9 time-saving tips to help make cooking at home easier - KSL.com |
- 9 time-saving tips to help make cooking at home easier - KSL.com
- I Loved Cooking — Until I Became A Mom - Delish
- A year of cooking with my mother - Seattle Times
- Laura Prepon Shares Her Love For Cooking In Her New ‘PrepOn Kitchen’ Line At HSN - Forbes
- What to Cook This Weekend - The New York Times
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9 time-saving tips to help make cooking at home easier - KSL.com Posted: 07 May 2021 06:35 PM PDT  SALT LAKE CITY — If you love home-cooked meals but not the time and energy it takes to prepare them, this is for you. From keeping a well-stocked pantry to batch cooking, give any of these nine time-savings tips a try to help make cooking at home a breeze. 1. Plan AheadTaking some time during your week to plan out meals — especially dinners — can make cooking less stressful. No more wondering what you'll be having for dinner at 4:30 p.m. each day. Planning ahead also helps you know what ingredients you'll need beforehand so you won't be frazzled at the last minute, looking for ingredients in your pantry or at the grocery store. To make meal planning a habit, choose the same time each week to sit down and write everything out. You can do the traditional pencil and paper method or you can plan it digitally using notes or an app on your phone or tablet. One way to make meal planning easier is to do themed nights, such as meatless Mondays, Mexican style; Tuesdays, soup; Wednesdays, slow cooker; Thursdays or pizza Fridays. Having a category for each day of the week can help narrow down what you'll be having and help decrease the time it takes to plan your meals. 2. Keep a well-stocked kitchenWhether you didn't have time to go to the grocery store or you need a last minute meal, having a well-stocked kitchen can help ensure you'll have some useful ingredients at home to whip up a meal in a pinch, saving you time and energy. Some basic pantry items include canned items such as broth, coconut milk, beans and tomatoes. Keep your pantry stocked with several herbs and spices, olive or avocado oil, vinegar, honey, nuts or nut butter, brown rice, quinoa and whole wheat pasta. Other good items to have on hand include garlic, onion, lemons, limes, and frozen fruits and vegetables. 3. Read the recipeThis might sound like a no-brainer, but you'd be surprised how many times not reading the full recipe can lead to a panic when you realize you don't have everything you need. Start with the ingredients list and read all the way through the instructions. Sometimes there are extra prep instructions you might not have thought of from just looking at the ingredients, or miss an extra seasoning, garnish, or suggested "serve with" ingredients that were not written in the actual ingredients list. 4. "Mise en place"Mise en place is a French term for "everything in its place." Prepare and organize all of your ingredients, prep tools and cooking utensils before starting the recipe. With mise en place, there's no need to rush to search for and grab the spices (or other ingredients) before the skillet of food burns because you'll already have it on hand. Preparing before cooking will help you to know if you actually have everything you need before starting the recipe. It also increases efficiency and decreases stress during the cooking process. 5. Get creative with ingredientsYou don't always have to follow the recipe exactly as written. There's usually some leeway for ingredient substitutions in many recipes. Oftentimes ingredients in recipes can be substituted with similar items that will still yield a delicious meal. Most fruits, vegetables, grains, beans, dairy products and seasonings can be substituted for similar items. Adjusting the recipe to what you have on hand not only saves money and a trip to the store, but reduces food waste, as well. Sllightly tailoring a recipe to your food tastes and preferences can also open the door to trying new recipes and foods.  6. Use time-saving itemsCooking from scratch is something to be proud of, but don't think you have to disregard time saving tools and ingredients to create a healthy and delicious home-cooked meal. Kitchen tools made to save time chopping or blending include a food processor, immersion blender, microplane zester, mandoline slicer and more. You can also purchase ingredients that have already been pre-chopped, such as butternut squash, onions, bell peppers and lettuce. Pre-sliced raw beef and chicken, or even purchasing a cooked rotisserie chicken can save time in the kitchen, as well. 7. Batch cookPreparing large batches of food at a time can save time and energy later on. Rice, quinoa, beans, sauces, stocks and even chicken can easily be cooked at the beginning of the week and used in recipes throughout the week to make preparing a meal both quick hassle-free. Many batched cooked foods can be either refrigerated or frozen. Be sure to check beforehand the shelf life of the prepared item and if the particular item freezes well or not. You can pre-portion your batched cooked ingredients before storing them, or keep it all together in one big container. Either way, you can easily grab a portion out of the fridge or freezer to use for meal prep any day of the week. 8. Passively cookYou don't need to spend a lot of time in the kitchen in order to create a delicious meal each night. Cooking methods such as pressure cooking, slow cooking and roasting all allow you to do other things while the cooking process goes on. Sheet pan meals are a great example of how roasting can yield a delicious meal while requiring little attention during the cooking process. This honey garlic shrimp and broccoli meal is an easy and flavorful sheet pan dinner. Don't want to heat up the house by turning on the oven? Give this pressure cooker chicken sweet potato curry a try or break out the slow cooker for this chipotle corn chowder. 