During the holidays, we spend a lot of time in the kitchen. Special occasions and holiday foods are one of the biggest parts and one of the most time consuming. So today, before life starts getting crazy busy, I thought I’d share with you some ways that I save time in the kitchen before and during this busy holiday season. Once you see how easy this is, you might want to continue with these tips into January.
At the beginning of November, I like to spend a little time just getting the kitchen ready for Thanksgiving, Christmas, and everything in between. Even though it takes a couple hours to get organized, it saves a ton of time later on.
SAVING TIME IN THE KITCHEN
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Start with an organized kitchen.
Spend an hour or two cleaning out your cabinets, pantry, and refrigerator. Toss old expired food and spices and get ready to stock up for all the cooking you’re about to do. Check out this Kitchen Organizing Checklist.
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Plan simple meals.
Now is not the time for trying to be a superchef. Spend a little time now by listing two weeks of your family’s favorite meals that are easy and take less than an hour. Use this list each week to rotate meals without any more thinking about what you’ll have for dinner. This really helps me when I come home from a full day of Christmas shopping and I’m too tired to think.
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Try to find easy 30 minute meals for super busy days.
See one of my previous posts by clicking here for some ideas to get you started.
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Simplify grocery shopping.
Print out my handy grocery list printable here. Use every week before heading out to the store. With everything grouped together, your shopping shouldn’t take as long.
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Prep food ahead of time, whenever possible.
This includes getting meat out to thaw, putting food in a slow cooker in the morning, or just chopping up your veggies ahead of time. In other words, free up extra time for fixing dinner by prepping in the morning.
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Do a quick clean-up each day after dinner.
Get into the habit of a quick 15 minute clean-up routine after dinner. Spend 10 minutes putting away food and loading dishwasher and about five minutes wiping down the counter, taking out the trash, and doing a quick sweep.
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Eat healthy, as much as possible.
This is a tough one for me. I love those desserts and goodies. This year, however, I’m gonna try to eat healthy and save the special treats for Christmas events and family get togethers. That’s my plan, but we’ll see. I really don’t like starting January with a bunch of weight to lose.
With this system, I hope we all can simplify the food part of the holidays and have more time for the fun stuff. Speaking of fun stuff, cleaning is not one of them, so next time, I’ll have some ideas for saving time with our house cleaning.
Till next time, have a wonderful day!