• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar

Traditional Cooking School by GNOWFGLINS

Dish up the simple joy of healthy, down-home foods your family will LOVE… tonight.

Join 12,000+ families served since 2010!

  • Join Now
  • About
    • About Wardee & TCS
    • Our Team
    • FAQs & Help
    • Contact
  • Recipes
  • Blog
    • Recipes
    • Archives
  • Podcast
    • #AskWardee
    • Know Your Food with Wardee (retired)
  • Shop
    • Bible-Based Cooking Program
    • Print Textbooks
    • eBooks & eCourses
    • Recommended Tools & Supplies
    • More Books We Love
    • Complete Idiot’s Guide To Fermenting Foods
      • Errata
  • Login
You are here: Home » Food Preparation » Kitchen Tips & Organization » 11 Ways To Lighten The Traditional Cooking Load (KYF148)

Make a healthy dinner in 30 minutes or less... while spending $0 extra! Click here to get the Eat God's Way “30-Minute Skillet Dishes” worksheet + videos FREE!

11 Ways To Lighten The Traditional Cooking Load (KYF148)

We only recommend products and services we wholeheartedly endorse. This post may contain special links through which we earn a small commission if you make a purchase (though your price is the same).

Print Friendly, PDF & Email

11 Ways To Lighten The Traditional Cooking Load | Kitchen clutter and endless cooking tasks can easily take over your life and sap your joy. Not if you tame the beast, though! In the past, I've shared bunches of traditional cooking time-saving tips. Which ones do I really use all the time in our home to lighten my traditional cooking load? These 11... | KnowYourFoodPodcast.com/148

Kitchen clutter and endless cooking tasks can easily take over your life and sap your joy.

Not if you tame the beast, though!

In episodes 133, 134, 135, 136, and 137, I shared bunches of traditional cooking time-saving tips.

Which ones do I really use all the time in our home to lighten my traditional cooking load?

These 11…

Won’t play for you? Try here. Mobile or desktop users, you can hear my podcast with Stitcher, on-demand and on-the-go. (What’s Stitcher?) You can also get it on iTunes or subscribe in the Podcasts app.

Video from Blab

I recorded this podcast live on Blab last week and here’s the video from that! It’s just like the audio file above, except you can see it, too. 🙂

Want to join the fun of the live recording? Follow me on Facebook or @TradCookSchool on Periscope. I hop on to record most Thursdays!

11 Ways To Lighten The Traditional Cooking Load

The video or audio above contain much more info about each of these points, so why not listen in while you’re doing something else?

Here are the cliff notes. 🙂

1. Work with the seasons.

We don’t eat the same year round so why worry about keeping up with all the techniques of traditional cooking year round? Some seasons you put away the sourdough starter or Kombucha scoby and you just take a break. Winter is soup weather, summer is cold salads, vegetables, grilling, pizza, and fresh foods.

2. Prioritize — don’t do everything all the time.

What’s important right now in your healing or your life? Work your cooking around that, and let go of the other things that don’t fit.

3. Delegate.

This is a gradual process and may take investment time up front. Kids are the obvious choice — involve them in the kitchen and before you know it, they’ll be so competent they can do tons of things themselves. Listen to the podcast to hear how our son has risen through the ranks and is becoming an excellent and dependable cook.

4. Leftovers.

One night a week at least, or maybe even every 2nd or 3rd day, pull out all the leftovers and you’ll likely have a whole meal!

5. Soups.

Soups couldn’t be easier or more delicious!

6. The InstantPot.

Need I say more? Heard of the InstantPot yet? It’s a pressure cooker, rice cooker, and more — all in one. I started out with pressure cooking using a Kuhn Rikon pressure cooker and I do still love it. However, it takes monitoring, while the InstantPot does not. (Just plug it in, press a few buttons, and let it take care of pressurizing and cooking all on its own.) So I love the InstantPot more now.

Here’s more about pressure cooking. And inside Traditional Cooking School, our next class is pressure cooking!

7. Everyone washes their own dishes.

Big time saver right here. Plus, why shouldn’t everyone pitch in? Like we say in Real Food Kids, “everyone eats, everyone cooks!”

8. Big batches.

Whenever you’re making a staple food (yogurt, bread, beans, etc.)… make more and freeze, can, or otherwise preserve.

9. Follow easy recipes, not complicated.

Easy recipes are… easier. 😉 They’re also delicious when we use the simple, beautiful whole foods that are so much a part of traditional cooking.

10. Food components ready to go.

Invest some time as you can to have foods ready to use in quick meals. Like pre-cooked meats, already washed veggies, or triple-washed salad greens. Whipping up a simple meal or salad take just minutes.

