10 tips on saving time in the kitchen for busy moms!
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As most of us busy moms know, it is almost impossible to survive a school year full of after-school activities and, for some of us, even before-school activities that require constant lunches and snacks. It’s really hard to keep up with everything when you’re always like go, go, go!
For example, my daughter used to start ice skate practice at 6:00 am, go to school, and then skate again after school for a few more hours. What a juggling experience that was! Trying to keep up with my already busy mom schedule, my photography business, her skate practice schedule, and keep everybody fed? Eek!
If this situation sounds familiar, don’t panic. Sit back and take a breath. It’s in those really chaotic times in life that we learn a few tips and tricks to help us maintain some kind of balance. Those simple steps we take to organize the chaos can make all the difference!
To help out my fellow busy moms, I have composed a list of my personal top 10 Busy Mom Tips on Saving Time in the Kitchen! These tips will help you keep your family fed healthy and delicious meals even with the busiest of schedules. No more drive-thrus or processed frozen foods are required!
Tip #1: Prep on the Weekends
The biggest and overall most helpful tip on my list is to do food prep on the weekends. Use this time to get as much food preparation as possible. This goes for breakfasts, lunches, dinners, and even snacks!
Even if you’re dealing with a kid’s sports schedule that involves games/practices on the weekends, this one can still be accomplished. Even if it comes down to staying up late one weekend night to do the food prep, it makes all the difference in the following week, and it is so worth it!
I prep everything from ingredients for recipes to whole meals, and from snacks to desserts. For example, I like pre-cutting large produce, like apples and whole or large carrots, into small slices when it comes to snacking and ingredient prep.
I just pack them in individual ziplock bags and keep them fresh for up to 5 days in the fridge. Then they’re ready to just grab and go, whether it’s for a recipe or a quick snack!
Recipes good for meal prep:
- Empanadas:
- Instant Pot Egg Bites
- Simple Banana Bread or Pumpkin Bread
- Grilled Chicken Breasts or Baked Chicken Breasts (my favorite)
- Cooked chicken can be frozen then defrosted to quickly add to other dishes.
- Soups
- Pancakes
Tip #2: Cook More to Cook Less
What I mean by this is that when you do cook, cook larger amounts than you normally would so you have to cook less often, like batch-cooking. You just properly freeze the leftovers and have them ready to just grab, heat, and eat on a busy day.
When I cook, I cook 3-6 times more than the recipe calls for. Then, I portion the meal into ziplock bags and store them in the freezer for easy meals later on! Frozen food can be stored for up to 3-4 months. So between batch-cooking and weekend food prep, you can save massive amounts of time- both in cooking and figuring out “what’s for dinner”.
This also helps prevent the need for fast food drive-thrus and those quick frozen meals from the store that are filled with preservatives and who knows what else. With batch-cooking and food prep, you can have healthy meals already ready, just waiting to be heated up and enjoyed!
I also do this when I bake cookies! I bake several batches at once, then freeze them. During the school year, I just put frozen cookies into my daughter’s lunch box and by the time lunch comes around they are thawed out and ready to be eaten!
Bulk Prep Recipes:
- Hamburger Helper
- Easy Macaroni and Cheese with Broccoli
- Garlic Shrimp Pasta with Spinach
- Quick Chicken Alfredo
- One-Pot Pasta
- Cookies:
- Easy Instant Pot Shredded Chicken or Instant Pot Chicken Breast
- Banana bread
- Soups
Tip #3: Freeze Flat!
Speaking of freezing food, remember to freeze it flat! When it comes to bulk food prep, storing leftovers, or storing homemade sweets like frostings, use freezer-safe Ziploc bags for storage. Then, if possible, freeze the bagged food completely flat first. When it’s frozen hard, you can store them upright, stacked on top of each other, or however, you want to.
The point here is that the flatter you can store something, the more space you’ll have leftover to work with for other storage. When you prep food and have to store leftovers at the same time, you need all the freezer space you can get!
I can promise this extra step will save you loads of time and aggravation when dealing with your freezer and frozen food. No more freezer avalanches!
