4 clever cooking hacks to shorten your time in the kitchen

Cooking meals at home is a great way to save money on food, but finding the time to cook can be difficult. Here are four tricks to cut down on time cooking an evening meal, and leave more time to relax.

• Fresh vegetables that you chop up and put in sealed containers in your refrigerator can last for three to four days.
• At the start of the week, chop up veggies that you plan to cook with during the week and put them in containers.
• Plastic containers work fine, but glass containers are better.
• Foods like onions, garlic, bell pepper and celery keep well for multiple days.
• Cooking during the week will now be a breeze because you can simply sprinkle in some already chopped veggies, rather than spend the time cutting each one.

If you're planning to roast something or cook a large item in the oven, you can cut down on cooking time, and even eliminate the need to flip it, by preheating your baking sheet.

• Place the sheet in the oven when you turn it on to preheat, and let the sheet sit for about five minutes at full temperature. Then, start cooking.
• You won't have to deal with the mess of reaching into a hot oven to move things around.

If your recipe calls for small, chopped items like cherry tomatoes or grapes, you can slice them all at once rather than doing each one individually.

• Place them all on one plate, put another plate on top of them, and then guide a sharp knife horizontally between the two plates. In the end, you'll have perfectly halved ingredients.

Everyone has a sweet tooth now and then, but you don't have to go through an intensive baking process to make a delicious dessert. Instead, in a large coffee mug, mix:

• 59 ml (1/4 cup) of flour
• 59 ml (1/4 cup) of sugar
• One egg
• 59 ml (1/4 cup) of cocoa powder
• 59 ml (1/4 cup) of chocolate nut spread
• 45 ml (3 tablespoons) of milk
• 45 ml (3 tablespoons) of vegetable oil

Put the mug in the microwave for about two minutes. When the concoction has risen, take it out, give it a moment to cool, top with whipped cream and enjoy.

After a long day, get in and out of the kitchen in no time with these quick and handy tricks.

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