The art of saving time cooking and cleaning

By Kelly Kendall
Indianapolis Star

The chorus of "I don't have time to cook" might be louder than ever before. According to the U.S. Department of Labor, 44 percent of American workers say they come home "exhausted."

Small wonder, then, that an A.C. Nielsen report found convenience foods among the fastest-growing sectors in grocery sales, with sales climbing more than 60 percent in the past two years.

A diet made up strictly of convenience foods isn't healthful, it isn't cheap and it may not save all that much time. Consider these other methods of keeping kitchen time to a minimum:

Stock your pantry

Nothing stretches a cooking session like a trip to the grocery store during the busy after-work hours. When you keep a few essentials handy, you can usually improvise.

What the basics are depends a lot on what you like to eat.

One easy backup: a can of refried beans to be smeared on a tortilla, topped with chicken or beef, salsa and cheese, and popped into the oven.

Rachael Ray, host of the Food Network's "30 Minute Meals," always keeps stocks handy to embellish for a 15-minute soup that tastes like it's been simmering all day.

The rotisserie chicken nestled in your grocery-store deli is especially versatile. Eat some as is, then add some to soup or chili the next day and use the rest in quesadillas or chicken salad the day after that.

Keep it simple

A delicious dinner doesn't need to sound fancy, says Ray. "I think a lot of people forget about really good basics that everyone knows how to make," she says. "I make eggs for dinner a lot, and scramble in salami or peas or mixed cheeses and mushrooms."

Turn a humble baked potato into a meal by topping it with cheeses, cooked vegetables, leftover sauces, chopped ham and broccoli or shrimp and red peppers — practically anything you have on hand. Bonus: You can prepare a bunch of twice-baked potatoes, freeze the extras and finish baking them later.

Keeping things unfussy extends to supplies, too. Getting a few good basics and learning how to use them saves prep time, gourmet store owner Scott Justvig says.

Rely on just a couple of pans and one good knife. Ray cautions against crowding your kitchen with stuff you don't need (like the panini press she rarely bothers to dig out, using a foil-wrapped brick instead).

"Especially if you don't cook, people talk you into knives, gadgets, pots and pans," she says. Skipping them saves not only money and counter space but clean-up time.

Use ready-made food

Some shortcuts just aren't worth it, such as prepackaged food that tastes that way.

But chosen well, such foods can be a huge time-saver. Ray, for instance, will create brownies by adding espresso grounds, liqueur and chunks of chocolate to a store-bought mix.

You can buy salads-in-a-bag, and you may find jarred sauces and soups you like, adding meat, spices, beans or other extras. Jars of minced garlic and canned beans, artichokes and olives also help.

But sometimes, the taste of convenience foods trumps their convenience. Store-bought spaghetti sauce is a staple in many pantries, but to Ray, it's a rip-off. She'd rather take the few minutes to chop garlic and onion and toss them with tomatoes and basil.

Health is another thing to keep in mind when you are buying pre-packaged food, much of which is high in fat and loaded with salt.

For example, a cup of green beans has just 4 milligrams of sodium, but the number jumps to 354 when the beans are canned (recommended daily allowance is less than 2,400 grams).

Food that's already prepped also might be significantly more expensive than starting from scratch, so consider whether the time saved is worth the cost.

Cut your clean-up time

Cooks who like to take their time rarely enjoy dealing with the aftermath. The hardest, but most helpful, thing is to clean as you go. Rinse the mixing bowl and keep on using it for each step. Put dishes straight into the dishwasher instead of the sink. Clean while you're waiting for noodles to finish cooking or soup to heat through.

Think efficiency, says Ray. She saves a "surprising" amount of time by chucking food wrappings, eggshells, vegetable peels and the like into a bowl on the counter instead of running back and forth to the garbage can.

"The way I set up my kitchen is very time-friendly," she says. "I have a big chopping block next to the stove so I don't have to use dishes to transfer things around. A big cutting board is a time-saver, too, because you can make little piles instead of bothering with little dishes."

A few extras make soup a savory sensation

Linda Miritello, left, and Janis Normoyle, co-owners of a cooking school in Mesa, Ariz., teach students how to dress up a box or can of soup when they don't have time to make homemade soup. Sherrie Buzby • Arizona Republic

What's better on a cool and rainy night than a steaming bowl of homemade soup? But we often are too busy to make it from scratch, resorting instead to comfort from a can.

There's an alternative we call "halfway" soups, a compromise between scratch and canned.

You start with a canned broth or a starter base, such as a box or bag of dehydrated soup, then add canned beans, pasta, leftover or cured meats, fresh or frozen vegetables, fresh or dried herbs, perhaps a dash of sherry or brandy or a dollop of sour cream or crÚme fraäche to finish.

