Help in the Kitchen

There are just some things that can help you with cooking, shopping and saving time and money.  Here are some simple tips that will help you do all of this…it just takes a little time and soon you will be in a routine and look like a pro in the kitchen…

Through years of trying to figure out my kitchen and what to do with it, I’ve stumbled upon some ways that have made me a better kitchenpreneur (kitchen entrepreneur)…

Planning…This is so important and was probably the hardest thing for me to do.  I’ve never been a very organized person, but I knew if I was going to overcome these challenges in the kitchen I was going to have to do some planning.

This meant planning my meals.  At first, I thought I had to plan out a whole months worth of meals, but it didn’t take me long to realize that was impossible (at least for me), so I started looking at the sales papers for my local grocery store and planning my weekly meals around them.  This let me have great meals without spending a lot of money.   Also, by planning my meals, I could put a whole chicken in the crock pot, cook it for dinner that night, then taking what was leftover and shredding it in my food chopper to add to a casserole the next night or to make homemade chicken salad.  Two meals from one chicken…two meals out of seven taken care of…Plan your meals…

Know what is in your pantry.  You have 13 cans of peas in your pantry, but when you get to the store, you can’t remember if you have any left, so you buy 5 more cans…that’s a lot of peas!  Keep a running tally of your pantry items.  If you tend to make the same meals over and over again, then this will be easy to do.  You all ready know what you need…so you stock up.

Know what you use.  I know that every week, I’m going to buy milk, bread and eggs, so I have a master list has these items on them.  Over time, I have added other items to this list, so I know to buy them.  I hate wanting a cup of tea only to find out I forgot to get honey.  Keep a couple months worth of your shopping list…after a couple months, figure out what you tend to buy all the time and add them to your list.  When it is time to go shopping, you can grab your list (if you keep it on the computer, you can print it out and have it whenever you need it)…circle what you know you need and buy only those items.

What does all this cost?  Keep track of what you pay for items that are on your regular grocery list.  This will help you see the pattern that stores go in when it comes to putting things on sale.  If you keep a price list for a couple months, then you can look and see when it might be going on sale again, so you can get those coupons ready and get it for the lowest price.

Make room in the freezer.  If you are feeding only two people, then a lot of the recipes are going to make too much for the two of you to eat, so why not freeze the extra for later.  Don’t let it go to waste by being pushed to the back of your refrigerator.  This will also help when things go crazy and you forgot to put something out for dinner.  Pull out one of your frozen meals, defrost and warm up…no more going out to eat…