Baking for your family - healthier, faster, easier.

Tamara Nugteren


If this looks familiar, it is because this is an updated and expanded version of a previous post.  Please enjoy both versions!

I love to bake.  This works nicely with my desire to feed my family and myself in a healthy way, because I can choose the ingredients in my recipes. I can also tailor my recipes to be dairy-free, for my daughter.  But, time is also a premium when you have young children, so how can I best do both of these things when baking from scratch takes time?  No point in arguing it – baking from scratch is definitely slower than buying pre-made items or even whipping up a box mix or using premade dough for your favorite goodies.  But, just because it takes more time doesn’t mean you can’t do it – and there are lots of ways to be more efficient and make your extra work last longer.

Here are a few of my favorite time saving tips for baking:

Dedicate a cabinet to baking supplies.

When possible, keep everything to do with baking all in one spot in your kitchen.

In my kitchen, I keep all the dry ingredients (flours, sugars, baking powder, baking soda, salt, chocolate chips.), oils, cookie cutters, measuring cups, muffin cups and seasonings together.  If space allows, keep your mixing bowls there as well.   It’s a one stop shop.

Whenever you bake something, make extra.

Whenever I’m able to set aside some time for baking, I make sure I have enough ingredients on hand to make several batches.  This works really well for all sorts of baked dishes.  Everything from muffins to lasagna.  If you are going to go through the work, why not make two or three batches?  It takes almost no extra time if you have all the ingredients out anyway.

For entrées, you can usually make the entire recipe up until the bake point, like with a lasagna.   Just cover the uncooked dish with foil, write the bake time on top with a permanent marker and freeze.   Ever freeze extra soup?  No?? Oh, you have to try that.  Anything without noodles works great (the noodles get mushy…).

Home-baked cookies are THE BEST, but having an entire batch of cookies in the house is just trouble.  I personally, have very little self-control.  If I’m not feeding a large group, it’s best for my waistline to bake only a few at a time.  The best way to accomplish this is to make my own cookie dough rounds – just like you can get in the refrigerator section (except better of course!) and freeze them.   It’s so easy – you’ll wish you had done it earlier.  Start with a double batch of dough.  (Consider dividing it up into three or even four portions and flavoring each differently.  Some chocolate chip, some white chocolate macadamia nut, some M&M – whatever you like. )  Then, take a dough scoop or a couple of spoons and plop the dough down onto a cookie sheet lined with wax paper.  You can put them pretty close together since they won’t spread.  Put the cookie sheet in the freezer until the dough is frozen.  Pull them off and drop them all into a gallon sized freezer bag and re-freeze.  Make sure to write the bake instructions on the outside of the bag.  Then, whenever the mood strikes, you can bake just a couple at a time.  Or several different varieties so that everyone gets their favorite!

The kitchen tip that I use by far the most is making homemade baking “mixes”. 

A baking mix is just the recipe’s dry ingredients – premeasured and stored together.   Anyone can do that! Muffins, waffles, pancakes, scones, breads… the list goes on and on.  

For example: Find a great homemade muffin mix you love.  Measure out the dry ingredients for one recipe in a mixing bowl and two more into quart-sized storage bags. Either print-up and insert the recipe inside the bags, or write it on the outside with a permanent marker.  Remove all the air, seal it shut and put it in your pantry. Next time you want muffins, you have half the recipe already done.  Go on to finish out the recipe in the bowl.  If the recipe makes a particularly large batch, I always freeze at least half of the finished muffins in an airtight container.  Double time savings!  Some extra muffins for later and some extra muffin mixes for WAY LATER! (My family just can’t eat two dozen muffins as fast as we can two dozen cookies!)

There are so many make-ahead possibilities.  The savings are in both time and money – and of course no un-pronounceable ingredients is a great bonus. 

View this link: My Favorite Bell Pepper Recipes for recipes for Roasted Red Pepper Hummus and Veggie Packed Savory Meatloaf.  Both of which freeze well.

Check back soon - my next few posts will be some of my favorite fall recipes, all of which are perfect for making extras for later.  Homemade Tomato Basil Soup (for my garden's bountiful tomato harvest!) and the best, EASY rosemary bread recipe will be first.  Shortly following will be two of my favorite muffin recipes - Pumpkin Chocolate Chip and Chocolate Zucchinni (both of which also happen to be dairy free.) Yum!  Happy baking!