Your Most Efficient Kitchen

This post is sponsored by Blue Apron

Are you one of those people who leaves the kitchen looking like a tornado came through when dinner comes to the table? Or are you a clean-as-you-go type? You can imagine where I’m going with this 🙂 I try to be as efficient and neat in the kitchen as possible (sometimes to a fault!) Since my life is going to change a lot when the baby comes, efficiency will be more important than ever.

Below are some of the strategies that keep my kitchen as efficient as can be.

1 // Let Blue Apron Do Your Planning And Shopping

With Blue Apron, efficiency starts before you even think about your meal plan for the week because their team does your meal planning, grocery shopping and ingredient measuring for you. This is my number one favorite thing about Blue Apron meals weeks! While we do still fit in a grocery store trip in person for staples, this trip in itself is a lot more efficient because we’re only buying the things we need for every week: milk, coffee, fruit, lunch staples, bread. It’s a quick in-and-out trip.

Also, Blue Apron allows you to make really special and delicious dinners without having to set aside hours at night for ingredient prep and cooking. They always source in season, fresh ingredients and put together unique flavor combos in their recipes.

All of their meals can be prepared in 40 minutes and many take as little as 20 minutes total which is lighting fast.  I have been loving that they are including more and more quick recipes, because – at least for the forseeable future – I do not have much free time to spend in the kitchen!

If you want to try Blue Apron, the 50 readers to sign up with from this link will get $50 off their first two weeks of meals!

2 // Batch Your Cooking During the Week

This year I’ve been batching cooking my Blue Apron recipes much like I would do a mini prep day. I will choose a night or day time while Mazen is in school when I know I have more time and cut up all the veggies for the week, prepare any grains that can be pre-cooked, and use my nice All-Clad skillet as many times as I can! While you always want to be mindful of raw meat contamination (and use a separate board or wash thoroughly before and after) there’s nothing wrong with not totally washing a stock pot in-between cooking rice and pasta. The same goes for your garlic press and chef’s knife. If you’re sticking to all produce, use it 100 times before washing it instead of washing it each night. So save yourself the cleaning time by cooking as much as you can on the same day!

3 // Watch Out for Your Spoons! 

Another favorite tip of mine: NEVER rest your spoon on the counter! The worst kind of counters to clean at the end of the day are those covered in multiple gunky spots of dried sauces and oils. Crumbs are not so much of a big deal. I always find something to balance my spoon on, whether that’s a bowl or the pot itself (depending on the heat). Sometimes even resting it over the edge of the sink allows the drips to fall in and keeps the counters clean.

4 // Select Recipes That Will Get Even Better with Time!

I generally make anything in advance that will develop flavor over time to save for the following night and make the fresher meat recipes first. This week I made Seared Chicken in Coconut-Peach Broth with Bok Choy and Jasmine Rice and Cavatelli & Shrimp with Vegetables. The coconut broth was SO good the next day after the flavors had really developed overnight.

We ate the cavatelli fresh that night (plus some leftovers for lunch the next day!) The two dishes had complementary flavors, so I didn’t even bother to wash my pot between recipes.

His, hers, and little’s!

One of my favorite feelings is coming home at night and knowing that you have a made-from-scratch meal ready to heat and eat.

“Thank you, past self!” -Future Self.

Blue Apron has always been great for inspiring home chefs with unique recipes and new ingredients. If making dinner in the past has felt intimidating or too draining for a weeknight , now is the time to try out some of their 20 minutes recipes to simplify your life and make mealtime as convenient as possible! Click through to get $50 off. 

Thanks to Blue Apron for keeping our kitchen as efficient as possible and sponsoring this post!