Today I'm continuing a series of posts with various easy kitchen tips that have helped me feed my family healthier meals and save time in the kitchen, because aren't we all somewhat frazzled and short on time? If you have more ideas/tips on making extra meals or freezing food, please comment below!
5 Tips on how to make extra food to save time later:
- I thought everyone already knew this tip until a friend said she hadn't thought of it before, so I'll share just in case: when you're making a meal, make an extra pan or two, and then before baking, freeze it for later. Several of the main dish or meatless recipes from my recipe index can be made ahead. On evenings when we have kid's activities, church meetings, or whatever, it is SUCH a lifesaver to have meals I can just pull out of the freezer and bake. This helps you avoid the temptation to pick up fast food on busy nights, and it's also nice when you have a sick friend or a new mom who would appreciate a meal. Having a couple options in the freezer is always comforting to me, because as all busy moms know, a day can go bad at any moment and getting supper made could quickly become an impossible task. If I didn't have my Convection/Toaster Oven
, getting it thawed and baked in a short time would also be impossible – it is one of my favorite kitchen gadgets! (It has settings for defrost, bake, convection bake, toast & broil.) Otherwise, just be sure to get it out of the freezer the morning that you'll want to have it for dinner. You can do the same thing with breakfast meals: Healthy Breakfast Casserole for a Fast Morning Meal (2 Recipe Options).
, getting it thawed and baked in a short time would also be impossible – it is one of my favorite 
- When cooking ground beef, ground sausage, chicken, etc., make extra to freeze and then it's all ready to toss into a recipe — this saves SO much time! (Read how a pressure cooker makes this extra fast and simple!)
- Another way to make things easier on yourself is to have planned leftovers. If you know your next day will be crazy, have something tonight that can easily be warmed up the next day. For example, on Sundays we'll often roast a whole chicken, and then I'll boil the bones all day for nutritious bone broth, and use the leftover meat along with a few veggies for chicken soup or for chicken tetrazzini. They are both quick easy meals.
- An easy way to freeze muffin dough, and also to save freezer space: when making muffins (like these zucchini banana muffins, white chocolate chip muffins, or these cranberry orange muffins), make an extra batch, fill paper muffin cups (in the muffin pan) with the extra batter. Freeze muffin dough in the pan for 2-3 hours or so, and when frozen, put the muffin cups with frozen dough into a freezer baggie. Now your muffin pan can go back to the cupboard in case you need it. When you have a busy day, or maybe a friend is coming over for coffee, you can pop these back into your muffin pan and bake like normal. (I usually let them set out a little bit first to thaw.) These are much tastier than the ones you bake first and then freeze, because they're warm and fresh from the oven!
- When making cookies, double or triple the recipe (easy to do in the Bosch!), then make balls of dough and set them on a cookie sheet. Freeze for 2-3 hours and once frozen, put them into a freezer baggie (labeled with contents and date) – this way, again, it doesn't take up much freezer space. Now when you need some freshly-baked cookies, just pop them onto a cookie sheet to bake, and you have cookies as easy as the pre-made ones at the store, but without all the preservatives, trans fats and other junk! I also bake a few extra cookies to freeze and keep in a baggie between pieces of waxed paper, for a quick treat now and then. Those are easy for throwing into school lunches at the last-minute.
Do YOU have more tips for how to make extra food to save time?
More ideas:
- From Amy @ BarefootintheGrass.org 10 Tips: How to Feed Your Family a Traditional Diet with Limited Time and Money
- Read more Kitchen Tips
- Support from your spouse in the kitchen
- Feeling irritable? Another reason to take your cod liver oil!
- Have you heard all the benefits of coconut oil? For dieting and much more
Michelle says
When I have fresh peaches, nectarines, strawberries or blueberries and I am going out of town or have more than I can use before they spoil, I freeze them on a cookie sheet and put them in baggies for smoothies or for cobblers. Just make sure they are dry if you wash them first.
KitchenKop says
Love that idea Michelle!
Kelly
appropriateomnivore says
Yes, making extra meat to freeze has been a big help with saving time in my cooking. I couldn’t imagine what it would be like if I’d have to cook these dishes from scratch every time.
