Food is a daily necessity one mustn’t miss out on. Ideally, a person should be able to consume three full meals a day to recharge and energize their body in preparation for all their activities ahead. However, for an individual with a busy schedule, squeezing in some time to cook meals might be challenging.
It’s said that many are forced to purchase their meals at fast-food restaurants and other establishments. While it may help conquer their hunger, frequent takeout meals aren’t healthy for the body.
Even with your busy schedule, it’d be beneficial if you could find some time to cook and prepare meals. In this way, you can refill your energy without compromising your health to keep yourself in good condition.
Listed below are some of the tips that can make cooking easier for busy people:
1. Prepare Meals You Can Consume For A Week
With your busy schedule, you probably have little time to prepare your meals. You may only have a short time heating food after coming home late from work. While it may sound like lazy work, it’s recommended that you prepare the meals you can have for a week, so you wouldn’t have to bump too many hours in your schedule to cook.
One of the meals you can do is pizza recipes like Roberta’s pizza dough and others. You can prepare them during the weekend and refrigerate them for a few days. In this way, you can just add any toppings of your choice, put them in the oven, and have an excellent pizza to serve for the entire family and other members of the household.
Apart from making pizza dough, you should also consider making meals that can last in your fridge for as long as possible. You can create various chicken, fish, pork, or beef recipes and place them in a good food container to prevent them from spoiling. However, you may need to do preparations during the weekend as you cook delicious meals for the entire week.
2. Stock Up On Frozen Food Items
You can’t expect every recipe to last a week, especially if you use food items that easily get spoiled. With that, you may only be able to prepare your meals to last until mid-week. After that, you might not have enough time to prepare meals for the succeeding days. In that scenario, frozen foods will come in handy.
Before leaving your home, you should move your frozen foods to the thawing section of your fridge, so you don’t have to wait for hours for them to thaw. Alternatively, if you’re living with someone in your household who arrives earlier than you in your home, you should ask them to do the thawing themselves, so they can be prepared for quick cooking as you go home.
3. Research Easy-To-Cook Meals
You’d be surprised to know that there are plenty of easy-to-cook meals you can make at home nowadays. Apart from using your canned goods, you can cook an authentic dish without the added preservatives, allowing for healthier meals.
While cooking pasta recipes might sound like a handful, they’re actually a more accessible and convenient alternative as you only need to wait eight to ten minutes for them to cook. Moreover, most pasta sauces can also be prepared quickly at about five minutes. Combining the two will result in a delicious meal which shows that one doesn’t need to spend hours in the kitchen to enjoy a hearty dish.
Apart from cooking pasta, you can also cook stew, salad, soup, casserole, and stir-fried meals. Most of these are relatively easy to put together. In addition, you can easily play along with the sauces and ingredients you have, allowing yourself to craft a brand-new and out-of-the-box meal.
4. Make Extra Portions
If you plan to cook every day as you’re not comfortable stocking cooked meals, you should consider making extra portions that are enough for another whole day of use. In this way, your meals would only need to stay on your fridge for no longer than 24 hours as they retain their freshness before you reheat them in a microwave.
Conclusion
Cooking and having a busy schedule might not seem to work hand in hand. However, with the right preparation and easy-to-cook meal plans, you’d be able to get through your day without having to purchase everything from a fast-food restaurant. While it may need to take a few minutes, it’d ensure healthier meals that allow your body to be better and stronger.
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