One of the first steps in learning to handle your time is learning to organize your kitchen for effective meal planning and meal preparation. Once you get your kitchen is in order, you will notice that the time it takes for you to cook is more manageable and you spend less time in the kitchen.

When you are arranging your kitchen there are a few things you should pay close attention to. All of your food, utensils, and equipment should be arranged conveniently for fast-paced work. Don’t put your staples on one end of the kitchen or even in the garage where some of us store extra food. Keep everything local so that when you go into the kitchen, everything is right there.

Clean out your pantry and refrigerator of all items that you don’t use, forgot existed, or simply have no need of. Get rid of old appliances, dull useless knives, stuff you have had in the refrigerator for eons that is starting to cake-up under the lid or looks green when it was once yellow. A clean pantry is a happy pantry and a clean refrigerator smells heavenly.

While you are cleaning why not include your counter tops, stove, and the rest of your kitchen. Who says Spring Time is the only time to clean?

This next one, I speak of often. Have an adequate food supply. Keep your food cabinets, refrigerator, and freezer stocked with quick-to-fix ingredients that can be used in a variety of ways. Pasta, canned beans, frozen vegetables, tofu, canned tomatoes, peanut butter and jelly (I am not above a good PB&J for dinner), and other convenient yet healthy items should always be in your pantry. An adequate food supply keeps down trips to the grocery store and makes cooking much more enjoyable.

Another biggie for me is to get some ideas for meals. Maybe you are not big on meal planning two weeks ahead of time, You might like to do yours one week ahead of time. But, I cannot get around encouraging you to try to plan at least some meals in advance. This can be as simple as making a mental note of what you’ll have for dinner tomorrow or pulling out ingredients an hour or so before you prepare dinner.

Ever thought about having a Game Plan? Not for playing a game, but for easy meal planning and preparation. Read recipes ahead to be sure you have all ingredients on hand. Keep stock of what is on hand. Make sure your pantry is neat enough so that it is easy to get to what you need.

The Game Plan is to have a logical order for tasks in preparing meals for your family.

Try an organizing coach. An organizing coach can help you plan and execute ideas to keep your kitchen tidy and prepared, helping to make your food cooking time easier. At the Vegan Meal Helper, we have a new organizing coach on board. Cara Mirabella, The Household Helper, is the girl to go to for your organizing needs and she is a part of our coaching team.

The main idea here is to encourage you to get organized and stay that way so that you have a more proactive time in the kitchen.

Focus your preparation efforts on one portion of the meal. You don’t have to make every meal component intricate. If the main dish requires a great deal of attention fix a simple vegetable or salad to go along with it. If the main dish is something like Boca chicken patties, dress up the vegetables or add an interesting side dish.

Prepare ahead. Thaw frozen tofu out the night before or in a bowl of cold water with salt three hours before cooking time. If you are doing cooking dry beans opposed to can use a crock pot and put them on the night before or in the morning on the lowest setting.

If you know that you will be using onions, garlic and herbs that week why not prepare them and keep them in air tight containers. All you have to do is pop it open and add the desired amount to your dish.

Assemble equipment, cooking utensils, and ingredients before you start meal preparation.

Create one-dish meals and save cleanup time.

Use containers. They are great for storage of dry goods and left overs.

Enlist Your Family. Have your children or other household members help with simple food preparation steps, setting and clearing the table, or washing dishes.

Collect quick and easy menu ideas and recipes. Jot down whole menus as well as recipes. Look for recipes that have just a few ingredients and those that call for ingredients you usually have on hand.

Be proficient. Make your cooking efforts really worthwhile. On weekends, for example, if you prepare pancakes, waffles, or French toast for breakfast, make a double or triple batch and freeze the extras. When you make foods such as soups, stews, chili, or spaghetti sauce, make extra and freeze in meal-size portions.

Keep inventory of your pantry. This includes your refrigerator and all places that food is kept. Create a list for the areas where food is stored and tape it to the inside door (outside if freezer or refrigerator). As you run out of items you can place a check mark next to it to that you when you can add it to your shopping list.

Using smart time-saving strategies will not only help you stay on the ball, but your cooking efforts will not seem so tedious either.

With time saving strategies and a well organized and equipped kitchen you can succeed at vegan food preparation and cooking.

Your meals can be planned with more precision, your kitchen will run more competently and you will be able to have time for more valuable things like family game time.

The fact is that it isn’t a secret at all. It was actually good planning and preparation on their part. If we follow suit and heed the non-verbal actions of our savvy mothers then we too can see our dollar stretch further.

What we have on hand will determine how far our food will go. Filling your pantry with a few useful staples can be the difference between a trip to the grocery store every week versus once or twice a month. With a few key staples you can create wonderful meals.

Flour. Flour is a starter item for many recipes. You can add it to some water or vegetable broth and make gravy in the pan for many vegan meat dishes. Flour is also used to make bread (biscuits, rolls, loaves). During lean times or to just save a few dollars, you can make dumplings with flour or fix some brown rice and top it with gravy. If you choose to make the dumplings you can add some apples, cinnamon and brown sugar for a very yummy desert.

