One of the most stressful aspects of cooking is trying to get everything finished at the same time so it is still hot when it is time to eat. This troublesome conundrum has been the thorn in a chefs’ side for many years. While making sure food comes out hot and ready to eat, there are a few things that can help keep the devastating reheat setting on the microwave from getting all the attention.

Counting back

Sure, it may take more time to actually sit down and do a little prior planning, but it will pay off in the end. By going through your menu and thinking about the amount of time it will take to cook each aspect of every dish you plan on making, you will have a great understanding of what exactly is needed to get everything to the table on time.

Grab a sheet of paper and start jotting down how long it will take to fix each portion of the meal. Once you have that done, break it down into portions. For instance, it will take about ten minutes to brown the meat for the spaghetti and twenty minutes for the water to boil and cook the pasta; about twelve minutes to boil water and eight minutes to cook. Once you have this, you know that in order to have your dinner ready by 6:30, you need to put the water on the stove around 6:10 and then start the meat about 6:20. While the water is boiling and meet is cooking, you can be heating up the pasta sauce, which shouldn’t take more than the twenty minutes.

Keeping track

So you have all the times you need to begin each step. Great! With the pasta example above, it is pretty straightforward and there is not much thought that needs to go into keeping track of the full twenty minutes. However, if you are in charge of preparing a holiday meal, you are in for a big surprise. With all of the different courses and dishes, things can get a bit hectic.

First you need to chop stuff, then put things in the oven and next thing you know, you are putting the milk in the cabinet and the cat in the freezer. It can be a bad picture if you catch my drift. One of the best ways I have found to keep track of times and tasks is to have a clock, a timer (or two) and a bunch of post-it-notes.

Don’t underestimate the power of a post-it in the kitchen. They stick to anything and make great recipe markers in case you have to close your cook book to make room to bread the turkey legs. Putting post-it notes in order of need, you can have a visual time line of your cooking, not to mention, they are great to write down “time in” and “time out” as reminders.

The clock and timers are self-explanatory as they are just for keeping track of time without having to count out the seconds yourself. I use my watch to make sure I am sticking to my time schedule, then the timer on the over for the food in the oven and an egg timer for food on the stove.

Properly planning your meals may not cancel out the stress of cooking for the masses, but it sure will help out knowing that you are actually right on schedule. Cooking doesn’t have to be complicated, but it does take a little prior proper planning.

In order to remove stress from your kitchen, you must have the proper tools. Like a doctor extracting an irritating metal shard from a wounded leg, you must have the right types of tools and understand how to use them to take away the pain and suffering that stress can cause. While the tools to de-stress your kitchen may be a little unorthodox in a few areas, they are still absolutely necessary to organize, prepare and execute great meals.

Post it notes

Yes, your little yellow semi-sticky friends should be kept on hand at all time in the kitchen. These little notes make it easy to write down lists of groceries or used-up materials, cooking times, recipes and even reminders that the pumpkin pie in the oven should not begin to smell and look like a rubber tire on hot pavement.

Timer

The ding lets you know it is done so you don’t have to worry about counting it out on your fingers and toes, because let’s be honest, how many foods do you know that only cook in the oven for twenty minutes? It is actually good practice to have a clock and a couple of timers that, yes, you can post-it-note what they are timing.

Sharp knife

An essential part of a stress free kitchen. A dull knife makes chopping almost three times as long, plus you cannot do intricate work with a dull knife. We all know you love to carve swans into the rinds of cantaloupes, but with a dull knife, it seems to look more like a pigeon. Keeping your tomatoes in pristine shape and you bread in actual slices will definitely help keep the stress down because you won’t have to repeat anything.

Plan / menu

Having a plan or a menu handy for what you are going to prepare will make life a lot easier. With your plan, you can determine when things need to go on to the stove or come out of the oven. When you are just winging it, there is a higher chance you will forget an essential part of your meal and the rest will have to sit and get cold while you correct your mistake. Make a plan and save yourself some stress.

Radio

Yes, I said it. A radio is probably the most important tool you will ever have in your stress-free kitchen. By radio, I mean CD player, iPod, Walkman, whatever you have that makes the noises you like to jam out to. Music has been shown to reduce stress and when combined with another task, like test taking or cooking, for that matter, you become more focused on the task you are doing.

With your new-found focusing abilities, your plan, a precise blade, something to ding at you and a wall covered with yellow sticky paper, you are now ready to have a stress free cooking experience. While these aren’t your typical tools, give them a try and see how well they work for you; feel free to adapt them and alter them to fit your needs and ability. Most importantly, get in the kitchen and start cooking for your friends and family because great relationships and fantastic conversation are built at the dinner table.

