If You Want to Cook More This Year, Read This
11 Cooking Cheat Codes I Wish I Knew Sooner
So you want to cook more, huh? I too had this ambition at one point in my career. And after years of trial and error, being on the wagon and off it, here’s what I’ve learned the hard way: You don’t have to kill yourself or slave away in the kitchen all day to have a homemade meal that rocks and says “I love you” to the people you’re cooking for.
There are so many cooking cheat codes that can help you get dinner on the table faster and with less stress, without compromising the amount of flavor that goes in or love that pours out when dinner hits the table. Here’s my top cheat codes for busy gals that want to cook more…
Order what you need for tonight’s meal on an grocery delivery or pick up app. I’ve joked many times that a date night at a grocery store is just as good to me as a date night at a Michelin-rated restaurant, so long as I can wander the aisles without agenda or my husband tapping his foot at me impatiently. BUT when I had baby Margaux, grocery shopping with two under two took a toll on me, and I had to forgo this past-time for lack of time, and lack of willingness to deal with the absolute chaos of managing both of my girls in the endless aisles of my fav spots, and that is when I took a page out of my bestie Krystal’s book and started ordering the groceries I needed via Instacart, Uber Eats, or for Click and Collect… While it cost me some of my joy, it bought me hours of my life back, and brought my cortisol down. Don’t feel like going to the store? Don’t. If the single greatest barrier between you and cooking a delicious meal for your peeps is making time to get to the store, don’t do it. Also, don’t force yourself to order for a bunch of recipes all at once. Listen up, buttercup, the reason why you don’t have time to go to the store is because you work your ass off, and as a result are getting paid… So, stop overthinking it, buy your time and sanity back, and just order what you need for tonight’s recipe on the app.
Use the garlic that comes in the jar. If you’ve ever taken a cooking class, everyone is going to tell you “fresh garlic tastes better” and yes, that is true. Duh. But if the greatest obstacle between you and a delicious meal on the table for your family is mincing fresh garlic (a real pain in the ass as far as I am concerned), we’ve got more important things to do with the time it would take to peel, and mince the good stuff. So, keep a jar of garlic in the fridge, and without any guilt whatsoever, whip that bad boy out and use it to your heart’s content.
Pay the (tiny) premium for the pre-chopped onion. This is kind of like the “jar of garlic” advice, but different. It used to kill me to know that I could pay .49 for an onion, or $1.99 for pre-chopped onion. But SO many recipes call for chopped onion… onion that makes you cry when you chop it, stinks up your hands, and practically guarantees you are going to have to wash your cutting board at least once during the prep-stage of dinner-making. If you too hate chopping onions and the accoutrements of annoyance that come with it, do yourself a favor… get the pre-chopped stuff. Yes, you are going to pay a slight premium, but I promise the way it shifts your energy around meal-making is going to pay far bigger dividends.
Build up your baseline of the right tools. Cooking in my kitchen used to be a pain in the butt because I didn’t have what I really needed to cook stuff, so I was grabbing from a hodge podge of tools and always coming up short. As you start cooking, I guarantee you are going to realize you are missing something that would make your life and your cooking 10x easier, faster, and more enjoyable… for example. a garlic press, or a sheet pan that fits all your shit… here’s what you need to do, any time you do a new recipe and as you’re cooking you realize, “this is a pain in the ass, and I bet there is a tool that would make this way easier” go put that tool in your Amazon cart and order it with your next Amazon haul, or if you don’t have the money or don’t care to spend the money on it right now, add it to a wishlist and then when you get to the holiday gifting season, send that wishlist out to friends and family and ask them to gift you things from it. Kitchen gadgets are the gift that keeps on giving! I put together a list of kitchen essentials for you if you need it, start here.
Build up your baseline pantry / spice cabinet stock. I used to hate having to go to the store to get a new spice, oil, or vinegar every time I tried a new recipe, that was until I realized that there are a core set of ‘shit you should have on hand’ and once I had built up that baseline, I felt like a kitchen maven.
Spices — Salt, Black pepper, Cumin, Paprika, Chili powder, Red pepper flakes, Cinnamon, Garlic powder, Turmeric, Ground ginger, Oregano, Dried basil, Coriander, Nutmeg, Cloves, Curry powder, Bay leaves.
