drag to fun and easy when you already have all the pantry essentials. Keeping your pantry stocked with dry ingredients like rice, grains, and spices makes cooking easier because you have fewer ingredients to buy. When you have all the pantry essentials, you’ll probably already have at least half the ingredients you need to make any recipe you want. Would you prefer to make a recipe that requires you to buy 10 ingredients or five? The fewer ingredients you buy, the easier the cooking process is.
3. Get High-Quality Steel Pans
When your cooking utensils are high-quality, cooking becomes so much easier. Invest in premium-grade steel pans for the best possible cooking experience. Lower-quality steel pans might scratch easily, and some require a lot of oil. On the other hand, steel pans from brands known for producing top-tier products will make cooking less stressful since you’ll have less to think about.
4. Buy a Digital Thermometer
No more guessing whether your meat is undercooked or overcooked; a digital meat thermometer will let you know exactly when your meat is done cooking. Using a meat thermometer eliminates the stressful guessing portion of cooking and can focus your efforts on enjoying the cooking experience.
5. Put On a Lid
Something as simple as putting a lid on your pan when cooking can make a huge difference. Covering your pan with a lid keeps the hot temperatures within the pan and prevents external air from affecting the food. Your meal will cook faster when your pan is covered, so if you’re short on time, always keep the lid handy.
6. Use All the Kitchen Tools
Two kitchen tools that will make your life much easier are kitchen shears and a garlic presser. Kitchen shears can quickly snip the ends off string beans or mindlessly cube a chicken breast. Garlic pressers do precisely what you’d expect them to: press garlic, but they accomplish it much quicker than the traditional way by hand. These two simple tools will help make cooking easier and more enjoyable.
7. Save Leftovers for Extra Meals
The best way to make cooking easier is not to have to do it as often. If you cooked too much for your meal and have extra leftovers, save them in your fridge for future meals. You can even plan to cook more than you need for that particular day so you can have meals one or two days later. This saves you time, energy, and money.
Conclusion
We hope this article helped show you a few small things you can do to make cooking easier. By following these tips, you’ll finally enjoy cooking and look forward to it. We cannot wait for you to make some excellent homemade meals and enjoy yourself while cooking them.
