There are plenty of people who doubt their cooking skills. As a result, they tend to focus on ordering fast food. However, cooking your own food at home is an excellent way to watch your calories, improve your health and save a ton of money. The key is to keep the right ingredients within an arm’s reach. As you use these cooking hacks, you’ll be able to become a whiz in the kitchen as you combine the best nutrients and tons of flavor.
Prepare starches in advance
If you can eliminate certain steps from the process, that always helps. A great example involves starches. Granted, you probably don’t want to prepare a ton of spaghetti only to freeze it. It takes eight minutes to prepare spaghetti. However, starches like brown rice and quinoa can take thirty minutes to prepare.
When you want a quick, nutrient-rich meal, you might want to prepare it in less than thirty minutes. Save some time by making a few cups of rice and quinoa. Place them in freezer-safe containers. When you know you’re going to want some quinoa to go with your chicken, you can pull out a container to defrost. It’ll taste delicious without exerting much effort.
Keep an array of seasonings on hand
Seasonings are essential when you’re looking to create delicious meals. Keep a mix of fresh and dried seasonings, herbs and spice blends in your kitchen. When you visit the grocery store, you can purchase herbs like thyme, rosemary and sage.
When you don’t use all of them in one sitting, you can easily chop the herbs up into really small pieces. Place them inside of an empty ice cube tray. Fill each cube up with extra virgin olive oil. Once they’re frozen and preserved, you can use a cube whenever you’d like the flavor of fresh herbs.
Incorporate easy sauces and spreads
Use spreads as a great way to add flavor to chicken and other meats. You can also use them on vegetables, bread and more. If you purchase canned tomatoes, tomato pesto sauces and basil pesto sauces, you can build on them for amazing meals.
You can also build your own sauces by using canned full-fat coconut milk, canned chickpeas and canned beans. As more people learn about the health benefits of CBD, they’re infusing CBD into their food. You can use CBD in your food by cooking with isolate or crystals. Be mindful of how long they’re simmering in sauces. You don’t want to overcook the nutrients out of the crystals.
If you tend to be intimidated by the kitchen, take it one step at a time. Start with simple recipes like spaghetti, banana bread and chicken caesar salad. Develop your repertoire by following simple recipes. You can opt to try a new recipe each week. As you increase your knowledge base, it’ll be easier to know which flavors work well together. You’ll also know how to prepare a nutritious meal because you’ve developed a strong repertoire.