Secret Kitchen Timesavers

I've started preparing almost all of our foods from scratch in the kitchen because it's healthier and more economical.  However, it can be very time consuming. When I first started (which was recently) I found myself very overwhelmed.  Even a simple meal like burgers and fries becomes time consuming when you have to make your own hamburger patties, bake your own hamburger buns (yes, I do this!) and cut and bake your own fries.  But I've learned a few basic tricks that make things easier.  It may seem like my suggestions are simple, but in truth I've found that it's the small adjustments that make the biggest difference over time. 

Most of it involves trying to always think ahead a few meals.  Chopping onions?  Why not do two or three?  You've already got the cutting board out and can toss the others into freezer bags for use in another meal.  Here's an example of a scratch made meal I did recently that was economical, delicious, and took very little time:

This meal actually started the night before.  I took a bag of Great Northern beans that I'd found on clearance and put them in water overnight.  I grabbed a chopped green pepper from the freezer (it was left from our garden last summer - I chopped them all up into 1 cup servings and froze them), grabbed a tupperware of chopped onion in the fridge that I'd prepped earlier this week, and added 4 1/2 cups water, some chopped turkey bacon, molasses, brown sugar, and garlic.  I placed this is my slow cooker and tucked it in the fridge.  It took about 5 minutes total to prep this recipe.  The next morning all I needed to do was strain the water from the beans, and toss them in the slow cooker for the day.

Later in the afternoon, as the scent of baked beans wafted through the air, I made some cornbread.  Baking will go much faster if you first gather all of the ingredients together.  That way you aren't walking back and forth to the pantry - you have everything at hand.  I like to get creative with my cornbread, so I tossed in some green chilis, some corn, some cheddar cheese and sour cream. 

That evening, I had nothing to do to get ready for dinner - my work was already done, so I was able to spend that time reading books to my boys.  Baked beans can easily be personalized according to individual tastes - add a little sour cream, tabasco or barbecue to appeal to the taste buds.  And do you know what the best part was?  We had enough left over to provide for a second dinner.  I could either freeze it for another time, or we could get creative the next night by mixing it up some - baked beans over baking potatoes or rice.  Now that's time saving!  

Speaking of time saving, Electrolux induction cooktops and ranges combine the power of gas with the easy clean-up of electric, so you can boil water in just 90 seconds!¹ 

Readers, what are your secret kitchen timesavers? 

¹10" induction burner with Power Boost, 6 qt./10" diameter pot, 1 qt. tepid water

I was compensated for this post as a member of Clever Girls Collective. All the opinions expressed here are my own.