The turkey is only half cooked, you don’t have all the ingredients for the mashed potatoes, the cranberry sauce is more like a cranberry juice and you have no idea what to do with all of the green beans. Sound familiar? If you have ever agreed to cook for your friends and family over the holidays, you know exactly what I am talking about. A giant meal is quite the monumental feat and it can get rather stressful, extremely quick. There are a few things you can do to help relieve most of the stress like taking some time, starting early, planning ahead and scheduling the activities.

Take time for yourself

You realize in a few days your home will be a whirlwind of commotion, conversations and hungry people. It is important to take a few days prior to the event and spend some time alone, soaking in the quiet of your current surroundings. The more people you add to a mix, the higher the stress levels go. Taking a little time to breathe deeply and prepare yourself for what is to come, might just be the little thing you need to keep those stress levels in check.

Start a few days early

Begin prepping a few days early. Many of your chopping and combining tasks can probably take place a day or two before and be stored in the refrigerator until you are ready for them. This will take quite a bit of time off of your day by prepping in advance. Chopping and combining take the majority of time during a cooking spree, so having them done early will free up a little more time to be social while waiting for the turkey to come out of the oven.

It is also helpful to begin cleaning out your refrigerator ahead of time. Nothing is as stressful as leftovers out the Wahoo and nowhere to put them. You will be feasting on leftovers for the next few days and by the time you are done, nothing in the ice box will still be any good, so go ahead and toss just about everything to make more room ahead of time.

Plan your menu

Having an idea of what you are about to cook is probably a good idea since you will need to make enough to feed thirty or so people. Plan out your menu beforehand so you are not stuck running back and forth to the store while food is cooking. The last thing you want to do is burn the turkey because you had to go grab some cranberry sauce. Roll through your shopping list a couple times before you go and double check that you have everything at checkout. Your stress levels will thank you.

Schedule cooking time and arrival of people

Make sure you count back from the time people are set to arrive and let that be the time you start cooking. The last thing you need to stress about is how you are going to keep the turkey warm for the next twelve hours while everything else finishes cooking. Plan what you want finished at certain times and step through the cooking times to know when you should start on that item. Stick to your schedule as best as possible and all of the food should be ready close to the same time.

Holiday meals are not something to take lightly. There is a lot of effort that goes into preparing large amounts of food, but by following some of these simple tips, you will be the life of the party, have time to socialize and make it look like you are a professional. Not only will this impress your friends, it will make cooking a breeze and you will be able to actually hang out instead of hiding in the kitchen.

We all want to prepare great meals for our friends and family because we care deeply about them. We also prepare great meals because we want to be complimented on our abilities to get stressed out, throw a fit, rip our hair out because we burned the 30-ingredient “savory” pizza and now have to order from Domino’s if our friends and family want something edible. Believe it or not, sometimes, less is more. Let’s take a look at how less in the kitchen can be more

Simple Meals can be hearty

Think of the stews you had when you were a child. A simple combination of meat, potatoes, carrots and corn and you had a hearty meal that was filling, good for you and tasted great. Not every meal needs to be impressive with as many ingredients as you can name and twice as many that you can’t name. How about a meatball sub with mozzarella cheese for a cold day? Simple, tasty and quite easy to prepare.

Less ingredients is less stressful

The fewer ingredients you have, the less you have to chop, peel, dice, cube, clean, or even grind. With fewer ingredients, your stress levels will be lower and as your stress comes down, the work of your taste buds are able to rise to the surface of your consciousness. This means that not only do you receive the benefit of less stress, but you are able to enjoy your meals more.

Having less ingredients also means there is probably less to clean up. Most of the time, fewer ingredients mean only one pot or pan. This makes cleanup a cinch and can usually be done while cooking. Fewer ingredients also mean there is less chance for packaged food to end up in your cooking, which can elevate oxytocin levels, which is produced when you are stressed.

Not as stressful to plan or implement

Speaking of stress, does the endless list for the grocery store begin to stress you out? What if you were to cut that list into thirds? Would it be less stressful? If so, try cooking with fewer ingredients. Yes, it does take a little more thought to come up with recipes, rather than pouring some milk into processed pasta and cheese sauce, but it is much easier to plan out once you get used to it.

Planning with fewer ingredients means you can quickly change your mind about what to cook and you don’t have to worry about a lot of food going bad, plus you can also mix and match different ingredients, as you like. This makes for an interesting dinner if you can pair two or more new foods together.

If you are used to putting on a show or buying large amounts of food, try working with less. I bet you will be surprised with how much better the food tastes and how must stress you lose during the process. Get into the kitchen, grab a few ingredients and start cooking.

Everyone longs for stress free cooking, especially when it comes to cooking for large crowds. Here are 10 simple tips to keep your cooking stress free.

1. Plan ahead ? It is important to have a plan ahead of time, especially if you are cooking for a large group. Planning ahead keeps you from having to make split-second decisions when you are supposed to be cooking.

