Deluxe Triple-Chocolate Cookies

One thing we all need more of is time. Here are a few of my favorite time saving kitchen tips:

If you cook with lots of garlic, save time by prepping a weeks worth at once. You can mince garlic in a food processor by dropping peeled cloves through the feedtube while the motor is running. Scrape out the minced garlic and place it in an airtight container. Cover it with just enough olive oil to keep it moist. It’s so much better than the minced garlic you buy at the store. Whenever you need garlic, a teaspoon is equal to a clove.

Store prepped food in clear glass containers. Take an hour or so once a week to slice mushrooms, chop peppers, slice green onions and peel carrots. Having access to ready to go ingredients makes it easier to add color, flavor and nutrition to things like scrambled eggs, rice or salads.

Brown ground beef and package it into meal size packages. If your family loves tacos or spaghetti with meat sauce, chances are good that you brown ground beef more than once a week. Why not buy in quantity and brown it once? Having packages tucked into the freezer makes dinner come together fast!

Cook once/ eat twice: Two pans of lasagna or pots of soup are just as easy to make as one. Having a one-dish meal standing by in the freezer saves time and weeknight stress.

Homemade cookies are one of the best ways to save time. I like to make extra Deluxe Triple-Chocolate Cookie dough and freeze the cookies, unbaked, in packages of 6. That way, any time we want freshly baked cookies, I can pull out a package and bake just enough for one really delicious snack. You can find lots of time saving recipes and tips at Jif.com