How long does it take you to make dinner each day

westchestermom

Tue, Nov 19 2019, 7:52 pm

Tonight I made pasta with sausage and spinach. Sausage or any processed meat saves time because its already seasoned. While the water boils I cut up sausage and garlic, let that cook in olive oil. When it's done toss in prewashed baby spinach, drain pasta and add it to the pot. Top with a little more olive oil, salt and pepper. That was less than 20 minutes including boiling time. On a normal day I have 40 minutes between me getting home and the kids, but I'm going to have to nurse the baby first so I'm hoping to use the crock pot more.

ra_mom

Tue, Nov 19 2019, 7:57 pm

amother [ OP ] wrote:

It takes me much longer. No one counted the time it takes for writing down the ingredients and shopping for ingredients. Also the time it took you to put the frozen pre seasoned food in the freezer. It takes me very long. Maybe if you made the same food million times before. What about if you make a new recipe from the cook book.

It takes me 1 hour to prepare my email order for delivery very week.
30 minutes to unpack the order and cut up the boxes.
And another 1 hour to season, prep and freeze proteins (doing that tonight). I will time it for you and report back.
If I'm trying a new recipe for during the week I still have to plan it the week before and prep it so it can fit into my work schedule. If I can't bake it or use the crockpot then I can't make it during the week since it will take longer.
Shabbos doesn't take me 5 minutes. Sunday takes me longer too since I allow myself the luxury of cooking from scratch instead of prepping ahead of time.

tigerwife

Tue, Nov 19 2019, 8:02 pm

It depends. If I make a fresh soup that requires chopping, that adds a good 15 minutes prep plus I need to be around to check how the onions are sautéing. A “cheat soup” would be something like sautéed onions plus a bag of frozen broccoli, or cauliflower/bag of baby carrots. I usually blend my soups so I don’t need to chop perfectly.

Once I have frozen soups in the freezer, prep takes 2-10 minutes depending on what I make. Roasted broccoli or cauliflower takes a minute to toss in the pan with a bit of olive oil and spices. Another 2 minute side- Scrub a sweet potato, slice in half and smear honey and smoked paprika on the cut side. Bake cut side down until soft, around 45 minutes. Rice is another minute side- I always bake my rice, so add 1 cup rice plus 2 cups boiling water to a pan, cover and bake for an hour.

Grilled chicken is an easy main, it takes a minute or two to put together a marinade and then grilling time takes around 5 minutes. Serve over pre checked lettuce and sliced peppers and youbhave a ten minute chicken salad. If you make a dressing, that’s another couple of minutes, but I got open-minded and finally started using store bought dressings as well.

I sometime do buy the breaded chicken cutlets- just spray and bake. When I bread myself, I started doing the flour and egg in a bag, with all the cutlets at once. I do dip each cutlet individually into crumbs as I find the crumbs don’t distribute nicely in a bag. So that would be around ten minutes, plus it’s a bit messy.

This is an easy, fast sesame chicken- cut chicken imo chunks with a chicken scissors, drop in a bag with spiced flour, toss, and spread in a single layer on a pan. Bake covered. While it’s baking, mix equal parts teriyaki, ketchup and water. Pour over the chicken after about 15 minutes baking time and sprinkle sesame seeds as well. Continue to bake uncovered about 10 minutes. Serve with the oven rice and the roasted broccoli. This method can use other sauces as well, like equal parts honey and mustard or sesame oil, soy sauce, brown sugar and frozen garlic.

Ok, I have no idea why I got into a writing tizzy here but I hope someone appreciates it!

honeymoon

Tue, Nov 19 2019, 8:22 pm

Sunday- Shabbos leftovers takes two minutes to stick everything into oven or stove to rewarm.

Monday and Tuesday- I usually cook from scratch. When I take soup from the freezer it takes about 15-20 minutes. When I do make fresh soup, depending on which one I make that week, it can take 1/2 hour to 40 minutes.

Wednesday- I usually do a simple dairy dinner like baked salmon, salad, blended squash/broccoli/ or cauliflower soup etc. I usually start after work at 3:00 and it takes about 20 minutes of prep.

Thursday- I cook half my Shabbos food and serve it for supper. So that would take a bit longer, probably like 45 minutes including peeling and chopping veggies for soup, chicken in a pan in the oven and a veggie side dish.

amother

Lemon

Tue, Nov 19 2019, 8:44 pm

amother [ OP ] wrote:

Do you have a menu a week ahead or more? How do you plan your shopping? How much do you freeze? Idk why it takes me the whole day.

I generally menu plan on Motzei shabbos and go grocery shopping Sunday and then a quick run Thursday on my way home from work.

Basic formula: one night meat /ground beef, one night cutlets, one night chicken quarters, one night shabbos leftovers, thurs night is either eggs or falafel in pita.

I rarely make dinners that involve more than 4 ingredients.

