Easy And Fun Ways to Make Cooking Easier

If you don't particularly enjoy cooking, you're not alone. In fact, about 45 percent of Americans don't like to cook at all, and 45 percent will if they have to but avoid it when they can. Only 10 percent say they actually love to cook. For all those who don't relish their time in the kitchen, finding ways to make cooking easier and more fun could be a game changer. 

Buy Pre-Prepped Vegetables

One of the most time-consuming aspects of cooking is chopping vegetables. Whether you're dicing onions and slicing peppers or cutting fresh broccoli florets off of their stalk, it takes a lot of time and effort. There's no harm in buying vegetables that have already been prepped. They're readily available these days. Items like minced Spice World Garlic, fresh stir-fry mix, halved Brussels sprouts, and even fresh cubed watermelon and cantaloupe can make meal prep so much faster and simpler. Frozen vegetables can make life a lot easier as well. 

Stock Up On Staples and Spices

Another way to make cooking simpler and more enjoyable is to keep your pantry stocked with staples and spices. That'll help you avoid the all-too-common frustrations of getting elbow-deep into a meal only to find out you don't have half the basic ingredients you need to make it. It'll also give you more room for creativity while you're cooking. Never let yourself run out of essentials like salt, flour, cornmeal mix, vegetable and olive oil, and pepper.

Consider buying a few new bottles of herbs and spices each time you visit the grocery store too. Even if you've never used some of them before or you don't quite know what to do with them, you'll still have them in your arsenal if you ever need them. You can even experiment with them to find interesting new uses for them. 

Make One-Dish Meals

You can also eliminate a lot of time and effort by making one-dish meals. There's nothing at all wrong with Hamburger Helper, but making homemade versions of it is almost as fast and easy. You can even use other long-time favorites, like Rice-A-Roni and all those soup mixes and instant pasta sides on store shelves, to make simple, tasty one-pot meals.

Of course, you could always add your own flair and come up with single-dish recipes on your own. There's no real limit to the items you could combine to make a fast, wonderful meal with only one pot or pan to clean up after the fact. They don't have to be overly elaborate dishes, either. In some cases, the simpler they are, the better they are.

Get New Kitchen Gadgets

Treating yourself with some new kitchen gadgets is sure to make your time in the kitchen more fun too. Granted, some of the items on the market these days are more trouble than they're worth or altogether unnecessary. Others might surprise you, though.

Get an onion blossom maker and a deep fryer to make blooming onions at home. It only takes a couple of minutes to mix up a remoulade to dip them in. Buy an immersion blender to make your own mayonnaise and homemade tomato soup. A new air fryer will simplify everything from tater tots and fries to pork tenderloins and herbed chicken breasts. Of course, you can't go wrong with a traditional slow cooker. With those, all you have to do is toss in the ingredients you want and turn them on.

Those are only a few of the possibilities. When we get new gadgets, we can't wait to use them, right? They'll spice up your cooking experiences, and they may make meal prep easier. 

Making Cooking Fun and Simple

It seems that the majority of Americans aren't too keen on cooking. For many of them, the amount of time and effort that goes into making some meals is the problem. Cleaning up after the fact is also a major downer. With the tips mentioned here, though, you can make cooking fun, fast, and simple.