Time-saving techniques for cooking, housework and beauty rituals?

TempestTcup · 2014-03-24T20:51:42+00:00

Holy cow, food can be really good out of one pan with five ingredients, and frankly it would probably be a lot better for you. A crockpot will cook a ton of different meals while you are at work, too. Broth doesn't need to be watched when in a crockpot either.

Pick up a rotisserie chicken if you need to save time; sure, it probably isn't free range and there may be spices on it, but it is much better for you than Chinese takeout.

sugarcrush · 2014-03-24T23:49:55+00:00

Why are you always making intricate meals? Elaborate meals are nice and all that but for every day... Ain't nobody got time for that. Or at least we don't in our household. Since it's getting warmer, I'll go with a grilling example. Grilled chicken, a grilled veggie (asparagus is great) and a salad is gluten free and a perfectly delicious, healthy dinner that takes like 20 minutes. If you want to add carbs, fajitas in corn tortillas are quick, gluten free, and tasty. For stuff like broth and sauces you don't need to stand over it watching, just let it simmer on the stove while you do other things like...

Cleaning! Try to do one thorough deep cleaning and get rid of all your unnecessary things. Keep things picked up during the week and then you can do the dusting, vacuuming, and wiping down easily. Cleaning up after cooking is a pain but try to do as much as possible as you go. While something is in the oven, wash any bowls/cutting boards/tools you used. Wipe up any splatters and spills right away so they don't get cooked on and gross. Hopefully after dinner all you have left to clean is your dishes and serving platters. Also, not eating to the point you are in a food coma would help with laziness and the bloating thing.

Getting ready... Well first off, I'm a minimalist and a quality over quantity type, so if it takes you forever to pick out an outfit my advice is to throw it all out and only keep a select few that are the best or that you always look good in. Hair and makeup should be something you learn to do quickly if you do it with any regularity. And honestly you know you waste time on reddit so just put it away and finish. It is very annoying to everyone else when they are waiting while you mess around on the phone, try on your 17th outfit of the night and still need to fix your eyeliner. Anyone want to guess why I never went out very often...?

buttholette · 2014-03-25T06:30:34+00:00

I hope this response isn't too wordy. It seems appropriate to be somewhat wordy since the topic asked for techniques.

~ Cooking: I think it's fantastic that you cook nice meals. I don't know what you cook specifically, but my opinion is, don't lose that skill. Your family will always appreciate it, and you will get faster at it with time. In the meantime, do you have a big freezer? Many of your made-from-scratch sauces (and other meal ingredients) could possibly be frozen so you can just make a huge batch all at once, about once a month or so. I like to do this with homemade chicken or turkey stock.

~ In regards to the post-dinner cleaning:
If you are struggling to 'let' him do the cleaning after dinner because 'it always makes you feel like you're not doing your job right,' perhaps you're making it too much about you instead of him. You're letting your emotions get in the way of a potentially awesome husband-wife interaction. Allowing him to show his love and appreciation for you in his own way, assuming you don't do any accidental guilt-tripping toward him, is a fine thing to do. Just an observation. Heaven knows I struggle with this concept regularly.

~ Hair: A silly thing I do, that really is helpful, is to plan further in advance for hassle-free hair.
Example: It's Friday night, I want wavy hair on Saturday night. I wash my hair Friday night, put it up in a coil on top of my head (with a side part at the front, to dry the front of the hair flat with minimal flyaways), and leave it to dry for the entirety of Saturday. I might let it down then put it back up once or twice on Saturday to keep the "clip" dents to a minimum. Then, when it's time to get ready on Saturday night, I might only need to bobby pin the hair off my face and it looks natural and feminine. Or, just touch it up with a curling iron and perhaps a little anti-frizz cream at the front/sides. (Takes about 5 minutes.)
If there is hair to be done "last minute", I adjust the hairstyle to the time available to me. Example: Let's say I have 30 minutes to get ready to go out, and my hair is presently awful... I know I can get it semi-polished (not perfect, but still looking pretty) with my big straightener in about 10 minutes, therefore I will pick that hairdo instead of something more time-consuming. This all would depend on your hair type, style preferences of your husband, and where you live (humidity level). My husband likes my hair/makeup to look appropriate for the occasion and to be low-ish maintenance. Your husband may be different, but I bet he's not a lot different!!