Oils — Olive Oil, Avocado Oil, Coconut Oil, Sesame oil
Vinegars — White Wine Vinegar, Red Wine Vinegar, Balsamic Vinegar, Apple Cider Vinegar, Rice Vinegar
Other — Broth, Soy sauce, Flour, Sugar, Honey, Agave Nectar, Brown rice
Fridge — Butter, Eggs, Milk, Greek Yogurt, Dijon mustard, Parmesan Cheese, Sour cream, Mayonnaise, Lemons
Do the dishes tomorrow (or better yet, have someone else do the dishes). I don't know about you, but I'm always more motivated to do the dishes in the morning than I am after a long meal. So this is your permission slip to make the meal, eat the meal, and put the dishes in the sink until tomorrow morning. Period. Better yet, go ahead and have somebody else do the dishes. My parents had a rule in my house growing up — the cook doesn’t do the dishes. My mom was the cook, so my dad did the dishes. I like this rule. Whether its your spouse, your kids, or your roommates, if there’s someone else in the house you’re cooking for, see if you they’d be open to this deal.
Intentionally make leftovers, and set them aside before serving. Listen, if you’re taking the time to put a delicious dinner on the table for everyone, you might as well make some to have for lunch tomorrow too, amirite? What I see most people get wrong is they make and serve everything all at once… then it’s all gone (because again, it’s delicious, and overall, people lack self-control). So here’s what you do instead… Double your batch (or maybe double is too much, but you get the point), and then set aside half in leftover containers for tomorrow (another tip here: use oven-safe, glass containers with lids for your leftovers so you don’t have to transfer to a new dish when you re-heat).
Memorize 1 Great Meal (and then another). There’s nothing better than when you can ‘whip something together from memory’ but it takes time to be able to do that. Try a bunch of recipes. Write down the ones you liked the most. Then rank them by which was the most delicious, easiest to cook, and required the least ingredients. Memorize that one! That can become your “go-to recipe #1”. Over time, you’ll build up your baseline, and confidence in the kitchen, this will ease the burden of all future cooking.
Spend $2.99 for lifetime access and use of the Paprika App. You know how recipe sites online have like a million ads on them, so the page never loads, and when it does if you fat-finger a link, all is lost? Yeah, that sucks. Paprika eliminates that. You pay $2.99 one time in your life, and then forever into the future all you have to do is copy and paste the link to your favorite recipe and Paprika will dump out two text-based lists: ingredients, and instructions. It’s a life-changer.
If you absolutely destroy a recipe, let yourself off the hook entirely and order takeout. I’ve burned the living shit out of many-a-meals in my life. In fact, the first meal I ever made for Ronnie, while I didn’t burn the meal, I did scorch my eyebrows with fire from the grill (a story for over drinks) and he commented on the smell of “burnt hair” when he arrived, so I had to fess up to it. Listen if you’re going to start flirting in the kitchen, you’re going to make mistakes. Sometimes they’ll be minor — like adding a tablespoon of salt instead of a teaspoon of salt (hahaha, I’ve also done this), and other times they’ll be major — I have a vivid memory of my mom dumping a whole rack of ribs that were literally ON FIRE into the pond in my backyard when I was a little kid, honestly made me laugh out loud just thinking about this memory. So here’s what you need to hear: that’s normal, it happens, even to great cooks it happens, so when it does… here’s your backup plan: abandon ship. Give yourself FULL permission to toss the food (I mean if there’s anything to salvage, like, do that too), and order takeout.
Mise en chaos is a strategy too. “Mise en place” is not just for fancy french chefs, I do recommend you try it, especially in the early days of learning to cook, or even learning a new recipe. Mise en place means "everything in its place" and refers to the process of preparing and organizing all your ingredients and tools before cooking. It involves tasks like chopping vegetables, measuring spices, and setting out cookware to ensure a smooth, efficient, and organized cooking process. This includes reading your recipe start to finish a few times too. Listen, I think the word sounds sexy when you say it, but the reality is far from practical for some home chefs that ‘just need to get dinner on the table’ so here’s my spin on mise en place… Mise en place the first time you do a recipe, maybe the second time too, but as you learn your “go-tos” (see #8) you will start to get a feel for what you can “get started” while you are getting other ingredients measured/ready/cooked etc, and then you can go full send mise en chaos! Again, if the greatest barrier between you and getting dinner on the table sounds like something a snooty french chef would say, give yourself permission to just start. Now, this ‘just start’ ethos will probably lead you to more #10s than you want, but sometimes the best way to learn lessons is to literally touch the fire. I should know.
Alright, my loves, that is all the wisdom I have to share. Good luck, good riddance, and bon apetit!
