Pening kepala deciding what to cook? Here’s how you can cook a meal in 20 minutes

Quick – what’s the toughest question to answer in the whole wide world? If your answer is ‘Where to eat?’, then *ding ding DINGGGGG*, you’re right!

However, there’s an even tougher question for those who cook on a daily basis – ‘What to cook today?’.

If you ever find yourself asking that question and spending hours after hours thinking what to cook for the day (or week), then you’re likely to face a recipe burnout.

But fret not. Our sister site SOSCILI in collaboration with our friends at Prego has a solution for you – a three-step meal planning tip to help you prepare meals for your family in just… 20 minutes!

Don’t believe us? Well, let’s take a closer look at the tips that are presented by our supermom, Mrs Ju.

1. Plan your meals several days ahead

Have a specific food you’re craving? Create a list and add that recipe on it. Saw an interesting recipe online that you wanna try? Add that on that same list.

Now, with this list, you can actually plan your meal several days ahead. How far ahead do you have to plan? Well, that really depends on how frequent you do your groceries.

Let’s say you do your groceries once a week, then you can plan your meals for the next seven days. If you’re more rajin and do your groceries twice a week, then you can plan your meals for the next three to four days.

Once you’re done with this, then it’s waaaayyyy easier to…

2. Make a grocery list to prevent wastage

Since you’ve already planned on what to cook for the week, you can start listing out the necessary items to buy. But we know what you’re thinking, ‘Aiyo, why need a list? Just buy only la…’

For one, making a grocery list will actually help you from forgetting the necessary items to buy, and prevent you from buying items that you already have at home.

Other than making shopping easier, making a shopping list can also help you save money and prevent wastage. 

Once you’ve written down all the ingredients you need, be sure to double check your pantry and fridge to see which of the ingredients you already have. You can remove the items from your list if you already have them at home to prevent any form of wastage.

Once you’re done with your list and buy your groceries, you may wanna consider the best method to store them. And we just so happen to have one.

3. Clean, separate and store groceries in containers to keep them fresh

We’re pretty sure some of you are guilty of doing this…

And you would only take the ingredients out when you’re about to cook your meals. But if you cook every single day, you’d know that prepping fresh ingredients takes up waaaaaaayyyyyy more time than cooking itself. T.T

So, instead of shoving everything in the fridge after doing your groceries, you can clean the ingredients right away, cut them according to the size and quantity needed by the recipe you planned for, and store them in separate containers.

What’s even more helpful is labelling the containers according to the dates you’re gonna use them, so you can simply take them out when you need them.

Oh, bear in mind that storing ingredients properly is important to keep them fresh. Items like vegetables and sambal pastes can be stored in the fridge. Meanwhile, raw meats like fish, chicken and beef should be stored in the freezer, and you can just defrost them in the microwave when you want to cook them.

Don’t have a microwave? No problemo. Just thaw your meat or fish by moving it from the freezer to the fridge a day before you cook.

You can do this prep on the weekends or right after your shopping trip. While it might take you some time to do this on the prep day itself, it will save you a whole lot of time when you do the actual cooking!

We’re not simply saying things, because Mrs Ju showed us that she took at most 28 minutes to cook ayam berlado and stir fried kailan.

She also spent 25 minutes to cook ikan jenahak masak lemak and kacang panjang tumis. When it comes to pasta, she only spent 15 minutes to cook spaghetti & meatballs using homemade meatballs.

OMG, that’s very quick!!! In fact…

You can prepare a meal for your family as easy as 1,2,3… with PREGO!

Who says you need to spend hours in the kitchen cooking?

Using the three-step meal planning tip we presented above, you can prepare your meal in just around 20 minutes.

And if you’re still clueless on what to cook for your family even after the tips we provided, you can always turn to Prego for a tasty and convenient meal that can be prepared as easy as 1,2,3!

Looking for more inspiration to cook for the week? Just head to Prego’s website to check out more recipes and tips to cook more efficiently.