Cooking from scratch can be fun (if you've got the time for it and your brain is wired that way). But when you're worn out after a long day and you need to eat five minutes ago, it's just not gonna happen. Recently on Reddit, home cooks shared their best "lazy" cooking tricks for getting food on the table faster and with far less fuss, and I couldn't stop taking notes. Here's what they shared:
1. "If I'm making a grilled cheese, I'll throw it in the microwave for 20-30 seconds before putting it in the pan. Gets the cheese melt started and heats the inside. It lets you just rip the grilled cheese on a reasonably high heat and cook it to melted, gooey perfection in less than two minutes without burning."
2. "Pre-made, store-bought stock. If you have time to boil down bones, good for you. I don't."
"Yep. Better Than Bouillon has been a staple in our kitchen for years. I have made stock from scratch, and the difference wasn’t drastic enough to make it worth the time."
3. "The microwave steams fresh vegetables as good as or better than the stovetop."
4. "Buy a rotisserie chicken! Enough meat for two meals already cooked, and the bones make stock!"
5. "Leftover tomato paste gets frozen and put into a freezer bag, then flattened into a thin sheet before freezing. Then, I just open the bag to break off a piece as needed."
6. "Souper Cubes. They come in a few different sizes. Whenever I cook, I only leave out what I’m going to eat for lunch and then freeze the rest. Once it’s frozen, I move them into freezer bags and label them."
7. "I buy frozen blocks of spinach to add to curries or anything that asks for spinach. Ends up tasting the same with no wastage or washing, chopping, etc."
"Frozen veggies are in my freezer at all times. I still get fresh often, but I ALWAYS want the option to just be lazy and always have veggies as an option for a meal."
8. "When baking, I’m never organized enough to leave butter out of the fridge to get it to room temperature. So I microwave it in short bursts of around 10 seconds until it’s softened. Or I grate the butter. I also soak eggs in lukewarm water for about five minutes to remove the chill."
9. "Rice cooker. I know you can cook rice in a pot. I grew up making rice in a pot. But the rice cooker makes perfectly fluffy rice every time without fail, and I will not part with it."
10. "If I buy a lot of long red chili peppers, I freeze them whole and then cut them into slices with scissors directly into my stir fry or soup."
"I do the same with ginger, grate it into the pan from frozen.
Dill also freezes really well with no hassle. I just snip that onto fish or pasta sauces. It’s way less wasteful, and I can buy whole bunches from the market for less than a few strands from the shop."
11. "I use kitchen scissors to cut green onions when I don't wanna dirty a knife AND a cutting board."
12. "I make Thai and Japanese curries in HUGE batches. All veggies in a couple of sheet pans, whole Costco rotisserie chicken cut up, enough to fill about eight one-quart vacuum seal bags, and I’ll freeze them. I have about five varieties in rotation, and I can just boil the bags when I’m hungry. Still taste good, even the year-old ones I find hidden at the bottom of the freezer. Highly requested by friends when we go on campouts."
13. "Boxed pancake mix. Sure, I could make my own, but I never have milk in the house. Sometimes I don’t have baking powder, and honestly, I’m perfectly happy with the results of a boxed mix. Ditto with Ghirardelli’s boxed brownie mix vs. nearly everyone’s homemade. You can’t make me ashamed of it!"
14. "I keep evaporated milk on hand for when it's the end of the week, and I haven't shopped yet. Tastes fine and has the bonus of being really delicious in baked goods. You can actually toast the evaporated milk, and the milk solids will brown like in browned butter. Adds a little nutty caramel flavor to whatever you add it to. I also use it in Jacques Torres' hot chocolate recipe."
15. "Buying baby carrots instead of buying whole carrots and peeling them."
16. "I will always boil water in my electric kettle and use it for anything on the stove that goes into boiling water: pasta, rice, vegetables, pulses, eggs, etc. I promise you, it always works. There is just no need to stare at cold pans of water for 15 minutes every time. Once you get used to changing your timings a little bit, it’s all upside. Average cooking session? I’m boiling that kettle at least twice. And more often, if I want to quickly rinse or sanitize something (like a chopping board) in my sink. No idea how people get on without kettles."
17. "My wife bought a Slap Chop years ago, and I laughed her out of the kitchen. Then one day, on a whim, I gave it a go for mincing up a whole onion. It now holds a place of honor in my kitchen gadget drawer. For dicing or mincing garlic, onions, and shallots, I'm never going back."
18. "Using Velveeta for mac and cheese instead of a scratch-made cheese sauce."
19. "Pre-cut frozen vegetables. Could I buy and chop my own vegetables? Sure. Is it easier to measure out an appropriately sized portion of pre-mixed frozen peas, sweetcorn, carrots, and green beans from the bag and have a vegetable element to my dinner that means I'll actually eat vegetables even when my chronic pain is playing up? YES."
20. "S&B Golden Curry. It comes in mild, medium hot, hot, and extra hot. My late husband introduced me to it many, many years ago. To him, it was the closest to his (Japanese) mother's recipe. And it's so simple. Follow the directions on the box. I have made curry from scratch, and while it was fantastic, it was SO involved. Now, I cook onions until they're translucent, add garlic, brown the chicken with the onion and garlic, add water (I use stock), add cut-up potatoes and carrots, cook until the carrots are tender, and break up the curry blocks into the mix. I sometimes add a can of coconut milk. Stir and low simmer for the time on the box. Serve over rice or noodles. It freezes beautifully, reheats beautifully, and tastes even better the next day."
21. "My air fryer. It's so much faster to cook meat in it, and it gets cooked perfectly every time. No need to think about it either. I just push one button for the preset and bam."
"I use my air fryer more than my oven!"
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