Apr 19 2009
Power Cooking - Save Time, Money & Energy
Power cooking is a series of techniques that can help you spend less time in the kitchen, eat better, save money and be more energy efficient. Because I have a painful joint condition, standing for great lengths of time is very hard for me. So is repetitive stuff, like chopping and kneading. I’m not about to give up cooking, I love to cook, but I needed to find better and more efficient ways to do it.
Photo by EraPhernaliaVintage via Flickr Creative Commons
Let me share the basic strategies for being a power cook:
- Use coupons, batch buy bargain foods, especially produce in season (freeze it).
- Batch cook and freeze.
- Use time saving appliances such as food processors, blenders, hand blenders, slow cookers, bread machines, convection toaster ovens, microwave ovens, etc.
- Never use your oven to prep just one recipe.
- Find clever ways to use and vary basic recipes.
- Use baking and cooking mixes, preferably ones you make yourself.
- Make your own low sodium, low fat broths - freeze in useable portions.
- Try new ways to cook familiar foods - break out of the mold.
- Spend more of your grocery budget on fresh, healthy, low-fat food choices.
Okay so these are the basic ways I save time, money and energy in the kitchen. It’s all pretty general. Don’t despair, I will be adding specific examples and recipes in the days to come. You will be amazed at how easy these cooking habits are to adopt and how very productive they will make you, with a lot less effort than you might expect. Maybe even some of my recipes will make it into your repertoire.
Keep your eyes open for more in the Power Cooking Series.