Recipes That Can Be Frozen Flat:
- Soups- you can freeze them flat in double ziplock bags
- Creamy Wild Mushroom Soup
- Homemade Tomato Soup
- French Onion Soup
- Chicken Noodle Soup
- Split Pea Soup
- Classic Borscht
- Simple pasta meals-
- Easy Macaroni and Cheese with Broccoli
- Garlic Shrimp Pasta with Spinach
- Quick Chicken Alfredo
- One-Pot Pasta
- Macaroni Salad with Chicken
- Instant Pot Creamy Mashed Potatoes
- Buttercream Frostings-
Tip #4: Buy in Bulk
This tip is pretty straightforward and to the point. Buy food in bulk to save money and trips to the grocery store. If you can cut back from having to go to the grocery store every week or even every few days, this tip will save you a ton of time!
Bulk Storage Containers:
- I like to store my big bulk buys in large 5-gallon food-grade buckets.
- For smaller amounts, I just use Ball jars to seal up my ingredients and keep them fresh.
- I always label the outside using a black sharpie to note the date and what’s inside.
Foods to Buy in Bulk:
- Dry pasta
- Dry rice
- Dry beans
- Flour
- Sugar
- Salt
- Baking soda or baking powder
- Canned foods
- Packaged snacks
- Frozen berries and fruits
- Frozen veggies
- Frozen meats or meals
Tip #5: Skip the Line, Utilize Pick-Up/Delivery Options
Speaking of grocery shopping, let’s talk about not having to do that. Wouldn’t it be great if you didn’t have to be the one to actually do the grocery shopping? You just make a list and pay for the groceries, but someone else does the time-consuming part of hunting everything down in the store for you.
Well, I have some good news for you! Thanks to modern-day ingenuity, you can now do that. Most grocery stores now feature the pick-up or delivery option where you pick and pay for the items, but an employee will do the shopping for you! If you choose the pick-up option, they even bring it out to your car!
You don’t go inside the grocery store at all. You just pull up, let them know you’ve arrived, and in about 3-5 minutes a store employee will bring your groceries to your car. No extra charge, no crowds, and no weird shopping carts!
Another amazing feature about the pick-up option is that you can pick a scheduled time for your grocery pick-up. I usually schedule my pick-ups on the way home from school or activities. This has been a major game changer when it comes to saving some of my time!
Now it’s a little bit different with the delivery options, regardless of whether you order direct delivery from the store or through a delivery app like Instacart. You still pick up your groceries, send in the order, and someone does the shopping for you, but then they will actually deliver it to your house without you ever having to leave!
However, when you choose delivery, there are several fees that come into play. They’ll add an upcharge to the cost of the groceries, charge extra for the delivery, and you’ll probably have to pay an annual store subscription fee. Just something to keep in mind when ordering.
Tip #6: Make Your Grocery List As You Go
Here’s another simple one for you, make your grocery list as you go. Especially if you’re using the pick-up option, I just mentioned. Don’t wait until the last minute to do a 1-hour home inventory before making a grocery trip because you and I both already know that you’ll miss something.
Instead, as soon as you get halfway low on creamer, milk, or whatever, add it to the list right away. Don’t assume you’ll be able to remember everything later. Again, this is especially true if you use the pick-up option for grocery shopping.
What I like to do, and personally recommend, is to create a shopping list by putting groceries in the cart of your grocery store app. Then, when you’re ready for a restock on groceries, you just place the order and go pick it up.
Between making the grocery list as you go and using the pick-up option, you can free up an average of at least 2-3 hours per week. Possibly more if you’re used to juggling grocery shopping with small kids who want to look at and touch everything they see.
On that note, there’s another big plus to this one. This tip eliminates the ability to compulsive shopping! You’re not tempted to pick up any junk food, unnecessary extras, or extra little trinkets for the kids at the store while browsing the aisles. Talk about a real money-saver, cha-ching!
Tip #7: Grow Simple Ingredients
Now, I know what you might be thinking about this tip. “I thought we were talking about time-saving tips here. Not adding things to our list that take up more time!” Hear me out on this one. This tip will actually help you save time and money!
Some simple seasonings and herbs you can grow with minimal care will help you out immensely around the kitchen. Having these fresh ingredients on hand allows you to just pick and use only the amount you need for 1 recipe at a time. This keeps you from having to throw away any ruined leftovers that you couldn’t use up in time due to the grocery store bundles.
