If you are like me, you want to spend less time in the kitchen and more time doing things you actually enjoy!
And very rarely, you may have a small lapse of time. All the chores around the house are done (enough). The kids are outside playing. You have a small break in the day and your find yourself wondering what to do. You naturally wander to….the kitchen. You just feel like there’s something you are supposed to do there, even if you don’t know what it is.
Yep, that’s us. Tied to the kitchen.
The not-so-great times in the kitchen
Now for me, my time in the kitchen is a love/hate relationship. My kitchen isn’t quite big enough for a growing family of 6. The cabinets are old and outdated. My fridge is going to give out any minute now. The dark black granite countertops were definitely the taste of the previous owners. The deep, dark sink holds too many dishes to be hand washed at once.
The dishwasher is so loud that having a conversation is impossible while it’s running. And keeping my 2-year old twins’ wondering hands away from the hot stovetop while I cook is a frantic and stressful task.
The wonderful times in the kitchen
But, on the other hand, my kitchen has been the place where my dad and I held many conversations over baking cookies and drinking coffee, just weeks before he unexpectedly died. It’s been the production site of dozens of birthday cupcakes and pies using wild berries from our backyard. It was the catalyst that caused us to finally install new hardwood floors in our entire downstairs living area, thanks to some busted pipes over a month-long vacation!
It’s been the place I wash the bountiful garden’s harvest. It’s also the place I can and store the excess, and even where we nurture and grow our seedlings in the cold early spring weeks. It’s been the place for science experiments, pancake day every Saturday morning, and many hugs, tears, and laughter over the almost 3 years we’ve lived in this house.
So, as much as I get tired of washing sippy cups and loading/unloading the dishwasher day in and day out, I wouldn’t trade my time in the kitchen for anything.
But, I can’t spend all day in the kitchen! I’ve got plenty other things to do around this house outside of the kitchen, but sometimes I feel chained to the it! Granted, my husband and I live a lifestyle in which the kitchen plays a huge role, but I do need a break from it every now and then.
So, over the past several years, I’ve learned a few tips to reduce the amount of time I spend in the kitchen. I share these tips especially from the perspective of a mother with four young children, but they can be helpful to anyone:
1. Meal Prep.
The hands-down, number one way I spend less time in the kitchen is to meal prep. My husband and I usually spend Sunday afternoons meal prepping for the rest of the week. The food we prepare lasts until about Wednesday night, maybe Thursday, but it saves me from having to cook dinner for a few nights a week. We prep on Sunday when we are both home so that we can both help with cooking and wrangling kids out of the kitchen!
You could even take your meal-prepping a step further and create some frozen meals that you pop in the oven when you are ready to eat them. The Internet is full of recipes, but here are some of my favorite from Southern Living. Meal prepping is a system that works well for us and probably the most efficient, money-saving, health-conscience choice we make for our family regarding food.
2. Use a Pressure Cooker.
Another way to spend less time in the kitchen is to use a pressure cooker. An electric pressure cooker will cook your food in a fraction of the time. It’s usually my go-to method for dinner on Thursday and Friday evenings! However, it will also double as a safer way to cook if your children like to put their little hands on the stovetop. For example, I occasionally use my electric pressure cooker to make macaroni and cheese. My twins can’t reach inside the cooker, so there’s no risk of them burning their fingers while I’m cooking. It’s much less stressful for me!
I have the Power Pressure Cooker XL and have been super happy with it’s options and performance for the past 4 years. It’s definitely been a time-saver!
3. Clean First.
This probably goes without saying, but you will spend less time in the kitchen if you start off working in a clean, clutter-free one. Trying to work around clutter, dirty dishes, and toys in the middle of the floor only causes unecessary hassle. Before you begin to cook or bake in the kitchen, take a minute to clean first. Then, keep cleaning as you go! Wash dishes that you dirty while the pasta is boiling, for example. This will reduce your time in the kitchen and you’ll be outta there before you know it!
4. Cook When No One is Around.
When Thanksgiving comes around, what do we do? We all wake up at 6 a.m. and start prepping food for a meal that we will likely eat in the late afternoon or evening. Why? Because no one is in our way to distract us! Why not do that every day, not only on Thanksgiving? If you have a hard time keeping your kids out of the kitchen, why not cook dinner in the morning before they wake up? Or while they are in their highchairs eating breakfast? Many times, I cook dinner whenever the opportunity arises, even if it’s at 10 a.m.!
Cooking itself doesn’t take long. Cooking while distracted with kids, husbands, dogs, phone calls, the UPS guy ringing the door, etc., takes much longer. If you can find a time to cook when no one can stop and interrupt you, take advantage of it! You’ll spend less time in the kitchen, I promise!
5. Plan ahead.
My husband and I consider ourselves pretty good planners, except when it comes to dinner every night! Outside of meal prepping, we have a hard time coming up with dinner sometimes. Maybe this is why we meal prep….Anyway, if you plan your meals ahead, this will help you spend less time in the kitchen.
I have a friend with 6 kids, and she religiously plans her meals every week. She lets her children pick something each day of the week so they have a say in the process. Planning a menu for a week or so at a time will help you remember to defrost your meat and buy your ingredients beforehand. This saves you time–and money–so you don’t hit any snags as you prepare to cook dinner (or bake those cupcakes)!
Here are a few template ideas to get you started!
6. Get Your Family Involved.
As a mother, we are sometimes guilty of taking on all the cooking and cleaning tasks (I know I am!), just because we can get it done quicker and faster than anyone else. However, it’s overwhelming, stressful, and sets a bad example to everyone in the family. To spend less time in the kitchen, get the whole family involved. Even young children can get their toys out of the kitchen or learn to put their dishes in the sink.
My husband shares the cooking and cleaning load 50/50, but if yours doesn’t, expect him to! (I will not apologize for that statement….husbands/spouses/partners are just as capable and responsible of cooking and cleaning as we are). Teach your children the value of responsibility in the kitchen. You don’t want to still be tending to them when they are capable of getting their own food and cleaning up after themselves!
7. Take Away the Technology.
One thing that really slows me down when I’m in the kitchen is trying to follow a recipe on my phone. My phone locks. I have to close an ad. I lose my place and have to scroll back up (with wet or dirty hands), etc. You’d be surprised how much time this wastes! So, to spend less time in the kitchen, I finally figured out to print the recipe and then cook. I know, it’s not rocket science, but it took me forever to break the habit!
For recipes that I use frequently, I actually take the time to write them in my recipe book. This way, I can have access to them anytime I want. No more trying to search the Internet for the same recipe that I used previously. And then dealing with a phone that needs to be charged. And text messages coming in while I’m trying to read the directions. And having to scroll back to the ingredients list over a video that won’t close. Just a nice, old-fashioned recipe on a piece of paper that I can get as dirty as a want. It’s a real time-saver!
Take Back Your Time
Time is something that none of us have enough of. And I’m pretty sure that none of us want to spend more of it than necessary in the kitchen! Well, at least not on the mundane, monotonous tasks that keep slowing us down and taking away energy for our more creative endeavors. By following the tips above and working more efficiently in the kitchen, you can spend less time in the kitchen and have more time for other things you actually want to do!
So, if you had more time, what would you do? Well, for me…I’d still be in kitchen, baking cupcakes! But at least I’d have time to do it! Thanks for reading,…now go enjoy your time!