9. Clean as you goEveryone loves a delicious home-cooked meal, but usually not cleaning up that kitchen after it's all been said and done (and eaten). To keep things manageable, wipe up drips or spills, rinse a dish or clear the counter as you cook. Cleaning as you go helps keep things organized, provides you with more space to work and decreases the amount of mess and dishes to clean up afterwards. That way you can enjoy your meal without having a sink full of dishes waiting for you, too. Editor's Note: Anything in this article is for informational purposes only. The content is not intended, nor should it be interpreted, to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Always seek the advice of your physician or other qualified health provider with any questions you may have regarding a medical condition; Any opinions, statements, services, offers, or other information or content expressed or made available are those of the respective author(s) or distributor(s) and not of KSL. KSL does not endorse nor is it responsible for the accuracy or reliability of any opinion, information, or statement made in this article. KSL expressly disclaims all liability in respect to actions taken or not taken based on the content of this article. ×
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I Loved Cooking — Until I Became A Mom - Delish Posted: 07 May 2021 06:52 AM PDT  Two months before my due date, I wrote a piece called "I Love Cooking For My Husband And It Doesn't Make Me Any Less Of A Feminist" for this website. I meant every word, and at the time, I didn't think my enthusiasm for cooking would ever fade. Sure, I knew that having a kid would change things, but I had ambitions to do it all—work! Cook! Play! Be present! I was excited to introduce a brand new little person to the wondrous world of food and I saw all the new kinds of cooking I'd need to do as a fun challenge. Now? I both resent and miss my former obnoxiously naive self. My daughter Toni was born in October 2019 and we started introducing her to solids about four months later, around the same time that my maternity leave ended and about a month before the world shut down. After countless hours of flipping through baby cookbooks and scrolling through Instagram, I convinced myself that I needed to prepare everything she ate myself and in the beginning, that meant food processing everything. It was too easy to not puree my own peas, I thought! Opting for the store-bought pouch variety would be doing Toni and the environment a disservice, I decided! I've lamented at length to other mothers about the topics of latching, formula, and the wild things that happen to your body after returning home from the hospital (you know, all subjects no one talks to you about before giving birth). But I tend to tiptoe around the subject of my kitchen distress because no one else—including people with far more important jobs, more kids, and even less time—seems to complain. I want to be crystal clear: I don't have any beef with Toni. I think she's the most brilliant person in the world and I would do anything for her. But here's the cold hard truth that I've denied until recently: Cooking used to bring me joy—now that I'm a mom, it mostly makes me miserable. As Toni graduated from food mush and began to depend more and more on the nutrition of real food, the (self-inflicted) pressure and frustration intensified. Our pediatrician encouraged us to feed her what we feed ourselves (sans salt), which meant getting dinner on the table two hours earlier (and blander) than usual. This generally translated to me frantically cooking against the clock in the kitchen while my husband played with T. Each laugh of hers I'd hear from the room next door nearly broke me, and ever so subtly and slowly, my resentment of being the cook in the family—something that used to bring me immense pride—grew and grew. My husband has a million and one things he's great at. He's better than me at changing diapers, folding laundry, and baking oatmeal chocolate chip cookies. But when it comes to cooking, his signature meticulousness means that something like de-stemming and chopping kale can take a full hour. It's faster, easier, and frankly less stressful to do it myself. He understands that this can suck for me. So we try hard to weigh the emotional labor of everything that goes into feeding a family—beyond just the cooking—and he helps with the tasks that make me want to scream most, like plotting out a week's worth of dinners. When Toni was an infant, she ate almost everything we fed her and we thought we had already overcome the whole pickiness thing. You're rolling your eyes, right? I am too. Toni loves chicken nuggets, waffles, pizza, and mac & cheese, and I give her all of these things on more occasions than I'd like to admit. For the most part though, she gets what we get, and when she likes something that isn't breaded or loaded with cheese, I want to cry from overwhelming happiness. As difficult as the prep work can