What's the worst part about cooking?

how to tackle your least favorite part.

I polled my social media this week on what the worst part of cooking. I was kind of surprised at the results:

I personally was going kind of crazy with all the logistics of meal time for our family. I wanted us to eat a nutritious meal together as a family but was just so overwhelmed and worn out with the process on top of being a mom.

Here is a very quick cheat sheet I created to help you figure out where to start:

Planning:

Sitting down to a blank meal planning sheet is HARD. One of the easiest ways to make planning easier is to keep a list of your favorite meals to make. You can even just keep a simple list in the notes section of your phone.

“but how do I start building a list?”

Start with ONE recipe creator. Most recipe creator use the same basic ingredients in their recipes. You’ll have less waste if you stick with one creator. Some of my favorites for gluten free options are Danielle Walker or Alex Snodgrass. Their recipes are nutritious and whole food options.

When I first got married, I pretty much ONLY cooked from Danielle Walker’s Against All Grain cookbook. I did NOT know how to cook and especially gluten free. My husband gracefully suffered through some misses as I learned. So grateful for all her YouTube videos and Facebook videos so I could learn some basic skills!

Time:

If you are short on time during the week, focus on a LITTLE prep. After you make your meal plan for the week (stick with sheet pan, crock pot and InstantPot), write a list of any vegetables that need to be chopped, sauces prepared, or any other component that could be prepped ahead time (i.e. a protein for lunch)

On a day off, set a timer for 30 minutes and see what you can get done from that list. For me that would look like: putting chicken in the Instant Pot for lunch, chopping all produce for the week and putting it in glass containers, and making sauces ready to go. By doing these action steps, your meals will be ready to “dump and go".” Needing to chop vegetables will take a 30 minute meal to 45 minutes. That can be way too long with weeknight emotions high from everyone.

Shopping:

Grocery shopping is such a layup to outsource. Many online retailers have curbside pickup for free. I want you to create an online grocery list so you don’t have to think! You can quickly scan it click “add to cart” for anything you need. You’ll obviously have one-off items for meals you are cooking but the majority of your mental energy in making a list is already done.

Choose a pickup time for when you’re already in the cart like after practice or school drop off or pick up to make it even more efficient.

Another retailer I use is Thrive Market. I put all my pantry staples and kids snacks on autoship for every 4 weeks. I can scan through my list in about 5 minutes and stay on budget. I feel like using Autoship is a game changer because it’s harder to forget items and they often give you an additional discount. You can get 40% off your first order here. You can see a list of my favorite Thrive Market items here.

Dishes:

Doing the dishes is probably my LEAST favorite part of having to cook. Here’s a few ways I reduce the number of dishes to clean:

• I don’t cook every night. We cook dinner MAX three nights a week. I double every single recipe and eat leftovers.

• Bulk prepping. I have several videos on social media about bulk prepping. I will take an hour on a Saturday and make breakfast for 3-4 weeks at a time. My kitchen is only dirty ONE time then and I have more flexibility on when I have to cook again to restock.

• Paper plates. I absolutely loathe paper plates. To me it ruins the vibe of the food, BUT if that saves your sanity, go for it.

I hope you’ll focus on bulk prepping or feeding your freezer in order to reduce dishes. Remember the more you do when your kitchen is already dirty, you’ll reduce the number of times you have to clean it!

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