Today’s post is sponsored by the new Windows Phone 7.
It comes as a surprise to many of my friends that I cook as often as I do. Even more than before I had my second baby. Anyone with little folks at home can tell you that you’re not allowed more than about 20 minutes to prepare anything in the kitchen…and that’s with continuous distribution of Cheerios and puffs. Out of necessity, I have learned how to get a lot more done with a lot less time.
In conjunction with the launch of the Windows Phone 7, the folks at Microsoft are coordinating with me and 57 other food and lifestyle bloggers (see the official rules for a list of all the participating bloggers) to give away their new smartphones to our readers and challenged us to write a post on the theme of “doing more with less”. Before I get to how I used this classic Cornbread recipe to “do more with less”, let me give you the details on how to enter the giveaway.
To enter the Windows Phone 7 giveaway:
- Leave a comment on this post, sharing one way you make your life easier in the kitchen (e.g., chopping up vegetables ahead of time, organizing your pantry, enlisting your spouse or kids to help out)
- You can enter once per day until the contest ends on Monday, November 29, 2010. (For even more chances to win, I’m giving away another phone on Panini Happy)
- One entry on this blog will be selected at random to win a brand-new Windows Phone 7. Please note that the phone will ship within 8-10 weeks.
- The official rules can be found here.
* * * * *
Multitasking and synergizing – I don’t even consciously do it anymore, it’s just how I operate. I’ve always been pretty efficient with my time but these days I’ve become a bit of a maximizing machine out of necessity. Sometimes you’ll see this manifest itself on my blogs, when I prepare one recipe here on Cooking On the Side and then parlay the leftovers into a tasty sandwich over on Panini Happy. You may recall these examples:
- Classic Meat Loaf became Meat Loaf Patty Melt Panini
- Braised Short Ribs became Braised Short Rib Panini
- White Whole Wheat Walnut Bread became Brie & Dried Apricot Panini
If you go to Panini Happy today you’ll see how I turned leftovers from cornbread I made for Cooking On the Side into Pulled Pork Cornbread Panini with Caramelized Onions and Pepper Jack.
I actually make cornbread quite often, and I always use the recipe from the back of a box of corn meal (the recipe has been on the box for years). It’s the quickest bread I know how to make, start to finish in under 30 minutes. Plus, I always have all the ingredients on hand. This one is moist and mildly sweet with a crumbly corn texture. I was inspired by a recent post on Healthy Food for Living to try grilling some panini with the leftovers. Read on for the Cornbread recipe for the cornbread and then hop over to Panini Happy for my panini (and a chance to win another Windows Phone 7!).
Corn Bread
From the back of the Albers Yellow Corn Meal package
Makes 12 servings
INGREDIENTS:
1 cup corn meal
1 cup all-purpose flour
1/4 cup granulated sugar
1 tablespoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup milk
1/3 cup vegetable oil
1 large egg, lightly beaten
DIRECTIONS:
Preheat oven to 400°F. Grease 8-inch square baking pan.
Combine corn meal, flour, sugar, baking powder and salt in medium bowl. Combine milk, oil and egg in small bowl; mix well. Add milk mixture to flour mixture; stir just until blended. Pour into prepared pan.
Bake for 20 to 25 minutes or until wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean. Serve warm.
NOTE: Recipe may be doubled. Use greased 13 x 9-inch baking pan; bake as above.
FOR MUFFINS: Spoon batter into 10 to 12 greased or paper-lined muffin cups filling 2/3 full. Bake in preheated 400°F oven for 15 minutes.
This giveaway is brought to you by the new Windows Phone 7. Less tech tired. More tech trendy: Learn about Windows Phone online and see it in person at local T-Mobile stores today.
The best thing I ever did was to actually prepare a weekly menu in advance. No more standing in front of the stove/pantry/fridge..trying to figure it out.
Using my crockpot, for sure. 🙂
Meal planning makes my life in the kitchen so much easier. It helps so much to plan ahead a bit!
I make things easier in the kitchen by letting my husband do most of the cooking. Works for me!
I make big batches of chili and Sunday gravy. I freeze these meals then all I need to do is reheat and make some rice or pasta…dinner is ready! Thanks for the chance!
I try to plan a weekly menu, takes the quess work out of cooking. We also have a “leftover night”, that way we can clean out the fridge once a week.
When buying ground beef in bulk, I will often brown it all up and then freeze it in one or two pound packages. One pound of lean ground beef equals 2 1/2 cups of cooked ground beef. I can quickly put together any meal that calls for ground beef such as sloppy joe, tacos, etc.
I always wash up the dishes as I go along during cooking or baking – that way, you’re not faced with a mountain of dirty dishes after the meal is over!
If I’m preparing from a recipe, I read it a few times before I start cooking and get as much prepped ahead of time as possible. I also only buy a few meals worth of groceries at a time, that way I don’t have to dig around in my fridge or pantry for what I need. I also try to group ingredients together in my house so they’re faster and easier to find.
I automatically wash and package all of my produce when it comes in from the CSA. That saves me so much time. If I’m ambitious, I’ll chop/dice, too!
I freeze things in small amounts so I don’t have to thaw out the whole whatever-it-is, e.g. stock, ginger, ground beef, bacon.
I love making soup and broth from leftovers. I save bones, veggies and meat in the freezer until I get enough for a big batch.
One thing I’ve started doing recently is measuring out my ingredients beforehand, rather than grabbing ingredients as I need them. It’s simple, elementary even, but hey, I’m new to cooking! 😀
It’s all about the mise en place! Having everything prepped before I start cooking makes things go oh so smoothly.
I also create a weekly menu each Saturday. I base it around our what we have going on that week (with a toddler and a teenager at home, schedules fill up quickly). I try to make “nicer” (more work involved) meals on weekends and quick and easy meals during the week.
