[{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org\/","@type":"BlogPosting","@id":"https:\/\/www.timemanagementplans.com\/how-to-save-time-in-preparing-food\/#BlogPosting","mainEntityOfPage":"https:\/\/www.timemanagementplans.com\/how-to-save-time-in-preparing-food\/","headline":"How to Save Time in Preparing Food","name":"How to Save Time in Preparing Food","description":"We will never be able to get away from food. That is the one common requirement for all forms of life. Everything must consume some sort of energy. Plants get their energy from the sun. Everything else gets their energy from plants or from things that eat plants. It would be a great time-saving feature...","datePublished":"2016-09-07","dateModified":"2025-06-04","author":{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.timemanagementplans.com\/author\/mark\/#Person","name":"Mark","url":"https:\/\/www.timemanagementplans.com\/author\/mark\/","identifier":2,"image":{"@type":"ImageObject","@id":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/131cfccbaaff5083caadb2ebb178119fe605ab5a0bdcf4a00e7f2ec170a49434?s=96&d=mm&r=g","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/131cfccbaaff5083caadb2ebb178119fe605ab5a0bdcf4a00e7f2ec170a49434?s=96&d=mm&r=g","height":96,"width":96}},"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Reflective Dynamics, Inc.","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","@id":"https:\/\/www.timemanagementplans.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/time-management-plans-blog-logo.jpg","url":"https:\/\/www.timemanagementplans.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/time-management-plans-blog-logo.jpg","width":600,"height":60}},"image":{"@type":"ImageObject","@id":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.timemanagementplans.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/save-time-while-preparing-food.jpg?fit=720%2C360&ssl=1","url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.timemanagementplans.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/save-time-while-preparing-food.jpg?fit=720%2C360&ssl=1","height":360,"width":720},"url":"https:\/\/www.timemanagementplans.com\/how-to-save-time-in-preparing-food\/","about":["Cooking"],"wordCount":1358,"articleBody":"We will never be able to get away from food. That is the one common requirement for all forms of life. Everything must consume some sort of energy. Plants get their energy from the sun. Everything else gets their energy from plants or from things that eat plants. It would be a great time-saving feature if we could just absorb all the nutrients we need from the sun and maybe one day science will invent some sort of wearable technology that does this for us. But in the realm of what we can do today, we must give thought to how we can improve the efficiency of our food preparation techniques.The following tips are written for the small household, such as a 1 or 2-person family living in an apartment with limited space. If you have a larger family and live in a house with more space, these tips are scalable and you should be able to save even more time if you have adequate storage space (including an extra refrigerator or freezer unit).1. Keep Salad Ingredients In Cool StoragePrepping ingredients for an in-home salad bar saves time on meals throughout the week.We should all eat more salads but this is especially important when you need to adjust your diet. The biggest problem with eating salads at home is they take too long to prepare. You have to get the lettuce, cut it up, cut up the other vegetables, mix the dressing etc. This is a task that fits in well with someone who cooks at home every day but most people don’t take the time to make salads for themselves.You can buy premixed salads at the grocery store but you will save money and shopping time if you just buy the raw ingredients in bulk and prepare them separately, storing them in reusable, dishwasher-safe airtight containers. Here are examples of salad ingredients we have stored this way. You may be able to buy some of these ingredients already prepped at a reasonable price, thus saving even more time.AlmondsAsparagusAvocadoBacon bitsBell peppersBlack beansBlack olivesBlack-eyed PeasBlackberriesBlueberriesBroccoliCauliflowerCeleryChicken saladCranberriesCroutonsCucumbersEdamameGrapesHard-boiled eggsLettuceLentilsMango slicesMushroomsOlivesOrange slicesPecansRadishesRaisinsRaspberriesShaved carrotsShredded cheeseStrawberriesSweet onionsTomatoesTuna saladWalnutsSundays are good days on which to prepare the salad ingredients you need for the rest of the week. Choose to 6 to 8 ingredients that you will use and prep them, storing them in airtight containers. You may not make enough to last a week but you can set aside one evening, maybe on Wednesday, to refresh your stock. Throw out ingredients that are at least a week old. Never mix newly prepped food with older food.You can change lettuce styles. The greener your lettuce the better.Advance prepping your salad ingredients makes it much easier for people who