be, dinnertime with Toni is the most fun (even if it only lasts five minutes before she throws her hands up in the air and yells "all done!" 100 times). She loves toasting with her sippy cup, dancing in her high chair, and eating with us. During the week, it's the one time of day when all three of us are together and fully present. Don't get me wrong, it's not without its challenges. Sometimes, she likes to look me in the eye before chucking her food to the floor. I often feel very confident she's going to love something...and then she completely ignores it. It can be frustrating, hilarious, and adorable all at once. I never thought I'd be the type of person buying fish sticks (I wanted to be the mom who made them herself!), but now, seeing a box of them in the freezer brings me a great sense of relief. Motherhood is messy, trying, beautiful, joyous, and nothing like I thought it'd be. And my experience is unique to me. (Maybe you discovered your love of cooking after feeding your child! That's great!). But the reality is, now that I have a child, I dislike cooking on most days, and admitting that to myself—and saying it out loud when I've not heard anyone else say the same—has been truly cathartic. And it'll make tomorrow night's pizza delivery all the more glorious. This content is created and maintained by a third party, and imported onto this page to help users provide their email addresses. You may be able to find more information about this and similar content at piano.io  |
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A year of cooking with my mother - Seattle Times Posted: 07 May 2021 06:16 AM PDT [unable to retrieve full-text content]A year of cooking with my mother Seattle Times
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Laura Prepon Shares Her Love For Cooking In Her New ‘PrepOn Kitchen’ Line At HSN - Forbes Posted: 07 May 2021 06:27 AM PDT  Laura Prepon Todd HuffmanShe sure has whipped up quite the life for herself since her That '70s Show years. Today, Laura Prepon is a dedicated businesswoman, wife and mother. The 41-year-old bestselling author, director and actress has built a loyal fan following on her YouTube channel, where she shares food tips and tutorials in her genuinely upbeat manner. Now, Laura's passion for cooking has evolved into a new line of helpful cookware products with PrepOn Kitchen, sold exclusively by HSN. "I grew up in the kitchen. I've loved cooking since I was a child," Laura shares with me at Forbes. "For me, the kitchen is the heartbeat of the home. I love cooking for my family and friends and over the years, I've run into problems in the kitchen that I needed solutions for and I would think to myself that there's got to be a better way to do this. I couldn't find a product out there that I wanted that was in my head, so I just decided I'm going to make them (laughs). Now they're here and I'm so excited! The response so far, people getting early samples, it has been incredible."  Laura Prepon with her PrepOn Kitchen cookware line Todd HuffmanLaura says that her new PrepOn Kitchen line is meant to make cooking easy, attainable and fun for people. She goes on to say that she wants to break the stigma that cooking is hard, if only you have the proper tools to simplify any struggles in the kitchen. So why did Laura choose the HSN television network to be the home of her latest business creation? "Well for me, HSN is the gold standard for direct consumer," Laura continues. "Especially this year, people were not going to brick and mortars. When people needed stuff, the direct-to-consumer is the way people have always shopped but especially now with more people cooking than ever. Direct-to-consumer was a really great solution for them. We all had to do that. HSN is an amazing place to be because I am very engaged with my social media community and I love being able to utilize that platform. I feel like HSN is really great because when I am on HSN, I can explain the story behind my brand and have a closer connection with my consumer or customer. I can have a more direct connection with them, which is important to me."  Laura Prepon cooking with her daugther @laurapreponMORE FOR YOU When it comes to cooking at home, Laura enjoys making the process a family affair, something she learned from her own childhood. "My daughter has been amazing to do things with me. It's one of her favorite things, to cook in the kitchen. I will give her projects she can do when we're making blueberry walnut pancakes. I'll give her walnuts in a little baggy that she can break up. When I was growing up, I always saw my mother in the kitchen cooking and it was really inspiring because I know she loved making homemade meals for her family. That's how she showed her love. That's just a big part of who I am, so when my children see me in the kitchen and being able to nourish them and show my love, not just by being with them and being their mother but also through food, that's major in my house. We love that." If you are curious of what Laura is bringing to her kitchen for these spring and summer months, she is big on supporting local businesses whenever she can and thinks healthy when it comes to feeding her family. "I love the warmer months because the farmers' markets are bursting with incredible vegetables. So, if you're able to go to a local farmers' market around you, that a lot of times helps me inspire things to cook. Right now, I'm cooking with a lot of zucchinis and lettuces and making a lot of salads. I love Mediterranean flavors, so I'm really into lemon garlic chicken and cucumbers and feta cheese and tomatoes."  