Cook once a week

Time is of the essence, and nobody knows this better than I. To help everyone make fine food fast, I have put together some cooking tips, tricks and recipes. If you're a man that has no time to even eat, then this article is specially made for you. It might even help out all you other lazy bones out there who are terrified of cooking something fast, easy, healthy, and most of all... tasty.

get ready, set, cook

All of the dishes listed below can either be served or completely prepared and ready to cook in just 20 minutes. There is really no secret to the way I cook. With some commonsense tips that really do work, cooking can be fun, even for men.

Here are some suggestions to help make preparing meals more enjoyable:

Prep all recipe items before cooking. It's easier to do one type of work all in one shot, using the same tools. People aren't splitting their attention by trying to cut a vegetable and watch a skillet at the same time. Arrange the ingredients in the workspace in the order in which they will be used, and cooking will be more controlled.
Make a double batch. Whenever possible, make a double batch of soup. Serve half the night it's prepared, and freeze the other half for an easy, quick meal some other night.
Stock some stock. Keep a few cans of chicken and beef broth handy. Most commercial brands are excellent. When there is extra time, prepare homemade stock.

Use the cleanup of one meal to save time on the next. Whenever there are leftovers, consider how they will be used before storing them in the refrigerator. Pick the chicken or the turkey carcass, tearing the meat into bite-size chunks for soup or a salad the next day. Cut the beef or ham into strips or chunks for tomorrow's stir-fry or stew recipe.
Keep a sharp edge. Keep cutlery as sharp as possible. It makes for faster and safer work.
Plan ahead. Try to choose one evening a week to do "make-ahead" cooking. Make a couple of sauces that can be frozen and then easily thawed for quick use another night. Create two or three pasta dishes, such as lasagna or ravioli, that will freeze well and can be defrosted as they bake in the oven or boil in a pot.

Watch thickness. One way to speed up cooking time is to keep fish fillets no thicker than 1/2 inch and fish steaks no thicker than 3/4 to 1 inch.
Think small. Keep the size of ingredients on the small side. Mince onions, garlic and herbs. Make julienne vegetables longer and thinner. For a "chop," make the pieces about 1/4 inch square. Everything will cook much faster.
Lose the shells. Always remove the shells from shellfish and mollusks when possible, even if it means adapting a recipe calling for shells on. It will shorten cooking time.

Pound them. One of the easiest ways to speed a boneless chicken breast recipe along is to place the meat between two pieces of waxed paper and, using a wooden mallet or large serving spoon, pound the meat to a thickness of less than 1/4 inch.
Make it hot, hot, hot. Make sure a pan is hot before beginning to cook, and cook over high heat, which requires extra attention but greatly speeds things along.


P/S: Most of the time, I'm so busy doing stuff during the weekdays that I tend to become extremely lazy during the weekends. How, might you ask, can I cure this bout of couchitis? Easy, cook something fun, fast and energizing...Yum-Yum-Yum