Plus it keeps you from having to make a special trip to the grocery store just to get that one fresh herb. How many times have you gone to make a recipe only to find that you don’t have any fresh dill, thyme, or parsley, so you have to run out and get it real quick?
Well, with just a simple start-up you can grow these simple ingredients on your porch, in your window, or sometimes even just on your countertop. One of my favorite examples of this is my simple guide on How to Grow Sprouts in a Jar.
This process takes up very little of my time, and I can’t tell you how many times it’s been a relief to be able to just go grab some fresh sprouts whenever I need them! Plus I actually find it to be a relaxing 5 minute part of the day to take care of them and clear my mind for a bit.
Tip #8: Invest in a Big Freezer!
So I covered utilizing freezer space using the freeze flat method earlier. But I’m still going to recommend that you get a big garage freezer! This gives you plenty of space to prepare a large variety of pre-cooked meals at any time. I can keep enough prepped meals, desserts, and snacks in my big freezer to last for several months!
This is completely possible even if you’re on a really tight budget! You can find a freezer for cheap or even for free on Facebook Marketplace. Many people upgrade their freezers and just want to get the old one out of the way, or simply don’t need them anymore when they move!
Tip #9: Optimize Storage!
In one of my articles, I go over my storage solutions for all of my food photography props, kitchen equipment, and backgrounds. While some of these tips may not apply to your particular kitchen situation, some of them certainly will!
Since my business is centered around making stunning meals and dazzling desserts, I work with a pretty large kitchen inventory. But I do have limited space to work with, so I had to figure out the best way to store and organize everything, so I could easily find it, and so that nothing gets damaged.
For smaller and easier-to-grab storage solutions, I like to use Ball jars to keep everything fresh in my kitchen pantry. I try to keep my storage containers down to 1 or 2 sizes to make them easily stackable and so they don’t take up as much space. I always label them with a black sharpie and store my smaller jars in these IKEA containers in the pantry.
If your kitchen needs an upgrade on the organization, I highly recommend you check out my 5 Ways to Improve Studio Organization to see how I manage to keep everything easily accessible, saving my time, my sanity, and my kitchen equipment.
Tip #10: Take Note of Easy Recipes and Meal Preps!
This one is really easy and probably the most fun! I don’t know about you, but I love exploring new recipes and fun ways to use ingredients I’ve never thought of, so browsing through recipes is a fun thing for me.
I’ve listed several of my time-saving recipes for all kinds of meals and snacks throughout this blog to help you keep up with the daily demands of being a busy mom. But in case you want a full list here they are again, along with a few more delightful prep recipes:
Meal prep:
- Empanadas:
- Turkey Empanadas
- Breakfast Empanadas with Eggs and Sweet Potato
- Easy Empanadas with Blueberries
- Cherry Empanadas
- Instant Pot Egg Bites
- Simple Banana Bread or Pumpkin Bread
- Grilled Chicken Breasts or Baked Chicken Breasts (my favorite)
- Cookies:
- Soups-
Instant pot recipes:
- Instant Pot No-Peel, Hard-Boiled Eggs
- Easy Instant Pot Potatoes
- Instant Pot Creamy Mashed Potatoes
- Easy Instant Pot Shredded Chicken
- Instant Pot Chicken Breast
Quick dinners:
- Easy Classic Borscht
- Classic Meatloaf
- Stuffed Peppers
- Stuffed Chili Peppers
- Classic Borscht
- Hamburger Helper
- Easy Macaroni and Cheese with Broccoli
- Garlic Shrimp Pasta with Spinach
- Quick Chicken Alfredo
- One-Pot Pasta
- Macaroni Salad with Chicken
More Kitchen Tips
If you loved these time-saving kitchen tips for busy moms then you are going to love some of my other simple guides to lend a hand around the kitchen! I’ve got you covered with recipe tricks, tool and utensil tips, storage tips, and cleaning tips!
- How To Use Luster With Chocolate
- When to Use Parchment Paper vs. A Silicone Mat
- Pre-cut vs. Rolled Parchment Paper
- Silicone vs. Metal Baking Pans
- How to Grease A Pan
- How to Test Yeast
- How to Clean Enamel Cast Iron Cookware
- How to Easily Melt Candy Melts
- How to Assemble a Charcuterie Board
- How to Crush Candies
- How to Keep Strawberries Fresh
Kitchen hacks
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