Shave Hours Off Meal Prep Time with These 10 Kitchen Shortcuts

Now that I’m a dad, time has become an even more precious commodity. I have always been in charge of the cooking in our house, so recently I have been looking for ways to shave time off of my meal prep so that I can be with our little nugget more. Dinner needs to be quick and easy while we are still figuring out our nightly routine.

This is a collection of my favorite kitchen shortcuts, gadgets, and ingredients that make dinnertime a breeze:

This post was sponsored by Tyson Foods

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Shave Hours Off Meal Prep Time with These 10 Kitchen Shortcuts

Pre-Made Pizza Dough

My go-to last-minute meal is a homemade pizza. You can use any kind of dough that you like, but the key is using up leftovers in the fridge as toppings. Pull together whatever you can find for an adventurous dinner that can be ready in under a half an hour.
Quality Knife Set

My wife got me a set of Wusthof Knives for my birthday last year, and boy did it up my kitchen game. With a quality set of knives you can speed up all your ingredient prep work. Some quality knife skills are also required, because these things can be sharp!
Crock Pot

The Crock-Pot is your best friend when it comes to faster meal preparation. It may seem counter-intuitive that a machine called a slow-cooker will help save you time, but when you can just throw a bunch of ingredients into the pot in the morning and have a beautifully cooked meal ready eight hours later, it makes quite a difference. Check out my absolute favorite stew recipe as a bonus!
Frozen Rice Packets

I can't tell you how often these have saved us from a dinner emergency. Any time I cook something and it is a little lacking in substance and flavor, I can usually save it by plating it over a bed of rice and adding a sauce. My favorites can be found at Trader Joe's, and only take three minutes to heat up from frozen in the microwave.
Misto Olive Oil Spritzer

Every good meal needs a little bit of olive oil to add some flavor and keep things from sticking to the pan. The Misto makes adding olive oil to a dish a breeze and has saved me a ton of extra calories by limiting how much oil goes into a dish. You just add some olive oil to the container, pump some air in, and spritz away. Works great for prepping pans before cooking, coating veggies before roasting, and even dressing a salad right before dinner.
Tyson® Crispy Chicken Strips

These things are a lifesaver when you are starving and need a quick protein. They work great for the kids, but can also make for some delicious last-minute meals for grownups. I like to chop them up and add them to salads, put them on a bun for a quick sandwich, or just eat them by themselves with my favorite dipping sauce. (Which is currently a sriracha BBQ blend...spicy and oh so good.)
Pre-Sliced Veggies

So much of meal prep is washing and chopping vegetables for use in prepared dishes. Sometimes you just have to bite the bullet and pay a little extra for the pre-sliced veggies. There is no shame in ripping open a bag of pre-washed and chopped broccoli florets or zucchini sticks when you are short on time and just need to get some greens on the plate.
Citrus Squeezers

A crucial kitchen gadget is the citrus squeezer. Whether you are adding some lemon juice to a recipe or making yourself a gin & tonic, these will help you get all the juice out of your citrus. They save you prep time and also keep your hands clean. The best one I have ever used is the FreshForce Juicer from Chef'n.
Bulk Meal Prep

One way to save a bunch of time on cooking is to do your cooking on the weekends and make all the meals for the coming week at once. Do all your grocery shopping on Sunday, and then spend the afternoon preparing a bunch of meals. Then all you need to do for dinner throughout the week is heat everything up and chow down. You can even throw your slow-cooker meals together in a Ziploc bag to use later on. This tactic absolutely saved us when baby first got here.
Slice and Freeze

Don't forget about your freezer! In addition to prepping the week's meals ahead of time, make extra and throw it in the freezer. You can easily freeze casseroles and Crock-Pot meals, and you can also pre-slice veggies to freeze and use later. Onions and peppers especially work great for slicing and freezing, as they actually cook faster once they have been frozen. For an amazing roundup on how to properly freeze fruits and veggies, check out these tips from DesignMom.