Diane says
I cook ahead because I am a lazy cook, but also to save money. If I see mushrooms marked down, I sautee a large pan of them in butter and then freeze small glass jars of them. I like them added to a lot of recipes, or just rewarmed to serve with a steak. They are great sauteed again with a yellow onions. The onions do not taste right if you do them ahead.
I also like to buy pot roast when it is marked down. I brown it and add salt and pepper and maybe homemade broth, and slow-cook it in the oven. Then I let it cool and put two servings in each container and freeze it with any broth. When I want a pot roast meal, I thaw it in the fridge, put leftover mashed potatoes in the Dutch oven, put the meat and juices and sometimes a bit of broth over that, and warm it in a 200F oven. If I have leftover carrots I throw them in. It smells good and makes a great dinner.
I boil a few pounds of potatoes at a time and mash them with milk and butter, then cool and refrigerate. If you cool them for 12 hours it is said to develop resistant starch and lower the glycemic impact by 15%. I was happy to learn this, although I did it for convenience. I eat mashed potatoes heated in the double boiler and eggs nearly every morning. I like my homemade sauerkraut on top of the potatoes better than I like it straight up. I also like to add cider vinegar when I eat potatoes, as suggested in the PhD book.
I cook rice ahead of time too, in a casserole. I often take out half and then lay a thawed fish filet over the top, add butter, and bake it uncovered at 400F. Rice is good heated slowly with chicken or in soup.
I always steam asparagus and put away at least half of it to serve cold with lunch. There are just two of us now and we do not eat a lot of food, so we have leftovers. If you heat them very slowly they do not TASTE leftover.
KitchenKop says
Diane those are all such great tips, thank you!!!
Kelly
alex@amoderatelife says
Hi Kel, I love these tips. I was nosing around and I wanted to share them because they are so wicked awesome! Big hugs and thanks for posting these! They might be oldies, but they are new to me! Who would have thought of making extra cookie dough! Alex
Heidi @ Blue Eyed Blessings says
Thanks for sharing…I’ll be sure to use these!
Kelly says
Glad you guys like the muffin idea! Who doesn’t love warm muffins? Sometimes if I just had them thrown in a baggie, the liners might not look as nice coming out of the oven (wrinkly or whatever), but around here nobody cares!
Runningamuck says
Great reminders, thanks! And I’d never even thought of freezing muffin dough! THAT, my friend, is another fabulous idea that’s new for me. Will have to try it out next time. Thanks!
amy says
Great tips! I’ve never heard of the freezer-muffin tip before but I’m excited to try it out!
Kara says
Great tips, Thanks!
Tonya says
Great tips!! Always love to save time in the kitchen. Glad to learn about freezing the unbaked muffins for later. Will definitely use this. TFS
Susan says
I LOVE your idea to freeze unbaked muffins in the cups! That is GENIUS!
Kelly the Kitchen Kop says
Hi Stephanie, Sherry & Susan,
I love feedback, thanks for the comments!
Kelly
Susan says
Wow what confirmation! I am just now getting into freezing extra meals and I am looking forward to the possibilities. Thank you for this helpful post.
Susan
Sherry says
Great ideas! I do the cookie one myself and used to do the freezing main meals but I haven’t in a while. I’ll have to get back to doing that. 😀
Stephanie @ Keeper of the Home says
I love the tips for freezing the cookie dough pre-shaped and the muffins in their cups. I much prefer baked goods freshly baked, rather than frozen, so that’s a perfect way to do it. Thanks!
Kelly the Kitchen Kop says
Hello Henriette,
You’re welcome! I’m glad you found the post helpful. 🙂 I hope you realize how great a job you’re doing with your busy schedule, though – on busy days you’re mostly eating raw cheese, eggs & veggies? WOW, if everyone did that, think how healthy we’d all be!
Henriette says
Thank you so much – great ideas 😀
I am a busy single mum who works 7 days from 2-9 in the evening and then have a few days off- and I can really use your helpful short cuts since all my daughter and I seem to eat on work days are raw cheese, eggs and veggies.