As the main cook at home, I’ve also instituted the “Every Man For Himself Night” – that means you’re on your own. Whatever you want, you make for yourself. Even I need a night off from cooking…
Freezing left over fruit before it goes bad and using it to make smoothies! The fruit is already frozen so you don’t have to add ice and dilute the smoothie.
I like to enlist the help of my boyfriend!
Now that I think of it I should probably do more, but what I do is set everything out before I start cooking.
I cook for the week on Sunday. My husband is home and can help with the baby. This way during the week all I have to do is heat up food or do something simple like make salad or boil some pasta.
I don’t have any little ones yet but I do get home from work pretty late during the week. In order to make sure I eat something halfway good for me, I cook my dinners for the week on Sunday and freeze them in portions – so easy and such a time saver!
i bake more than i cook so when we moved into our new home i dedicated a double cupbaord with pull-out shelves to my baking supplies. gone are the days of searching through deep, poorly organized cupboards – now everything is right at my fingertips!
Using parchment paper when baking definitely makes my life easier in the kitchen- it means one less thing I have to wash when it’s done!
I like buying the rotisserie chickens, then cutting them up and freezing for future use in soups, tacos, quesadillas, paninis, etc.
The best way for me to move more quickly in the kitchen is to banish the help. I often allow my 3 year old to help and create tasks for her when what I have to do is too dangerous, however those two extra hands often double my cooking time!
I also like to do the dishes while prepping. It saves me time doing dishes after a meal.
Love this…”doing more with less”
I now make meals ahead of time and freeze them so that I can grab and go for dinner. I have children who are busy so all I have to do is grab a frozen pre-made meal and follow the directions and dinner is ready! I love the book Fix Freeze and Feast!
i love to cook for the family when i get home every day, is my way to wind down after work. what do i do to make things easier? four words:
trader
joes
red
wine
great easy side dishes compliments of trader joe, trader giotto and trader jose
and a glass of red wine to sip on while cooking
the ritual of making food is calming and fun.
I’m a big fan of using my George Foreman grill for everything from making toast to quesadillas to panni sandwiches. Love how practical and fast and easy it is to use.
Though in the main I object to processed food, I do use some shortcuts in the kitchen. Boil-in-bag rice always comes out fluffy and delicious. Frozen vegetables are another standby that I use in soups, casseroles, and as individual side dishes. And refrigerated pie crust is better than any I’ve ever made.
I let my crockpot do all the work for me! Get everything ready in the morning, go to work, and then I can come home to a prepared meal.
We like burgers for a quick meal; turkey for me and ground beef for DH. We make patties and freeze them. It makes a really quick meal and we each have what we want.
I often double whatever recipe I am making (especially one that is time-consuming) and freeze half for another day. I use Ziploc freezer bags, label them, and freeze them flat. It’s so nice when I am having a crazy-busy day and I go to my freezer to see what’s for dinner!
One way I make my life easier in the kitchen is washing dishes as I use them. It’s a little less stressful not seeing a stack of dirty dishes after cooking.
When cooking a large meal, try to clean up as you go so there’s less mess at the end.
when mom and i cook together we have it to a science- i take items to her, she chops and sorts for different recipes, then i bring back into kitchen and cook/put in over.
Whoever else is around gets enlisted for dish duty AS we cook.
we’ve found this really works and has cut down our holiday prep time by about HALF!
WOOHOO-and we aren’t tripping all over each other in the small kitchen!
I love individually freezing my leftovers in tupperware especially when I was a college student, I would make large batches of food to avoid cooking as much. By having lots of frozen entrees, I can pick and choose instead of eating spaghetti all week 🙂 And thanks for the heads up for the giveaway!
I do more with less money by cooking straight from the garden…tastes better too.
Multi-task food. Make chicken and then use it all through the week in different recipes 🙂
Make your life easier by prepping everything ahead of time. We are notorious for doing as much as possible for a party 1 or 2 days prior to the event (ie. making cookie dough, whisking up sauces, marinating meats, etc.). You can save so much time and hassle! As for cornbread, can’t wait for Thanksgiving as this will be on the table!
I use the same cornbread recipe, but like white corn meal over the yellow. I am glad you explained that you have two blogs, I thought I was seeing double.
I put all my kids’ cups and plates in a cupboard they can reach, and a toddler-friendly water dispenser on the lowest shelf in my fridge. Now my 3-year-old gets her own drinks, and those for her siblings.
I buy my veggies when they are on sale and then chop them (onions, green peppers, and potatoes, and others) into various sizes/shapes and freeze them for future use.
In the kitchen to make things easier is having my boyfriend cook on certain days and I cook on certain days! It makes things easier since we both get home from work at different times! So this has been the best thing I have done in a while..I love making my life less stressful in any way I can Lol
Things go much smoother in the kitchen if I can get my personal assistants (i.e. dog and cat) to leave, but they have to stand by, just in case a morsel is dropped.
I put the current date on the bottle of spice or herb when I open it – that way a quick glance tells me when it’s time to toss it, rather than guessing.
I make a menu for the week and prepare the grocery list from that menu. I will quite often make double the amount of some meals to freeze for future use.
We keep the counters free of non-kitchen stuff! There are strict rules that no papers, purses, keys, receipts, mail, dog leashes, etc are allowed on the counters before we get started cooking. If they happened to have snuck their way into the kitchen (and it happens to everyone from time to time), the need to be put in their right place before the food comes out. We have a lot more space that way and it really makes a difference keeping the kitchen organized and clean feeling!
Planning meals days in advance and incorporating leftovers into the next day’s meal has made my live so much easier.
I try to double recipes as often as possible so I can stick some in the freezer for another day or make a variation later in the week when I don’t expect to have as much time.