2. Prep ahead ? Once you have your plan, it is important to begin to prep as soon as possible. This can be done several days in advance. For instance, if you have to dice a bunch of vegetables, you can probably get that done two to three days in advance and store them for use. Same with making stock or broth; make it a week in advance and freeze for use. Prior prep work makes for a smooth cooking day.

3. Don’t be overly ambitious ? Just because you think you can pull off a full five course professional meal with one oven and a dog that eats crumbs off the floor, doesn’t mean you need to show off your skills for the first time with 30 hungry people waiting. Keep your meals simple yet elegant and not only will your stress levels be down, but so will the stomach growling of your family and friends.

4. Time plan ? One of the hardest things to accomplish is getting everything ready on time so it comes out hot, all at once. This is a simple thing to figure out, but many people don’t take the time to think about this ahead of time. Take a look at what you need to cook, how you are going to cook it, (i.e. stove, oven, crock pot) and how long it takes to cook. Once you have those figures, just walk back from the time you are supposed to have company in order to figure out when you need to put stuff on or take it off.

5. Use simple recipes ? Using one pot, or simple recipes that do not call for a mess, can keep your life simple as peach cobbler (which also uses one pan). The fewer pans you use, the better off you will be. There will be less to clean up and less you need to worry about finishing at the same time.

6. Clean as you go ? Not every recipe calls for single pan usage, so if you have to dirty more than one pan, cleaning as you go will reduce stress big time. Keeping your area clean is a major stress reducer, especially once the food is cooked and ready.

7. Music ? Listening to music is another great way to take the stress out of the kitchen. Studies have shown that music actually helps to calm the system and remove stress.

8. Reduce movements ? While music might take the mental stress out of the picture, reducing your movements will help to take the physical stress off. Grab a trash bowl to put on your counter and throw everything in there so you are not walking back and forth to the trashcan. Organize your kitchen to help you find things quickly and lower the stress level every time you don’t move.

9. Delegate ? Stress usually happens because you have too much stuff to do and not enough time to do it. If you have any children, now would be a good time to delegate and distress. Having some people to help you out can reduce stress quickly and efficiently.

10. Clean out your fridge ahead of time ? Nothing is more stressful than ending a fantastic meal, only to find out there is no room in your fridge for the leftovers. Having a clean fridge will help reduce the after-party stress. A clean fridge mans less wok for you and less chaos trying to keep the food from spoiling.

By following some, or all, of these simple tricks, you can distress your cooking. Grab your knife and cutting board; flip on some tunes and start whipping up a storm of scrumptious goodies.

If anything ever made the top stress free cooking charts, it would be the invention of one pot meals. With little to no cleanup, one pot meals are the ultimate kitchen kick boxer, simple to make, delicious to eat and completely stress free. So what exactly is it that makes a one pot meal so versatile? Truth be told; the list of why they are not good will probably be much shorter.

Benefits of one pot

One. Pot. It doesn’t get any easier than that, well, other than no pot, but that isn’t cooking, it is just making a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. Some of the benefits of one pot meals are the fact that it only takes one pot to make a fantastic meal for you family. That being said, one pot is also much easier to clean up than a whole slew of pots and pans.

Another benefit to cooking out of only one pan is the ability to use that pan as a dish. Please note, if there is more than one person in the house, this would not be recommended, but it is a benefit for the solo chef. On a more serious note, one dish meals are generally associated with comfort foods. Since the original one pot meals were probably some form of soup or stew made with vegetables and the current hunted game, people are familiar with crowding around a table to get some grub.

Also, one-dish meals, just so happen to generally be quality, wholesome meals. Usually including vegetables, starches, and meats, these hardy dishes typically hit on many, if not all, of the different levels of the food pyramid. This keeps bodies ready for the next day of work, while satisfying the hunger of toiling throughout the day.

Simple or complex

One pot meals can be as simple or as complex as you wish. Some meals have three ingredients, while others have twenty, thirty, or even around 50. The great thing about one pot meals being as simple or complex as you want, means that the meal will only take as long as you want it to take.

No matter if you are under a strict time constraint or if you want the most savory, juicy and delicious pulled pork in the world, one pot meals are where it is at. From a 30-ingredient, 5:00 alarm chili to a Greek baked chicken; the ability to cook a wide variety of meals in one pot caters to every need and skill set. Many college kids only have one pot or pan to weather dorm life and many adults are giving up the kitchen clutter and dropping down to a single trustworthy pot to prepare all their family meals.

If you are up for a challenge, put away all of your other pans and cling to one for a week. See how that does and what meal ideas you can come up with. If things look like they are still going strong, try it out for a month. I believe you will be surprised with the amount of different choices you have available to you within the constraints of a single pan. Who knows, maybe you will be the next to adopt the single-pan kitchen life; it sure saves a lot of cabinet space.