Certain things like meat sauce or soup (both Sunday foods since they take longer to cook and it’s the only day I’m home to put it up) I always double and freeze the extra.
I try to cook 1 thing in bulk and freeze on Sunday (sometimes it’s kugel, sometimes it’s ground beef, sometimes it’s desserts. )

amother

Apricot

Tue, Nov 19 2019, 8:49 pm

I’m with you OP, supper takes me a long time too. I make soup or salad so that already takes a long time to wash and chop up veg. Plus preparing and then frying / cooking etc the mains and cooking additional sides...Only pasta is fast. Rice and quinoa you have to check, potatoes you have to peel and slice.
Definitely helps to plan your menu before you do your weekly grocery shopping so you have everything available when you’re ready to start. And start making large pots of soup so you can freeze half right away.
I also try to bread a whole family pack of chicken cutlets at once so I can flash freeze half.

Hashem_Yaazor

Tue, Nov 19 2019, 10:01 pm

Cooking or prepping? Prepping takes me very little, cooking between 30-45 minutes usually.

Example: today I heated up some oil in a wok while I peeled and sliced 1 sweet potato, threw it in, sliced 1 onion, threw it in, peeled and cut a couple carrots, threw those in, washed some celery and cut it and threw it in. Cut up defrosted chicken breast cutlets and threw the pieces in, added a few cups of water and salt, pepper, garlic, and dill, closed wok and let boil and then simmer.

Put some water and salt in a pot to boil. Left to go do homework with my son. Came back 10 minutes later, threw in some egg noodles into the pot. Went back to living room to read to kids. Came back, turned off noodles. Supper was ready.

amother

Jetblack

Tue, Nov 19 2019, 10:15 pm

Anywhere from five minutes and up. I plan for the week either Motze Shabbos or Sunday. Either I or DH shop Sunday night or I email Sunday night and order arrives Monday morning.

I rarely try new recipes because I don't have the time during the week. I'll do that either for Yom Tov or any other time
Sunday - leftovers
Monday - bread, eggs or soup, salad
Tuesday - ground chicken or cutlets
Wednesday - fish
Thursday - chicken bottoms with rice or quinoa in the oven

ra_mom

Tue, Nov 19 2019, 10:25 pm

I set a stop watch. 1 hour, 7 minutes.
I seasoned, portioned, bagged and froze in a way that's ready to put up:

Club steak
Chicken legs
Baby chicken
Quartered and slit open pita bread
Arayes meat filling
Meatballs
Then I had some extra ground beef so I made 3 burgers which I froze and I'll be able to pull out when I need extras.

ETA: I also wiped down surfaces and washed the minimal dishes I used during prep (I use a disposable pan to mix ground meat in and a plastic plate to cut things up on so it's mostly 2 knives and some measuring instruments)

Last edited by ra_mom on Tue, Nov 19 2019, 10:34 pm; edited 1 time in total

amother

Seafoam

Tue, Nov 19 2019, 10:36 pm

Op, are you new at preparing supper?
I’m the one who said she doesn’t spend much time and always finds a tasty meal to serve...
Let me tell you that the first year I was married, cooking and serving supper was a nightmare for me. I never knew what to prepare, had no idea how to make a menu (my mom used to tell us to heat up fish sticks or open a can of tuna!) so I felt so overwhelmed and had no idea how to deal with suppers.
I remember coming home from work one day and thinking that I wish someone would just knock on my door with a meal I can serve my husband! I used to wish the whole concept of supper time would just... go away.. it was way too overwhelming... I would think of good excuses I could tell my dh that we should go out to eat but that didn’t work out so well because we both got home late and were tired after a long day.
Slowly I figured things out.
One day I was looking in a cookbook and I saw a recipe for grilled chicken breast that only took a few minutes to cook and I thought “I could do that “.
Another time someone brought me delious chicken and I asked her how she made it. It was quite simple and it’s been about 15 years and I make this chicken twice a week.
I used to hate (with a passion) making potato kugel. Really, I didn’t know how.. never had a good recipe and was always messing up.
Once when my kitchen was kashered for pesach, my friend asked me if she could bake a potato kugel using my appliances/ oven. I watched her and learned how simple baking a potato kugel is. Part of my problem was that I wasn’t using a good peeler or knife and the whole thing was so tedious for me. I went out and bought a good peeler, sharp knife and was amazed that with very little effort I could bake a delicious kugel. I’ve been making this now for around 13 years!!
Look for shortcuts that work for you.
You’re not cooking for a simcha. You just want to create tasty homemade meals without getting overwhelmed.
Start slowly and eventually you will have those few easy to prepare foods that you enjoy eating and you will make over and over again.

sirel

Wed, Nov 20 2019, 12:39 am

tigerwife wrote:

It was very helpful for me!
I love hearing people's kitchen routines and shortcuts.

sirel

Wed, Nov 20 2019, 12:41 am

ra_mom wrote:

I love this idea, especially the meatballs.
it's a big job for me because I start by defrosting the ground meat.
But if I make the meatballs as soon as I buy it, then I just have to make the sauce and plop them in. I will definitely be trying this out!