Halfway soups are ready in less than 20 minutes and taste almost as good as ones your grandmother spent hours cooking.

In addition, according to experts, soup eaters find it easier to lose weight than nonsoup eaters.

"You can add lots of fresh, low-fat ingredients to these soups. They are filling without being fattening," said Linda Miritello, co-owner with Janis Normoyle of Cooking for Pleasure, a cooking school in Mesa, Ariz.

Their quick and easy soups are likely to appeal to kids, who might eat vegetables in soup that they would boycott on a plate.

The variety of starter bases and broths has increased dramatically with the introduction of all-natural and organic soups in resealable boxes — the kind you see at Costco or Sam's Club as well as in grocery stores. You'll find creamy tomato, sweet corn, French onion, mushroom and potato leek, and all provide ready-made foundations for more complex soups.

"People learned quickly that these soups are good as is, or very easy to enhance," said Mardi Stromberg, product marketing manager for Pacific Foods of Oregon, which makes boxed soups.

Keep your pantry stocked with such soup-friendly ingredients as beans, barley, canned tomatoes and small pastas such as orzo (the rice-shaped one). Frozen vegetables, potatoes and greens such as kale and spinach also dress up store-bought soup stocks.

"We tell our students that homemade soup has its place," Normoyle said. "It's so nurturing and wonderful, but if you don't have time to stand over the stove, think of what you have in your pantry that will dress up a box or can of soup."

Here are easy ways to turn a store-bought broth or soup into a hearty meal:

• Cook extra bacon or sausage at breakfast to crumble into soup for dinner.
• Dress up soups by topping with garlic croutons, parsley, chives, green onion or fresh basil.
• Top the soup with a spoonful of sour cream or plain yogurt.
• For Mexican-style soup, add black beans, chopped onion and frozen corn to chicken broth. Top with avocado slivers, shredded cheese and tortilla-chip strips.
• Toss tortellini or ravioli and fresh or frozen spinach into beef or chicken broth for a quick Italian soup. Top with grated Parmesan cheese.
• Create a Pacific Rim soup with Asian-style frozen vegetables, chow-mein noodles and vegetable broth.
• Keep a bag of shrimp in the freezer and add to a creamy tomato for quick seafood soup. Add chopped celery and carrots. Top with oyster crackers.
• Diced potatoes go well in most creamy soups.
• A dash of hot sauce will add volumes of flavor to lentil or navy bean soups.
• Noodles, dried or frozen, can be added to just about any soup.
• Add ingredients in small increments. It's easier to add more noodles than scoop them out.
• Think leftovers. Chop up the pork loin and sweet potato wedges from last night and add to a cream of squash soup for tonight.
• Got the sniffles? Make quick chicken noodle soup by dicing a store-bought rotisserie chicken. Add the chicken pieces, diced onion and noodles to a low-sodium chicken broth. (You might want to saute the onion briefly, unless you like the flavor and crunch of raw onion.)
• Pair soup with a salad, corn muffins, grilled cheese sandwiches, a cheese platter or loaf of artisan bread.

Marvelous meals, minimum effort

Rachael Ray, host of Food Network's "30 Minute Meals," at work on the show's set in New York. The series airs weekdays at 12:30 p.m. and 4 p.m., and weekends at 6:30 a.m. and 9:30 a.m. Advertiser library photo • April 21, 2004

Books

• "Almost From Scratch" (Simon & Schuster, $25), by Andrew Schloss. Subtitled "600 Recipes for the New Convenience Cuisine," this book veers somewhat more to the gourmet.
• "Semi-Homemade Cooking" (Miramax, $19.95), by Sandra Lee. Cookbook author and TV personality Lee shows how to combine fresh ingredients with store-bought items.
• "Half-Scratch Magic" (Clarkson N. Potter Publishers, $17.95), by Linda West Eckhardt and Katherine West DeFoyd. The mother-and-daughter authors take a practical approach to getting out of the kitchen as fast as possible.

TV shows

• "30 Minute Meals With Rachael Ray" airs four times weekly on the Food Network. Recent recipes: pate bites and herb brie board, served with chicken in tarragon cream sauce, white and wild rice with walnuts and triple chocolate parfaits, each in less than 30 minutes.
• "Semi-Homemade Cooking With Sandra Lee" airs four times weekly on the Food Network (check local listings). Recent recipes: tiramisu with ready-made pudding, roasted pepper soup with jarred roasted bell peppers.
• "Good Food Fast With Family Circle" airs Mondays on the Food Network (check local listings). Recent recipes: Tex-Mex stew in 10 minutes, strip steak with rosemary red wine sauce in 15 minutes.