Let’s face it. You don’t always have five hours to prepare a gourmet meal. In fact, most of the time it’s hard to even find an hour to throw something together.
Here are some fast, easy tricks, tips and techniques to save you time and energy.
Buy a salad mix: Those pre-made mixtures have come a long way. They’re not just lettuce anymore. Dressing, toppings such as almond slivers and dried cranberries, and more make it look like you really spent some time. Open the bag and you have salad. Prefreeze your Chicken Breasts: It’s always good to have some chicken in the freezer. They’ll thaw in minutes and you’ll have a nice meal ready for the family.
Frozen bread dough: There’s so much assortment these days. From crescent rolls to biscuits to the traditional dinner roll, they’re all available and you’re house will smell delicious while they’re baking. Who has time for yeast anyway?
Frozen fruits: Will save you money and time by allowing you to have strawberries in the middle of winter. Yum.
Shredded cheese: Most recipes call for cheese to be shredded anyway so why not buy it preshredded? Canned stock and broth: Who really has 24-48 hours to make stock from scratch? Not worth it at all. Shelf pasta: It’s a really quick simple meal when you’ve got nothing else to make. Also it lasts forever, so you don’t have to worry about it going bad. Salad dressings: Paul Newman is doing us all a favor by having his face on so many different varieties of salad dressing, plus his version won’t spoil as fast and probably costs less. Artichoke hearts: As much as I love a good fresh artichoke the work you have to do to get that little heart is sometimes not worth it.
Tomatoes: Canned tomatoes are awesome and lots of recipes call for them nowadays instead of the fresh kind. Plus you can buy them in so many sizes and types.
