How to Make Weeknight Cooking Easier (Without Spending Hours in the Kitchen)

Let’s take a moment to tackle the age-old question of weeknight cooking: how can you make delicious meals for the family without spending forever in the kitchen? Well, with a few clever tricks, you’ll be cutting down on those long cooking hours—and not struggling with a stubborn butternut squash!

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The Magic of Onions

If you’re looking to start the culinary wizardry, don’t go any further than the humble onion. A base for so many wonderful dishes, onions on their own, when peeled, chopped, and sautéed, can be a bit of a hassle and consume precious time on weeknights. But here is where you can outsmart the system—by prepping them ahead of time. Spend a few minutes over the weekend to chop up all those beautiful layers, and store them in an airtight container, ready to sprinkle their complex flavours over your weeknight meals.

I like to use my Ninja food processor to chop onions. It gets the job done faster (so there’s less tears) and also chops the onions so neatly that my kids barely know they are eating veggies in alllll their favourite dishes.

For weeks when you haven’t got time to prep the onions, look for chopped onion products in your grocery store. Without compromising on quality, my favourite Taylor Farms onions not only pack a flavorsome punch but also save me a chopping hassle. Now, doesn’t that sound like a genius plan to make your weeknight cooking much easier?

Maintain a Well-Organized Pantry

Maintaining a well-stocked and organized pantry can be a game-changer. Picture this—you’ve had a long day, the kids are hungry and you’ve little time or energy to prepare dinner. Suddenly, you realize you’ve run out of an essential ingredient. Sound familiar? The key to preventing this weeknight pandemonium is having a well-stocked pantry.

From bountiful beans and grains, assorted pasta, can of tomatoes, to a range of spices, herbs and condiments—a pantry armed with these essentials ensures that you’ve got the basics covered and allows you to create a multitude of flavorful meals. I keep a grocery list stuck to the fridge so that as soon as we’ve run out of something, it goes on the list and gets replaced. This means the kitchen is always well-stocked and I’m not dashing out just to grab a can of tomato paste or a chopped onion for supper.

Embrace the Concept of Cook-Once, Eat-Thrice

The term might sound too good to be true, but it’s your ultimate ticket to weeknight bliss. This essentially means cooking larger portions that can stretch over several meals. I almost always double any recipe that I’m making, as it’s just as easy to make a double batch as a single batch.

For example, cook a big pot of chili or soup, and reap the rewards of not having to worry about meals for a day or two. The beauty of such dishes lies in their flavor, which often improves over time, and sparing you from slaving away in the kitchen for every meal.

Another trick my love and I have started doing is to prep and cook two dishes at once. For example, we recently made a huge pan of beef lasagna and a huge pan of chicken lasagna at the same time. Or we’ll have two pots of soup going on the stove. One of us might chop all the onions for both dishes, or maybe he’s frying beef while I’m shredding carrots.

Meal Planning: Your New Best Friend

Meal planning might sound like the epitome of being organized, but it’s more of a lifesaver during busy weeknights. It’s your roadmap to ensuring that you get to enjoy good meals without spending hours in the kitchen. This involves conducting a brief tour of your pantry, deciding on what you want to eat over the week, and prep as much as you can over the weekend. Plus, it sort of gets the kids excited about what’s cooking over the week.

I’ve tried various methods of meal planning over the years. The key is to finding what works for you, and I’ve found that what works best for me is a very simple system. I have a tear-off notepad on the fridge and every Sunday or Monday night, my love and I brainstorm meals for the week (often asking for input from the kids) and write it on the list. Then we add any necessary ingredients to the grocery list.

Make Freezer Meals Your Ally

Making meals ahead and freezing them is like providing a boon to your future self. It’s such a relief to know that on hectic days, you’ve got a home-cooked meal just a quick defrost and heat up away. So for your next Sunday roast, make a little extra, portion it out and freeze for another night.

With two teenagers in high school, we are constantly throwing meals in the freezer for their lunches. We have a set of 2-cup freezer containers that fit their lunch bags perfectly, so most leftovers end up getting packed in those containers and frozen for the teens to grab in the morning for lunch. When we make two pans of lasagna, one gets frozen for a future family meal and the other gets eaten.

Keep It Simple

Remember, the goal is delicious meals, not complicated cooking adventures – those are best saved for relaxed weekend afternoons. Weeknights should be about nourishing, fuss-free meals that are quick, satisfying and leave ample time for family time.

Conclusively, each of these weeknight cooking strategies isn’t merely about easing the kitchen-time hustle, but more importantly, about creating time for what truly matters—the nourishing conversations, the shared laughs, the utter delight of sharing a good meal with your family. After all, family time is the core ingredient of any meal. Happy cooking!