Rice. When we think of rice, we think of a plain side dish. While it is true that rice is a side dish, it doesn’t have to be plain. It can be me the main attraction in a vegan meal depending on what you do with it. It can be jazzed up with veggies to accompany dinner. You can steam some broccoli and mix it with brown rice, vegan butter, nutritional yeast, garlic powder, and a little sea salt to taste. It is an economical meal that tastes great and goes a long way. Rice can also be mixed with tofu or Boca crumbles and a vegan friendly cream soup to form a casserole. Rice has many uses and you’re sure to find a few that your family will love.

Pasta. There are many different pasta choices and all have great uses. Manicotti can be stuffed with tomato sauce and vegan cheeses. Macaroni can be used to make a creamy salad and also is great combined
with nutritional yeast or spaghetti sauce. Spiral pasta is used in many different pasta salads. Spaghetti
can be used in a casserole topped with vegan cheese or in the traditional way with tomato sauce and a vegan meal alternative or a lot of chunky veggies.

Spices. There are other ways to season food besides salt and pepper. In fact, many spices taste better than salt. Even die hard salt-a-holics won’t miss the salt in foods if other seasonings are used. Cayenne pepper, chili powder, nutmeg, cinnamon, oregano, and garlic powder are all useful tools in your flavor arsenal to give foods a fresh new taste.

Beans. There go those beans again. Beans can top your salad, fill a taco shell make an awesome dip, and go well with grilled foods. They provide a good source of protein with very little fat. Beans are good in soups, stews, and over rice for a simple yet filling meal.

Do you have these staples in your kitchen? You can probably think of several more that you can add to your pantry that will help you save money. Start with the ones listed and expand your own list of basic kitchen staples that are versatile and economical.

How does a vegan family save while eating the foods they are used to? You improvise of course!

Instead of buying a pack of Boca burgers or crumbles, why not make your own. Items like beans, rice, flour, and even masa flour can make great burgers. You can also make a “meat” loaf with many of the same items. You will save a few dollars and have even more control over what you feed your family.

A cheaper alternative to items like Boca Crumbles or Morning Star Chicken/ Beef strips is TVP. TVP comes in a variety of styles like chicken, beef, taco, and even sloppy joe. They range in size from strips to chunks to crumbles and are very tasty in foods like burritos, spaghetti, and chili. Many schools use TVP as a cheaper alternative to cooking with real “meat”.

You also have the options of shopping at places like Sam’s Club, Costco’s, GSF, or whatever bulk warehouse stores are in your area.

Keep in mind that your family will receive the best benefits from eating whole foods. So buy more fruits, vegetables, whole grains and legumes. They are cheaper and healthier. Now that’s a deal!

What are your vegan foods saving tips? Comment and let us know.

So why not make your own.

Making homemade pizza can become a great new family tradition. Choose a day of the week when everyone can get together and enjoy the experience. You can even pretend that you are in a real Italian eatery and go all out by decorating the dining room table to resemble a pizzeria.

The best thing about homemade pizza is picking the toppings. Since it is your personal pizza, you can have as many different toppings as your heart desires. It’s a chance to raid the cabinets and the fridge to find good stuff to top your creation. This is also a good way to get rid of left over chopped veggies or vegan ground meat before it goes bad.

How will you prepare the crust?

Now, this step can be easy or an adventure. If you decide to go the easy route you can use pita bread, chapatti, or flat bread. There are even vegan friendly pizza crusts available.

It you want to treat the family to a high time of flour and dough, choose to make your own crusts. If you make your own you can customized the size of the pizza for each person in the family. Making your own dough crusts will also make use of those handy pantry staples. You can find a classic pizza dough recipe on the Internet and in just about any cookbook, so find one that you like, veganize it, and have fun.

When the dough is ready, shape it into a circle of appropriate size. Create a rim on the dough so that the sauce won’t bubble over onto the oven rack. Now comes the fun part. The dough is ready for the fixings.

For the sauce, you can use prepared pizza sauce or even marinara will do. Spread the sauce over the dough and be sure to cover it to the rim. Next, top the pizza sauce with your favorite vegan cheeses. Next have each family member to choose their topping of choice and spread it over the top of the sauce and cheese. I usually add some extra cheese and sauce over the top of the veggies because I love a cheesy piece of pizza. Don’t forget the spices. It wouldn’t be a pizza without oregano, basil, and some thyme.

Want to have even more fun with your family pizza creations? See who can make the wackiest pizza. Throw a little leftover tofu or vegan ground meat on the pizza. How about jalapeño? They are good for those who like it hot.

If you have at least two baking stones or pizza trays, you can make more than one at a time. Everyone can help to clean up while you wait for dinner to be ready. When the timer goes off, Bon ApetÍt!