Most Sunday evenings I head off to the kitchen for a two hour cooking marathon. When I was childless this seemed like an annoying amount of work, but now I not-so-secretly enjoy foisting kid duties on the G-man while I get to listen to my podcasts and cook. The other reason (besides the sweet, sweet solitude) that I enjoy this kitchen duty is because I know that my two hours on Sunday save me at least four hours the rest of the week. “But how that can work?” you might ask. Well, the answer is multi-tasking. I can cook several meals at once in this chunk of time, which means fewer dishes and cooking steps later on. Here are some of my favorite ways to multi-task during my weekly meal-prep-marathon:
- Start a soup and/or stew cooking. While it is cooking, chop veggies for other dishes
- Uses the food processor for several things (like pizza dough, followed by chickpea cutlets). I just need to wipe it down with a paper towel between uses, and that way I only have fully clean it once, even though I used it twice.
- Cook dried beans while you are preparing other dishes. This is a great way to eat more cheaply since dried beans are way cheaper than canned ones.
- Bake several things in the oven at once, like baked tofu and bread
The more you plan and prep meals in advanced, the more adept you will become at multi-tasking. And just think of all the time you’ll save when all you need to do for dinner his heat up some soup or throw together a stir fry!
Here are just a few things I get to do during the week because of the time I invest on Sunday:
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