are on diets or who need to watch the kinds of foods they eat to find something healthy to munch that doesn’t require much preparation. Simply taking ingredients from 5-7 containers and mixing them in a bowl takes less time than microwaving your dinner.2. Freeze Hamburger Patties for Quick UseHamburger in a freezer bagIf you buy your hamburger meat fresh you can divvy it up into patties and store them in freezer-safe sealable bags. That is for long-term storage lasting up to 4 months (the beef taste declines in quality after 120 days).Always keep 2-4 thawed patties in the meat draw of your refrigerator unless you know you will not be eating them in the next 2-3 days. Using airtight sealed plastic bags (freezer bags) helps the meat last longer but you do need to eat the hamburger soon after you thaw it out.To thaw the meat, take it from the freezer and place it in the meat bin in the refrigerator 8 to 12 hours before you intend to use it.You can really freeze many different kinds of reheatable foods this way, including pastas like spaghetti, but the idea here is that you want to cook a fresh meal without having to prep everything in advance. So freeze your prepped foods, start thawing them the evening before or the morning of the day you want to use them, and save time without sacrificing the quality of your meal experience.Here is another great tip: before you freeze the hamburger mix fresh or minced garlic into it. Garlic not only enhances the flavor of your burgers, it acts as a natural antibiotic. Experiments have shown that garlic impedes the growth of dangerous bacteria like salmonella and e.coli.3. Soften Your Butter in the Microwave OvenHow to soften butter in a microwave oven safelyButter and margarine become very hard when refrigerated and it can be time-consuming and messy when you need to use them. Put as much butter or margarine as you think you will need in a microwave-safe dish and heat it for 15-30 seconds. The smaller the amount of butter you have the less time you need. Do not cover the dish.As you do this over time you’ll get a feel for how long you need to heat your margarine or butter. Do not microwave these products in the containers you buy them in. A microwave-safe bowl or coffee cup will do the trick.You should only soften the butter or margarine as much as is necessary to make it easy to cut. However, for breakfast foods like pancakes or french toast go ahead and reduce the butter or margarine to a liquid to make it easier to spread across your dishes.Never heat more butter or margarine than you intend to use. Do not put the butter or margarine back into the freezer after you have heated it. Reheating oils is not healthy.4. Buy Pre-made Pie FillingEnjoy of slice of huckleberry pie, which you can make quickly when you buy the pie filling.If you enjoy cooking and love to make your own cakes and pies this may not seem like such a great idea. But what if you want to\u00a0make a pie with hard-to-find ingredients? Take huckleberries, for example. These delicious cousins to the popular blueberry are incredibly sweet and nutritious (even more so than blueberries). But unless you live in the northwestern United States you won’t find many sources of wild huckleberries. They cannot yet be cultivated and only grow where the bears can get to them.You can learn more about them at Huckleberry Wild, the Internet’s leading source of information on huckleberries. If you are curious about their flavor, here is a great article that explains why huckleberries taste like.Of course, huckleberries are not the only exotic fruits you can cook with. But acquiring them is next-to-impossible and so you have to make some compromises. Hence, buying huckleberry pie filling makes sense if you want to experiment in the kitchen and don’t have time to go pick the berries and prep them. You could save months and a lot of money just by ordering exotic pie fillings online.5. Use Lavash Bread as a Pizza CrustAn example of commercially made lavash bread.Homemade pizza sounds like a great idea but store-bought pizza crusts are often disappointing. Hence, people either make their own pizza crusts or they improvise.Since we are saving time we don’t want to make pizza crust from scratch. The next best thing is to use a pizza dough substitute. Lavash bread is a surprisingly great thin crust substitute. You can buy Lavash bread at stores like Trader Joe’s, Sprouts, and Whole Foods (to name just a few). Some local bakeries may also sell this Turkish delight.You can eat Lavash bread right out of the package. As an added benefit this is a high protein, high fiber bread that makes a great addition to low-carb diet plans.  Did you like this article?  Please share it with your friends and visitors to your Website.  Tell people about www.TimeManagementPlans.Com.  Thank you."},{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org\/","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"How to Save Time in Preparing Food","item":"https:\/\/www.timemanagementplans.com\/how-to-save-time-in-preparing-food\/#breadcrumbitem"}]}]