~ Makeup: It sounds like you don't need much time, since you said you don't wear much makeup. I am kind of similar. Simple cheap eyeliner, mascara, and maybe some nice eye shadow in moderation. Only enough foundation on my face to cover red spots from any of the latest acne. What works for me is to set a strict time limit for myself on makeup when getting ready. Example: If all I need to do is put on an outfit and do makeup, I can reasonably get all of that done in 15 minutes (5-10 minutes for clothes, 5-10 minutes for makeup). Then there's always the old put-makeup-on-in-the-car trick while hubby drives... I use that frequently.

~ Clothes: I like to choose an outfit out in my head while I'm doing something else, such as getting one or more of the children ready to go. Maybe even further ahead, like that morning when leaving for work. That way, when I DO get to my closet, I am ready to put it on and go. (Assuming the pieces of clothing I wanted are not missing... ;) I make a commitment NOT to deviate from the planned outfit, barring planning deficiencies like not having the correct color of tights for the skirt I picked. This saves me huge amounts of time getting dressed to go.

~ Wasting time on the Internet: Don't touch the Internet (computer or phone) when you're supposed to be getting ready to go somewhere. Make that your rule! You are only allowed to touch the Internet once you and your kids (if you have any) are all the way ready to go and if there is extra time. I can't think of any other way to advise you on that.

~ Summary: I learned to be a faster get-ready-er because of my husband. He was already much better at it than I was and over the years I have discovered that I care more about being a responsible, helpful wife than getting distracted by things that make me inefficient. (But let's be clear: I'm far from perfect at any of this!)

TL/DR: Think about your husband more often than yourself. It helps you operate more on his timetable and show him you care about his desires, and will help you teach yourself to be more efficient.

Pink_acetaminophen · 2014-03-24T20:47:08+00:00

I just wash the dishes or tools i use cooking while cooking. I saw a post on makeupaddiction about emphasizing your best features or minimizing your makeup routine to save time like if you want to focus on your lips, or eyebrows or skin for which part of the routine will have the best effect. There's a lot of recipes you can use to cook a large amount of food to freeze in portions which will also save a lot of time.

spongegloss00 · 2014-03-24T23:24:52+00:00

Start a recipe binder with quick yummy healthy meals that your whole family loves, save the intricate stuff for special occasions. We personally eat a lot of stir fries, there's a lot of room for variety (different sauces, proteins, vegetables) and they're healthy, cheap, gluten free and awesome tasting. Don't eat so much that you feel sick/lazy, or suck it up and clean anyway.

For makeup practice your routine and get a few looks down so you can get it done quickly, same with hair. Have a few outfits planned and organized ahead of time so you can just grab it quickly. I don't see why you can't drink lemon water while you do other things so that shouldn't matter much, maybe try to stay less bloated all the time or drink lemon water all the time so it's not a process to get ready?

Are you actually gluten free? I've never seen a chinese place that uses tamari instead of soy sauce.

Bakerofpie · 2014-03-25T02:17:45+00:00

Plan ahead! I like to work backwards, for example if I know we have to leave at 8, it'll take me two hours to shower and get dressed and ready, so I would have to start that by 6. Figure out how long it takes to do your "debloat" routine and work back from there. There are many gluten free, healthful meals you can make that aren't gourmet and take forever. Give yourself a break from preparing something intricate at least a couple of nights a week.

And if you both work full time, let your SO do the dishes sometimes if he's offering. I wouldn't pull the "I made dinner, so you need to clean" routine, but if he's offering his help don't turn him down. I was making sure my husband didn't have to lift a finger to clean around the house when I was working part time, but now that we are both full time I just can't get as much done as I used to and he has stepped in to help out around the house a little more. We want to run an efficient household, and efficiency would be greatly diminished if I were the only one doing any cleaning now that I work 40+ hours a week.

ceoil · 2014-03-25T09:16:38+00:00

Where in the world are you, I live gluten free, but, I have gluten free bread pasta etc... one of my fav meals is a salad and sandwich! Also why not try going to a make up artist about the make up and learn how to do it fast and learn tuts on youtube... hair is a bitch but, you have to figure out a low maintenance way to make it look good. What kind of hair do you have?

valkyrieone · 2014-03-25T09:17:55+00:00

Washing dishes while cooking will help cut down in clean up afterwards.