11. Cultivate a set of easy go-to recipes that your family loves.

Over time, build up a repertoire of easy recipes your family loves. These are your go-to recipes during busy seasons, or when you get enough of them built up, you can even create a menu plan for a week, month, or even longer just rotating through them.

Examples: pizza, fried chicken, nachos, hamburgers, chicken soup, chicken salad, sandwiches.

You can even put these sets together by the season and then rotate through them seasonally.

Links Mentioned

  • Real Food Kids eCourse
  • InstantPot
  • Kuhn Rikon pressure cooker
  • Traditional Cooking School — next class is pressure cooking!

iTunes

I’m so grateful when you visit my show on iTunes and leave a rating and/or review! KnowYourFoodPodcast.com/iTunes This helps me make my podcast better and also helps others find it. Thank you! For past or current episodes, check out the Know Your Food with Wardee podcast archives.

Anything to Add?

I would love to hear from you! Do you have questions for me, or comments about anything shared in this episode?

Like this podcast? Please help me reach others by using the share buttons at the top of this post. Thanks!

We only recommend products and services we wholeheartedly endorse. This post may contain special links through which we earn a small commission if you make a purchase (though your price is the same).

Posted in: "Know Your Food with Wardee" Podcast Food Preparation Kitchen Tips & Organization

About Wardee Harmon

Wardee lives in the Boise area of Idaho with her dear family. She's the lead teacher and founder of the Eat God's Way online cooking program as well as the author of Fermenting, Sourdough A to Z, and other traditional cooking books. Eat God's Way helps families get healthier and happier using cooking methods and ingredients from Bible Times like sourdough, culturing, and ancient grains.

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Melissa says

    February 6, 2016 at 10:41 am

    I love to make a monthly menu plan, then do a huge monthly grocery shopping trip for all nonperishables for the month and perishables for the first week. Then my weekly grocery trip is very short.

    Reply
  2. Renee says

    February 8, 2016 at 9:04 pm

    Oh my!! I need these ideas. We are 5 weeks into the GAPS intro. I work full time (plus) as a teacher and then come home to cook and clean all evening and weekend. Thank goodness it is winter and I am inside–but this cannot go on forever–I need a life outside of the kitchen and classroom. Looking forward to getting into a flow with all of this food prep. Any suggestions to make GAPS easier are welcome.

    Reply

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Primary Sidebar

Hi and Welcome!

I’m Wardee Harmon and I help Christian families who know they should eat healthy but are tired of complicated, time-consuming, weird-tasting, and unsustainable “healthy” diets…

…who want to look and feel better, save time and money, and have more energy for enjoying family life and serving Him fully!… like I was. Click here for more…

Recently on the Blog

  • Fizzy Apple Cider Switchel (VAD)
  • VitaClay Review & Buyer’s Guide
  • How to Make Healthy Cookies #AskWardee 006
  • Bean and Barley Soup (Instant Pot, Stove Top)
  • Soaked Spelt Banana Bread (VAD)
  • Ancient Grains 101
  • How to Heal Digestive Issues Naturally (Leaky Gut, SIBO, IBS, Celiac & more)
  • How To Meal Plan In 4 Easy Steps (KYF103)
  • Debunking 4 Sourdough Myths (& How To Overcome Them)
  • How To Use A Pressure Cooker 101

Recently Commented

  • Tiranga on Homemade Sauerkraut In A Stoneware Crock
  • ronald ryan on 10 Tips For Using A Gas Grill As An Oven
  • Julia on How To Make Sour Cream
  • KM on The Best Sourdough English Muffins (Traditional Recipe)
  • Kathryn on Ginger-Lemon Mocktail: The Perfect Summer Drink
  • Anonymous on Anatomy of a Blended Soup
  • Brenda on Sourdough Nutty Cereal (like Grape Nuts)

We are a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for us to earn fees by linking to Amazon.com and affiliated sites.

Before Footer

g-NOWF-glinz

…are what we eat! God’s Natural, Organic, Whole Foods, Grown Locally, In Season.

We love working with other Christian families who love good food and want to eat according to God’s design…

Not only because we believe it’s the healthiest way, but because we want to give Him glory for creating good food as the best medicine!

Learn more about GNOWFGLINS here…

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IOcH27DM1dI

Eat God’s Way Cooking Program

Our Eat God’s Way cooking program is for Christian families who know they should eat healthy but are tired of complicated, time-consuming, weird-tasting, and unsustainable “healthy” diets…

…who want to look and feel better, save time and money, and have more energy for enjoying family life and serving Him fully!

Join 12,000+ families served since 2010! Learn more here…

Copyright © 2025 Traditional Cooking School by GNOWFGLINS • About • Help • Privacy • Partners