An article about how to ease your cooking I’ve wanted to write since day one of this blog, because as the name of my blog suggests, my desire is to help myself first and then others to make cooking a child’s play. We may not quite make it, but the point is that cooking can be an enjoyable activity, it doesn’t have to be a burden or an extremely demanding activity.

Even for those of us who are super passionate about cooking, when you have a job, or are an adult raising a child at home, cooking can become quite a stressful chore. In addition, it is necessary to diversify, to always come up with new ideas regarding the dishes that you will offer to your family.

And an extremely important aspect comes into my mind here, because I think that absolutely anyone would always want to offer their family a meal that is as tasty as possible, but also healthy at the same time. To be able to do all these things and to make cooking an enjoyable activity, maybe even interactive, I created this guide, which at least for me has been working great for about 4 years 😊

So, let’s get started:

Step 1: Plan in advance what you are going to cook

ease your cooking

It is extremely important for me to be well organized when it comes to shopping, cooking and everything that comes with it. Therefore, I got used to plan in advance what I’m going to cook in the coming days. Thus, about 3 days before, I make a list of the dishes that I will cook in the following period and by doing this, I have the necessary time to procure the necessary ingredients.

As you already know, I always choose the healthy, natural option when it comes to the ingredients I will use for cooking. For this reason, most of the time, I choose seasonal ingredients, those that we find in the gardens of local producers or in the markets, when they are fresh. For example, in the spring when green vegetables such as lettuce, spinach, green onions, fresh garlic, parsley, turnips appear, I always choose to prepare dishes based on these ingredients.

In summer, the offer is very diverse. From fruits, which you can find in an extremely varied range, to vegetables, which are also extremely numerous in the warm season, I always choose to cook dishes based on seasonal ingredients.

Fall is also a season full of highly appealing fruits and vegetables such as pumpkin, eggplants, red pepper bells, plums and many others.

Winter is a little more complicated, but for the cold season I always stock up in summer and fall. As I’ve said before, I’ve created a habit in freezing fruits and vegetables to use whenever I need them during the winter. They can be preserved in other ways too, not just frozen, but we will discuss this topic in detail in another article.

So, to make your cooking easier, plan ahead of time what you will cook, so you have time to prepare the necessary ingredients.

Step 2. What do you do if you run out of inspiration?

If you’ve tried to plan in advance what you’re going to cook, but you’ve actually run out of ideas, you feel like you’ve recently cooked everything that crosses your mind, you can search for inspiration 😊

I like to search for inspiration from Facebook groups or various profile websites. When I simply run out of new ideas, I go on Facebook, visit the groups specially created for cooking communities, and I simply look at what others have cooked. Maybe I want to cook that dish in a different way, or a similar one, but I am inspired by the experiences of others. And most of the time, I realize that those dishes are not new to me, I know them, it’s just that my mind didn’t really go in that direction when I was looking for a new meal for lunch or dinner.

For breakfast or desserts, I sometimes turn to my daughter’s imagination. Sofia, to find new ideas 😊 Breakfast or desserts are dishes that are cooked quite often as a team, in our family. Fortunately, Sofia has a wide imagination and if I ask her what she would like to cook for breakfast, or what dessert she would like to prepare together, she always comes up with brilliant ideas 😊

Obviously, sometimes those ideas can’t be put into practice exactly as she wants, because chocolate doesn’t go well with cucumbers or broccoli, but we change the recipes to make them eatable.

So, don’t be afraid to use your children’s imagination when you cannot find new ideas about the dishes you want to cook for your family.

Step 3. Try cooking appliances designed to ease your cooking

Like I say with every recipe I post on the Blog, you don’t need to own any of the cooking appliances you see in my recipes, in order to achieve the same wonderful result.

BUT it is clear that these devices are designed to ease your cooking. Whether they have the ability to continuously stir during the cooking process, so that you don’t have to stick to the pot, or that they give you the opportunity to keep the temperature of the food constant, until the moment of serving, it is obvious that the purpose of these cooking appliances is to make your life easier.

I personally own a Thermomix, a Crockpot Express multicooker, an Air Fryer and other small accessories that are meant to ease your cooking.

So, it is the choice of each of you whether you will consider purchasing such a device. I personally use them a lot and admit that they make my cooking extremely easy. Therefore, I can share with your my experience with these kitchen gadgets, but I will never push you to buy any of them.

Step 4. If possible, prepare the ingredients a few hours before cooking

If you are thinking of preparing a soup, or a main course, which would ideally be served immediately after it is cooked, my recommendation to ease your cooking would be to prepare the necessary ingredients ahead of time. What does this mean? Well, for example, the meat you are going to cook can be cleaned, seasoned and marinated a day before cooking. Thus, you can choose a moment of the day, when you have time, to prepare the meat, then cook it before serving the meal.

The same can be achieved with vegetables. If you want to ease your cooking, they can be cleaned, washed, cut and then stored in a bowl with a lid or vacuum bags, until the time of cooking. I think, as with the meat, this can be done the day before cooking.

We can take this process further and even prepare in vacuum casseroles or vacuum bags the ingredients needed for a complete meal, such as a stew, which is based on both meat and vegetables, and then just cook the contents of the casserole/ bag before eating that dish.

So, all these habits have the main purpose to ease your cooking, to allow us to spend more time with our loved ones and to give us some freedom of movement, even while the food is cooking.

Step 5. Don’t waste food

Although it is the last step mentioned in this guide that I have developed to ease your cooking, I think it is the most important. I can’t bear to throw away food, so I learned over time to cook the necessary amount that is consumed in our family. However, if it happens to have food left in the fridge, unconsumed, I choose to freeze it for another time or I give it to others. Fortunately, we have people around us who appreciate if you give them a portion of cooked food, and if sometimes happens to have food remained in the fridge for several days, we can give it to people who have various animals to feed in their households.

That’s why I highly recommend you to try not to waste food, try to cook as much as you regularly consume, and if it happens to have uneaten food, you can freeze it in vacuum bags to consume it on another occasion, or a you can reuse it in other dishes, but we’ll cover this topic in another future article.

I hope you find this guide useful. I am happy to share my experiences with you. Until the next article, I wish you a wonderful day with your loved ones and I hope you find the necessary inspiration for the next dishes you will cook. Remember, cooking can become easy, it just takes a little organization.

Please let me know what you think, and maybe even come up with new ideas on how we can ease your cooking, using the comment section. Have a nice day everyone.