save energy Archives | Heavenly Homemakers

Since 2007 I’ve been sharing tips for how to save time in the kitchen. Here are some of my best!

Now that it’s 2022 and we’ve added more amazing kids to our family, I find that I continue to find more and more ways to use my time as wisely as possible.

My current favorite ways to save time in the kitchen:

Easy ways to have fruit always available for our kids to grab
How to easily eat a ton of fresh greens every day: kid version; grown-up version
The simplest meal plans (provided for you!) which include the simplest of recipes
Why you should just dump sauce on chicken

Here are some additional time-saving ideas – in case you want to be awesome and make Cinnamon Rolls and Granola:

how to make 5-Minute Stove-Top Granola
how to make Stir-and-Pour Bread
how to avoid kneading Cinnamon Rolls
more ways to cook once and eat twice
to make salads as meals so we eat plenty of greens
how to very easily add fruits and veggies to our meals
how to avoid chopping onions
3 small appliances that save time and energy

I’ve been buying granola as of late and the only cinnamon rolls we eat are ones I bought at Christmas-time from my nephew and nieces who were baking to raise money to buy more chickens for their family project. :)

So apparently that’s my newest time-saving tip: Buy it from someone else, ha. Goodness, how far I’ve come. I’m the one who used to make everything from scratch. I don’t even remember that old me anymore. :) I don’t have any guilt over this – the old me or the new me. That’s God at work, people. :)

Still, we are eating quite a lot of nourishing foods each day, even if we do compromise here and there.

What are some of your time-saving tricks?

I’ve shared it before (more than a few times), but I find that I must share it again. Everyone should know about this one simple trick that helps get dinner on the table fast!

My Simple Trick that Helps Get Dinner on the Table Fast!

It’s simply this:

Brown several pounds of hamburger meat ahead of time. Store it in your fridge or freezer in meal-sized packages. This is a beautiful thing!

It doesn’t take very long to cook hamburger meat when prepping a meal, but still, if it’s already cooked and ready to use, then all we have to do at mealtime is add it to the dish we’re making. Somehow, having pre-cooked meat in my fridge takes away a lot of meal-making stress. How?

Well, I often have very little time for cooking. Mealtime comes up quickly (and many times each day, for our entire lives, oy!). But if I am able to pull out meat that’s already browned, that means I don’t have to worry about thawing meat or cooking meat. I simply add it to pasta or potatoes, or we make Tacos or Nachos, or…

33 Meals to make with Cooked Hamburger Meat

Here are a few more ideas. :)

My current favorite is this Simple Creamy Pasta in the Instant Pot. Not only is it incredibly delicious and a huge hit with everyone I’ve fed it to, with pre-cooked meat, I can have dinner on the table in only 10 minutes!! That is 10 minutes from start to finish, truly. It is amazing! (While it’s cooking in my Instant Pot, we get out salad fixins, and our meal is complete!)

My Favorite Instant Pot Hamburger Tip

Speaking of the wonders of an Instant Pot, you should definitely click over to read this:

How to Cook 5 lbs of Frozen Hamburger Meat in 30 minutes

Amazingly, I cook 5-7 pounds of frozen hamburger meat in my Instant Pot, and it is browned and ready to use for meals for the next two weeks for my family – just like that! (And yes, we eat a lot of meat. We are a family of many, many athletic men and a beef-lovin’ mama.)

Don’t have an Instant Pot?

I have this one and I absolutely love how much time it saves in the kitchen. So do consider investing! This 10-Minute Mac and Cheese is another good reason to buy an Instant Pot!

But, if you don’t have one and don’t want to invest, you can still easily cook several pounds of hamburger meat in a large pot on the stove. You’ll just need to thaw it first. :)

How to Store Pre-Cooked Hamburger Meat

Once you’ve got several pounds of hamburger meat cooked and cooled, what should you do?

I usually separate mine into meal-sized portions (1-3 pounds) and put it into these bowls with lids. Or if needed, I’ll put portions into ziplock bags.

I store these containers of cooked meat in my fridge for up to two weeks, and then pull them out as needed to prep meals. You can also store it in the freezer, of course. Just remember to thaw ahead of time!

Do you cook meat ahead of time? What are your favorite kitchen time-savers?

Tips to Save Time in the Kitchen