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15-Minute Cooking: A Time and Money-Saving Strategy
By Rhonda Barfield

Fresh-baked bread. Barbecued chicken sizzling on the grill. Piping hot chocolate brownies, just coming out of the oven. Many of us still associate the delicious aroma of home-cooked foods with wonderful memories. Can’t you just smell the comforts of home? But these days, who has time to cook? You probably don’t, and I don’t either. Between running my business, writing books, managing a household and homeschooling four children, I’m busy, as most of us are. That’s why, a few years ago, I devised a system called 15-Minute Cooking.
15-Minute Cooking is my term for time-wise, economical cooking, the way I prepare! meals. The concept is pretty basic: assemble a good, home-cooked dinner in two short sessions, one in the morning and one right before the
evening meal. Or choose instead to cook right after Tuesday night’s dinner, then finish a second session just before Wednesday’s dinner.
Here’s how it works. Start chicken and vegetable soup in the slow cooker first thing Tuesday morning, for example, and prepare a Jell-O‘ dessert. Just before dinner, mix up poppy seed muffins, dice carrot coins and steam cauliflower for Wednesday night’s meal. Or right after dinner on Thursday, stir together a meat loaf and mix up cornbread for Friday. Store these in your refrigerator until Friday’s right-before-dinner prep time. Then oven-bake both the meat loaf and cornbread muffins, assemble a lettuce salad, and make no-bake cookies. 15 minutes is all it takes. I know; I’ve timed it. This cooking concept has made a very positive difference in your family. It
is wonderful to know that, once my first prep time is completed earlier, I don’t have to be in the kitchen again until a short time right before dinner.
Mealtime is more relaxed because everything is organized ahead of time. We’re not as tempted to eat out. Best of all, I think this way of cooking has really encouraged our family to sit down together at evening meals because we all have something to really look forward to. Here are some other benefits we’ve enjoyed by using 15-Minute Cooking:
1) Much lower-than-average grocery bills;
2) Really delicious, home-cooked dinners every night;
3) Fresh food: hot entrees, homemade breads, tasty salads and luscious
desserts;
4) All our grocery shopping limited to one trip weekly
(no more last-minute trips for ingredients);
5) Healthier eating: foods lower-than-average in fat, sodium and sugar;
6) Some foods left over most days to serve for tomorrow’s breakfast and lunch;
7) Stockpiled foods in our freezer: our own tasty, low-cost convenience foods.
I’d encourage all family chefs to give this system of cooking a try. With a little practice and imagination, everyone can prepare many favorite recipes in two short sessions daily. 15-Minute Cooking is an excellent way to wisely manage both the time and money the Lord gives us, and also to help our own families enjoy the tastes of home.
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