7. Lighten up for the summer. You don’t have to be a pro at producing spa cuisine to eat less meat and more produce in the summer. A grilled portobello mushroom, glazed with balsamic vinegar and olive oil is a suitable meat entrée substitute. Stuff the mushroom with your favorite stuffing, and you’ve got the makings of a complete dinner. Skip the heavy, rich sauces in favor of vinaigrettes. If you routinely serve asparagus with hollandaise sauce, you can drizzle the asparagus with a little olive oil and sprinkle with salt before grilling. You’ll taste sweet flavors you never knew existed. (Time savings: 30 minutes to 1 hour in prep, cooking and clean-up time.)
8. Grill whenever possible. There’s far less clean-up associated with grilling than with cooking in the oven or on the stovetop. Marinating in plastic zipper bags produces fewer pans to clean. You might like this lifestyle so much that you may join the more than 50% of Americans who grill year-round. (Time savings: at least 30 minutes in clean-up.)
9. Cook once, eat three times. Bulk cooking is no secret, but it’s usually presented as “once-a-month cooking,” and who wants to spend one entire day each month during the summer cooking? If you cook a double portion of steak, chicken and shrimp each time you grill, you can stretch two portions into three meals! If you use meat more like a condiment during the summer instead of as the daily main event, you can have a proper meat and three with the first portion, a summer salad with the half of the second portion, and fajitas with the other half of the second portion. If you have a family of four, grill eight boneless, skinless chicken breasts. Use four chicken breasts for the first meal as the entrée. Slice two breasts and use to top a salad for the second meal, and slice the other two breasts for chicken fajitas. You’ve created three meals in record time, with minimal cleanup. (Time savings: 2 or more hours.)
10. Toss it! Eat on paper plates whenever possible. You’ll save on water, you’ll save time, and paper plates without a plastic coating are biodegradable. (Time savings: priceless!)
Note: Time savings show the minimum time savings you should realize. Your mileage may vary.