I have to get faster results while cooking in the kitchen . Because most of the times, I have no time ! And rest of the times, I am holding my daughter on one hand :) . So there you go ; if you can visualize what I am talking about . 

I have no choice but to cook just on the weekends. And I dont want to keep cooking the whole weekend. So during last one year I have come up with a few habits of my own which help me cook faster in kitchen. If I miss even one then it really effects my timeline. I know I sound too calculating but I want to go out as well on weekends (for shopping of course) .

So here are a few of my habits which may sound too simple but which honestly help me to cook faster !

Clutter-Free Counter - I think that a clean counter is the basic pre-requisite to do faster kitchen work. Clearing it all together takes a few minutes time every night before sleeping  . That helps me a lot to be very-very fast while doing the morning cooking and meal preparation.

Use Pressure Cooker - Saves a lot of TIME and GAS and NUTRIENTS! Nothing's like them !

Use a Food Processor once a week to cut/shred cooking ingredients such as onions,cabbage,carrots,potatoes etc. and save for cooking later. It saves a lot on the vegetable cutting time to use a processor instead of knives. So cut any and every vegetable / ingredients you can think of using processor. It truely brings down cooking time to half.

Buy in bulk when a produce is on sale and Create your own frozen section :

• Puree tomatoes and Freeze in a ziploc
• Cut/shred herbs and freeze in a ziploc
• Grind Garlic/Ginger/Chillies or all together and freese in ice-cube trays. Later save the cubes in ziplocs.

Transparent easy to reach containers help a lot while we are looking for something. I prefer to keep everything for immideate use in transparant containers and all other stored in large ziplocks stacked and sorted in baskets . It saves a lot of time.

Have immediate ingredients  (oil,salt,pepper) at a hands distance on the gas stove or on the counter attached to it instead of keeping them inside the cupboard.

A spatula holder with cooking spatulas on the counter.

A spatula dish in which u can keep the oily/wet spatula while cooking to prevent the gas oven /counter surface to get stains from oily/wet spatula.

Keep butter outside and not in the refrigerator (except when it is extremely hot weather). It will retain its texture and flavor better and You'll use less of it because it will be softer.

Have a proper collection of kitchen tools (knives , peelers , can opener, cutter, colander etc .) that work for you ! Keep them handy - always at the same location.

While you sauté onions as the first step of any recipe, add a pinch of salt to them . That will make them cook faster with  a better color .

Wear Apron ! Saves a lot of time for me :) I wash my hands several times while cooking and the apron comes in very handy to dry hands off anytime . You may find this tip very funny . But for me it is a great time saver. My kitchen cloth is the favorite toy of my daughter and I almost never find it at its place . So when I am doing my bulk cooking , I put my apron on which first of all gives me a very nice feeling :) and secondly gives me an instant access to a cloth to dry my hands and 2 pockets !!

Enjoy these tips to cook faster ! And please share if you have some of yours. It will make lives easier :))

Photo Credits @nuchylee , @Michelle Meiklejohn

We all love different flavors in our food. Sometimes , adding more fat may seem to add more savoriness in a recipe but believe me , that feeling is not long-lasting . There can be several ways to add more flavor without adding fat ,salt or sugar !

Following are a few ingredients which come in handy and instantly add more flavor to any dish :

Roasted onions : Make your recipe taste like onion fries! Roast onions in bulk and freeze. Then use as and when you want in soups,curries,snacks,sandwiches etc .

Roasted tomatoes : Roast tomatoes and refrigerate or freeze. Add at the end to perk up flavor in soup ,sandwiches , pilafs or main course recipes.

Lemon or Vinegar : Add these for tartness in any food . It is a very fulfilling flavor . Adding lemon to salty as well as sweet recipes gives them a whole new twist !

Garlic: Crush , shred or cut garlic in small pieces and the roast on simmered flame. Roasting brings out true flavors of Garlic. Sprinkle it as per taste in your main course meals.

Ginger : Ginger is a well known staple for Chinese and Indian recipes. It adds a subtle hot flavor to food. Shred or cut into small pieces and boil for a most flavorful addition.

Fresh crushed black pepper or white pepper : Pepper has its own distinct aroma and flavor. It is hot so you may use it as per your tolerance.Fresh crushed pepper is always better in its texture and taste. So if you have a pepper mill then that works great! Otherwise use pre-crushed pepper ! After cooking any soup or grilling veggies, just crush/sprinkle a little pepper over it . And it will have an instantly elevated aroma . 

