what is your favorite time saving tip in the kitchen?

Hey I love it. I don't usally do any prep until I'm cooking but I do some prep for storage so that my produce lasts longer. You might really like this suggestion I know I have posted it before: Make double batches. I might make two caseroles and freeze one. I do have a vacume sealer but Ziplock is awesome as long as all the air is out of the bag. I might make a HUGE pot of soup or stock or whatever and freeze all but what my family will eat that night or oever the week. I also portion out leftovers in to placstic bags or vacum seal them to freeze for later. I never buy cookie dough because of this method. I can make my own low-fat healthy meals and stuff one in my purse for lunch when I go to work. By the time I get to take my break it's fully thawed and all I have to do is microwave. The vacum seal method is also great because once you have built up a collection of different dishes in the freezer you can make each family member what they want when they are being picky you can put the whole collection of foods bag and all into a pot of boiling water and have it all ready in no-time. YOu don't even have to microwave them all individually.

Girl why arent you using a slow cooker!? a lot of times you don't even have to thaw the peice of meat you want to use. Do your prep, throw everyting in the slow cooker before you are all on the way to school and work and when you get home you won't have anything to do but eat. YOu can make everything from pot roast to lasagna in a crock pot. Mac and cheese, all types of caseroles, whole chickens. You could be sitting on easy street by using a slow cooker and freezing dinners. And your five year old will be able to help out in a couple years.

Oh yah - we have one of those vacuum sealers - I think we have the Food Saver one in which we got as a wedding gift. The only problem is we don't have much room in our freezer. I freeze a bunch of meats I get on sale, but other than that I don't have much room to put casserole dishes and such (oh, I'd love to though . . . just pop it out of the fridge and stick it in the oven . . . dinner solved). I normally like to cut up stuff when I cook to keep them as fresh as possible, but with 2 little ones I find that I don't have a chunk of time to do everything in one cooking setting. Dinner gets late. So I try to do cooking prep (as well as other things) in segments. That's just the way it's going to be for a while - hee hee.

I totally agree. There is nothing worse than running out of counterspace when you have things cooking. Cleaning as you go makes things happen faster because you stay organized and you don't get held up by so many snags as when you are just letting things pile up.

I'm all about sherherd's pie, and quesadillas. I love to turn something like a dinner item into a breakfast item. It makes it almost impossible for left overs to go bad that way. Potatos especially are good for that. I don't know if you have ever tried fried mashed potatos but they are awesome! all you gotta do is throw you mashed poatos into a non stick pan and spread them out in an even layer, when it is crispy on the bottom then flip sections of it over until you have a bunch of crispy flakes of potato all mixed through the creamy mashed goodness... yum. You can add cheese, or onions and peppers, meat, eggs, whatever. This is good for almost any meal time.