Laura Prepon with her PrepOn Kitchen cookware line Todd HuffmanIn order to make time for everything in her busy life today, Laura has learned to depend on one productive habit. "Preparation, it all boils down to preparation for me. That is my kind of way of life, trying to make sure I have enough time for my family and preparing my schedule. I use preparation so I can make my day across the board. In the kitchen, with my work, with trying to squeeze in workouts here and there. Little things. If I prepare in a way the night before, I can just wake up, my workout clothes are right there, I throw them on and I workout before my kids wake up. If I want healthy home-cooked meals, I have food prepared in the fridge that I can easily utilize to put dinner on the table quickly. Preparation for me is a massive, massive key." This past year of the pandemic has been far from lost on Laura, as she continues to strive to be kinder to herself while balancing her business pursuits and her priorities at home. "Every year, I learn something new every day, so every year I do these projects, the growth is amazing. Especially this year with the pandemic and working from home and having two young children under the age four. My husband and I both working full-time and juggling everything, like we've all done. It has been a really vulnerable year for all of us, but one thing that through all the things I'm a part of and trying to get going and with the launch of this line while I'm also juggling other aspects of my career, I'm really trying to not be so hard on myself. I have very, very high standards for myself and goals and I tend to be pretty hard on myself, but I'm really trying not to be this year while still getting everything done that I need to get done. I am also trying to be okay if it's not exactly how I wanted it. The thing is these [PrepOn Kitchen] products are better than what I envisioned in my head when I came up with this line. Things like that are so wonderful and I'm just trying not to be so hard on myself because where it counts, it's there."  |
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What to Cook This Weekend - The New York Times Posted: 07 May 2021 07:30 AM PDT  Good morning. It's Mother's Day weekend, and, if you're not quite ready yet to take up a big table in the back of the Cheesecake Factory for cinnamon-swirl pancakes and a glass of Champagne, you might consider hooking up the maternal figure in your life with something special and homemade this year, her second Mother's Day spent under pandemic rules. Maybe blueberry muffins for a breakfast in bed? Eggs Benedict (above)? This delightful, buttery cinnamon toast? A festive lunch of fettuccine with asparagus? I know a few moms who'd be pleased with a Negroni and a very long bath. Make that happen on Sunday for someone, even if the person you're making it happen for is yourself. It takes real courage, to raise children. Celebrate mothers! And cook a lot, too. I'm looking forward to putting this Mexican carne adobada on the grill on Sunday, after marinating it overnight. (You could if you like use the marinade on pork instead, and serve the cooked meat with pineapple salsa.) Though I could be persuaded to bail on that plan and make Taiwanese popcorn chicken with fried basil or baked cod with crunchy miso-butter bread crumbs instead. In the oven for after: a one-bowl carrot cake with a tangy cream-cheese topping, slightly toasted like a Basque cheesecake. (Or perhaps this carrot loaf cake with lemon glaze?) Morning glory muffins for breakfast? If I can find some rhubarb, I'd like to bake Edna Lewis's rhubarb pie for whenever I want to eat it, which is right now. Go take a look at New York Times Cooking and see what else you may get up to in the kitchen this weekend. It does require a subscription, yes, but we think a subscription is of value for tens of thousands of recipes, along with many tools and features that'll help you use them, and a passionate and growing community of subscribers with whom you can share notes and ingredient substitutions and recipe hacks. Subscriptions support our work and allow it to continue. Please, if you haven't already, subscribe today. We are as always standing by to help, should something go wrong with your cooking or our technology. Just write cookingcare@nytimes.com. Someone will get back to you, I promise. (You can bring ire or gratitude to me directly: foodeditor@nytimes.com. I read every letter sent.) Now, it's a long ferry ride from edible nasturtiums and this excellent coffee cake, but along with Billie Eilish's new song, I think you should check out "Vincenzo" on Netflix, about a Korean-born Italian lawyer and mafia consigliere. Here's Adam Leith Gollner in The New Yorker, on the concept of "minerality" in wine, and how it took off. "Language is a tool that allows us to interrogate wines," one plant biologist and wine writer told him. "The journey from the perception to the word is fraught, but I like the word 'minerality,' because I know what it is when I taste it." The invaluable Longreads turned me onto this piece of true crime by Tobias Buck in New Zealand's "North & South." Finally, here's a poem from Louise Glück: "Second Wind," in The Threepenny Review. Enjoy that and I'll see you on Sunday.  |
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