Also, getting into a routine before work will help you quickly and efficiently get ready. I have a simple light makeup routine for work that I do and I've stuck to the same routine for long enough that it only takes me 15 minutes to wake up and be out the door. I have a bad habit of not putting things back in the same spot (but it's getting better!), but my morning routine is so "routine" to me I almost don't even have to look at what I am grabbing or think about it and I'm ready before I know it. You could do the same while you're cooking. Think of things to become more efficient while doing your prep.

givemeallthepuppies · 2014-03-25T15:43:31+00:00

Like others have said, I don't think it's necessary to cook overly complex meals every night. Personally, I would save that kind of thing for the weekend. And then when you do cook fancy meals, it makes it more special if you're having that sort of thing every night. Additionally, meals don't have to be complicated to be healthy and delicious.

Regarding getting ready: I may be in the minority here, but I have a very small wardrobe, and that is for a variety of reasons...1) I have lost a good amount of weight, so a lot of my clothes don't fit me, 2) I'm both frugal (and a poor college student) and very picky about my clothing, and because clothes are so expensive, I only buy things that I really love, 3) I tend to wear the same outfits, or at least the same outfits with slight variations, repeatedly, which my fiance doesn't mind. He would rather see me in a few outfits that look good than many outfits that do not look as good. My small wardrobe and the fact that I don't vary my outfits that much makes it easy to decide what to wear.

Regarding my beauty routine, most days I let my hair air dry without any styling, which saves a lot of time. I'm lucky that my hair looks nice when it air dries. My makeup usually takes me between 30 and 45 minutes, which might be kind of long, but I figure I can afford that amount of time since I don't style my hair every day.

inkedpink · 2014-03-28T05:58:55+00:00

I'm sure you got plenty of advice already but I will mention something that helped me when I began cooking bigger meals.

I plan super ahead. Usually on a Saturday I will plan out my weeks meals ahead of time. That way I know what I need to make. If the preparation for a particular meal is dense, I will prep some of the food the night before, or defrost the meat early. Or even marinate food the night before so it will be ready for the next day.

Once I come home from work all I need to do is pull everything out and it cuts my prep time significantly.

2102 · 2014-03-25T01:06:14+00:00

With cooking I like to meal prep in the weekends. I make a list of meals that I want to make and prepare all that I can.

For example, for BBQ chicken I make a big pot of BBQ sauce from scratch (super cheap and simple) and then put chicken pieces in a ziplock bag with the BBQ sauce and freeze it. Then when I need to prepare a dinner I just put it in the crock pot and leave it to cook. And then make the side dishes which is usually roasted vegetables (only uses one pan and about 5 minutes prep) and maybe mashed potato (only one pot, again, takes about 10 minutes of work). So not too many dishes to clean afterwards.

Another easy meal that looks nice is a whole roasted cornish hen with roasted veges on the side. And you can make a stuffing also if you want but that's not super hard either.

I also prep soups in the weekend. Tomato and basil soup is very easy (although I use canned tomatoes because peeling tomatoes is a horrid task). I make a large bowl of this often and freeze into individual portions so each night I usually have a soup ready to go. Another small starter I have on hand is turkey chilli which freezes very well also.

Just my few ideas. :)

Title	Time-saving techniques for cooking, housework and beauty rituals?
Author	[deleted]
Upvotes	6
Comments	25
Date	March 24, 2014 8:22 PM UTC (12 years ago)
Subreddit	Posted in /r/RedPillWomen
Original Link	https://old.reddit.com/r/RedPillWomen/comments/219crg/timesaving_techniques_for_cooking_housework_and/
Archive Link	https://theredarchive.com/r/RedPillWomen/time-saving-techniques-for-cooking-housework-and.165263 https://theredarchive.com/post/165263

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