Frozen fruit:  Add to pancakes , waffles , salads instead of adding sugar or syrup.

Roasted or fresh herbs : Herbs like Coriander , Parsley , Oregano,Thyme,Rosemary and so many others add a beautiful flavor as well as health benefits. For example, coriander aids in digestion and it has fiber and antioxidents in high density. Just chop these herbs and sprinkle over any soup, steamed veggies, or even snacks for a different and spiked up flavor ! 

Powdered dry spices : Spices like powdered Cumin,Bay-leaf,Cloves,Cinnamon etc. are generally very strong flavored. So even a pinch of  powdered spices can add a lot to your recipe. Most of the spices are mentioned in Ayurveda as having medicinal effects on our health. For example cumin, turmeric , cloves have a largely positive effect on the digestion of food they are mixed in. They also help in relieving gas troubles.Powdered spices can be used as per your tolerance just like herbs. Add roasted powdered cumin to plain yogurt and you'll love the taste ! You'll never want to eat sweetened yogurt again !!

Grilled veggies: use grilled zuccini or grilled squash instead of butter on sandwich. They have a creamy and sweet flavor.

Fresh fruit juice  : Add natural sweetness to anything with a little fresh juice from any of your favourite fruit like Apple, Orange , Grapefruit etc. Beside adding a great taste, they will be adding natural sugar and a lot of minerals . I spray apple juice on my pancake for natural sweetness while it is still cooking. Yum !

Chives : Gives a distinct flavor when added to any soup our main course recipe. Great tasting when roasted.

Avocado purée : Replace heavy cream in any recipe with Avocado puree for added flavor and big health benefits of good fats.

The biggest time saver ? Roasted Onions, Roasted Herbs, Roasted Tomatoes , Roasted Garlic, Avocado Puree , Chopped chives,Grilled Veggies and more of whatever you can think of can be frozen in small zip-locks and can be used instantly when needed. If once prepared, will give you immense plesure by adding flavor to your food without adding extra Fat or Sugar or Salt !!! 

What do you add for instant flavor to your recipes  !? 

Image Credits @Paul

Laundry is a necessity . Everyone does it weekly or bi-weekly depending on needs. We need to do it weekly as we have a toddler on the hand ! But taking out time to do laundry with a small child is quite difficult. And we can use every single second we can save ! So we discovered a few ideas over past few years which help us save a lot of time during the whole laundry process. It is without a doubt less overwhelming now.

Here are a few tricks which if habitualized can save a lot of time and pain.

• Have separate bins for separate loads – sort your clothes at the time you throw them in to the laundry bins . So have about 4 bins or even more for the separate loads you’ll be having. Mark them – ‘Whites’, ‘Colors’, ‘Sheets’,’Delicates’ etc. and put the clothes the way you want them washed..This can cut your laundry loading time into half !!

• Socks Socks everywhere ,but can’t find the right pair ?

We keep a box of safety pins near to our dirty socks bin and we pin the pair which we just took off ! At the laundry time , we put all the socks in a mesh bag (a strong net bag which will keep all the socks together) and v`ola ! We need to do zero work after the laundry is done ! The mesh bag gets emptied into the clean socks basket . All we have to do is unpin the pair before we wear them !

• Just don’t buy what you can’t launder in cold-water ! This is such a big helper for busy parents . If there are a few regular clothes which need to be ‘washed separately’ or ‘leach colors’ or ‘hand washed’ then it will take double time to do the laundry. So it is wise to think about it once when you are shopping for clothes!

• Buy Wrinke-Free – A few years back we discovered ‘Wrinkle – free’ shirts for my husband and it was a golden find . We don’t buy any other kind of shirts for him now. We even try to find everthing wrinkle free. It is such a pleasure to use these clothes. Once they come out of the dryer perm press cycle , you don’t need to iron them at all until they are dirty again !

• Use Hangers ! We keep a dozen of hangers near our dryer which come in handy when taking out dress shirts / pants from the dryer. We hang the clothes on hangers as soon as they are out of dryers and then never need to iron them !

Hope you found a new idea here . If you have a great idea for saving laundry time, please share !

Have a Happy and Quick Laundering !!