A Busy Mum’s Guide to Fast and Convenient Cooking - December 2024

A working mother’s job is never done. After a long and stressful day at the office, you go home and another set of chores await you. Between cleaning the house and helping the kids with their homework, there’s another thing on the list that needs your attention. Food. Whether it’s preparing dinner or thinking about what to make for breakfast the next day, not to mention school lunch, time may just be your greatest enemy. Microwavable meals and fast food may be tempting, but your kids simply need those nutritious home-cooked meals. Sometimes you need some life-saving cooking tips that can cut your time in the kitchen by half. At the core of it all is the concept of the ‘meal prep’, which all busy working mums should master as part of their parenting repertoire. Here’s what you need to know. Meal Preps Meal prepping needs no introduction. It’s basically a form of batch cooking. You cook a lot of food in advance and refrigerate it in tupperwares to be reheated at a later time. Usually reserved for the weekends, meal prepping is a surefire way to save time on cooking. Giving you plenty of time to relax throughout the week. Here are some beginner tips on how to start your meal prep journey: Find recipes: Look for appropriate recipes and start your own cookbook. Avoid salads, crispy things like chicken chop. These can quickly turn soggy in the fridge. And be wary of rice, pastas and anything with dairy in it as they can spoil easily. Clear the fridge: You’ll need space to store your meal prep so take out any leftovers and expired food items. We tend to neglect the amount of wasted space in our refrigerators until we actually do a full inventory. Get some containers: You’ll need a lot of containers depending on how many side dishes you’re making. Opt for microwave-safe ones for reheating later to maximise convenience. Start slow: Begin with meal prepping for one week instead of one month. Sometimes food don’t last any longer than that anyway unless frozen, so don't stress yourself out trying to meal prep for an entire month. Diversify: Experiment with different recipes each week to keep things interesting. Embrace Technology Kitchenware these days have become so advanced, such is the gift of the 21st century. Forget cooking pots and steel pans. We have pressure cookers and air-fryers now. And while the kitchen stove will still have its place in the home, when it comes to fast, convenient cooking, modern electronic appliances take the win. Don’t hesitate to invest or splurge in a good multi-purpose tool to help cut your cooking time by half. Those pressure cookers nowadays have various settings: sautee, boil, bake, congee, beef, etc. When looking to buy a cooking appliance, do check the reviews. And don’t be afraid to ask your contacts about which brands are the best in the market. Get Your Kids to Help If your children are old enough to help in the kitchen, get them to join your weekend meal prep sessions. Exposing children to the kitchen early on can set them up for independent cooking skills later in life. Moreover, it’s a great bonding experience as well. To work off the previous point, there are plenty of tools these days to help make kitchen prep work that much safer and easier for kids. There are vegetable choppers and dicers and peelers that ensure their precious fingers get nowhere near a sharp blade. Clean Up After Yourself One of the biggest mistakes of cooking is leaving things in the sink for later. After a long hard day in the kitchen meal prepping 20 meals or more, you simply may not have the patience to clean. And then the next morning comes and you’re stressed out with the absolute mess from the day before. Unless you’re one of the lucky few who have a dishwasher (but even then, those things never do a good job cleaning dishes anyway). That’s why cleaning up as you cook is a time-saver. A good tip to save those precious hands is to get some rubber gloves, so you’re not constantly putting them under soap and water. A scrub brush also works better instead of a sponge. Making Cooking Easy Again When starting on your meal prep journey, you’re bound to hit a few roadblocks. After all, meal prep is not as easy as it looks. Eventually, you’ll learn from these setbacks and perfect your own system for smooth and effortless cooking. You’ll figure out which foods have a longer shelf life, and which ones to avoid. You’ll know which foods are best kept in the freezer and which can be safely refrigerated. Once you master the art of meal prepping, cooking will once again be a breeze, giving you plenty of opportunities to spend quality time with your loved ones. You've got this, mummies! For more insightful stories and parenting advice, stay tuned to Mamahood Singapore!

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