Time-Saving Kitchen Hacks and Smart Shortcuts

This could be another blog about general tips to save time in the kitchen and frankly, the word “hack” in the professional kitchen world is someowhat derogatory as it was what we called others in culinary school when they couldn’t keep up with the pace or burned something. However, we are going to roll with it and we thought it would be valuable to share some of our personal kitchen go to’s aka “kitchen hacks”.

Keep your primary knife SHARP!  We all have our favorite knife–y’know, the go-to one that you use at least 93 percent of the time.  We love this knife sharpener. Think about it, a surgeon isn’t going to perform surgery with a dull scalpel, so why would you do that to your vegetables?  You know that your knife is dull when you go to cut a tomato and your knife can’t get through the skin. You switch to a steak knife and start sawing away. Don’t be that person. 

Cook Once, Eat Twice: When cooking a meal, consider making extra portions to have leftovers for lunch or dinner later in the week. This saves time on meal prep and ensures you have healthy options available when you’re busy.  Heck, I’ve even done this with simple scrambled eggs. 

Make One-Pot Meals your Friend:  We love those “combine it and forget it recipes” made in slow cookers. My go-tos are soups and stews; which typically start by sauteing until soft carrots/onions/celery.  I’ve figured out that a typical recipe calls for ½ onion (about 1.5 cups of finely chopped onion); 1 large carrot (I grate mine) and 2 stalks of celery (finely diced). I will make 4-6 times the amount and freeze most of it portioned for individual recipes. The next time I make a soup or stew, I can skip the saute part and just throw all of the ingredients into a pot and forget about it.

Smart Short Cuts:  Do not make everything from scratch; convenience exists for a reason!!!!  I’d much rather spend my time on the pickleball courts or playing with my dog than spending excessive time in the kitchen. While I LOVE the idea of picking basil out of my garden; shredding Parmesan; roasting pine nuts and mincing garlic for a delicious pesto; I know that 8 times out of 10 I’m not going to do this (for starters, I don’t even HAVE a garden, so there’s that….).  Instead, I will purchase a pesto that I love and take it from there (hello, delicious, 100% plant based quinoa-pesto salad with marinated tomatoes).

We will continue to weave smart short cuts, tips, tricks and kitchen hacks into our recipes and messaging. 

Happy Cooking!

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