I like cooking. But I don’t have time to make a gourmet meal every day. And I am cringe at the idea of regularly shelling out twenty dollars for a restaurant meal I can easily make for at least one quarter of the menu price.
This is where lazy cooking comes in. Lazy cooking means you save money by preparing food at home. Lazy cooking means you aren’t spending a ridiculous amount of time preparing and cleaning. And finally, lazy cooking means your meals are slightly more time-intensive than eating out of a box or a T.V. dinner tray, but totally worth the slightly extra effort. Here are eight tips to brush up on your lazy cooking skills so you won’t be spending another dinner eating an overpriced sandwich at a restaurant—or a bowl of Ritz cracker crumbs with a glass of cheap wine at home.
1. Frozen vegetables are your best friend. Frozen vegetables (and fruits, for that matter) have just as much nutrients as their unfrozen counterparts. And you never have to worry about using them all up before they all gets spoiled. Frozen vegetables don’t need to be washed, peeled or cut—and can be quickly thawed and thrown into stir-fry, pasta, curry, noodle, omlette dishes. You can also enjoy them on their own as a seasoned vegetable side dish.
2. It’s okay if you sometimes buy your vegetables pre-cut. Yes, I know that buying pre-cut anything is a money-saving no-no. But if buying them pre-cut is going to encourage you more to prepare something at home than dining out, you’re still saving a heck of a lot more money. So if you buy salad in a bag or pre-chopped broccoli from time to time, it’s totally cool.
3. Vegetable / chicken stock makes everything taste good. Chicken and vegetable stock are great to have in handy. You can use stock to cook rice, sauté vegetables, reheat stir-fries and more to add an extra flavor boost to just about anything. For a quick dinner, just heat up some stock, throw in some cooked pasta and vegetables, and you have an instant pasta-vegetable soup.
4. Make a lot of stuff that can be frozen. Anytime you are making something that is freezer-friendly, make extra so you can store the excess in the freezer to defrost and eat for later. Cooked rice, casseroles, curry sauce, pasta sauce, soup, stew, gravy, and other food can be stored next to your ice cream for your future instant frozen meal.
