The key to less cleanup time after dinner is to rinse it (pots, pans, dishes) before it sticks! Or as my grandmother would have said, “Reench it ‘fore it sticks!” (imagine that heavy Southern/country accent). Silly as it sounds, it’s wise advice. Particularly if you use a lot of red spices or get stuff baked on your pans in the oven like I do.
This seems easy enough, but I’m telling you I WISH I had a dime for every time I should’ve done this but didn’t. I know I’d be rich by now! But I bet you might be like me…by the time I’ve worked all day, then drive home, get supper done and eat, I’m set in stone. Nothing could be harder than for me to get right back up to rinse and put away dinner dishes…much less wash the ones that need handwashing. But doing this quickly rescues your precious time from unnecessary cleanup…I promise!
How much time?
This depends of course on the toughness of your mess. For easier messes, like maybe syrup or honey on a plate after breakfast (not our usual breakfast fare…and certainly not when on the Whole30), a little water is all you need. But often hot water works the best, even for the easier stuff.
I recently tested leaving the sauce from One-Pan Teriyaki Chicken Veggie Bake (unbelievably yummy…recipe here) to dry overnight. It wasn’t horrible…took about 2 minutes to get it off after the fact. But then the next time we had it (leftovers…SOOO good!), it literally took me only 2 minutes to get all 3 of our dishes as well as silverware rinsed and in the dishwasher. So, what might have taken as long as 8 minutes total after it had dried on, took me only 2…that a 75% time savings!
“Come on, miss mellie,” you might be saying, “it’s only 6 minutes!” Well, I can think of about 200 things I’d rather spend that 6 minutes on…AND since I cook almost every meal in a week (let’s say 20 to make the math easiest), that’s 2 hour2! Who couldn’t use 2 more hours in their week!!!
Does everything going in the dishwasher need to be rinsed?
Technically, no, for newer dishwashers (see the manual for your own machine). But most do recommend you scrape off excess food so it doesn’t clog the pipes. Hard to scrape food bits that have stuck on hard! And if you have bright white plates and have things like red spice leftover from Chorizo and Eggs (recipe here), you must get that off or the heat of the dishwasher simply bakes it into the finish (don’t ask how I know that…ugh).
What about pots and pans you handwash?
Rinsing right after you finish your meal helps here, too. When I make the Teriyaki Chicken I mentioned before, the sauce bakes onto my nice pans. Yes, I use silicone mats, but the sauce, along with the juices the chicken produces, runs over to the sides of the pans and sometimes under the mat where it makes a nice, dark, hard, sticky mess. Sticky on the plates, too, if you let ‘em dry before dealing with the problem.
Getting ‘em in the sink for a good rinse as soon as you can really helps start the process for cleaning these guys, too. They’re too big for my sink; so I put one end down in the sink and squirt a little soap at the top end, then spray some water from the top and let the soap slide down. Then do something else a couple of minutes, and it’s MUCH easier to deal with.
And I’ve got some really nice Nordicware non-stick pans. I can’t imagine the headache of pans without a good surface. Save yourself the headache and invest in the nice pans AND the silicone mats. You will definitely thank me for that advice later!
Care to save yourself some time?
Maybe I’ve been able to save you an hour or two a week if you develop this little trick as a habit. (If you already do this, good for you!) Let me know what you’ll be doing with the time rescued from unnecessary cleanup!!!
Want more on easier clean-up…
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Now this I need! Who doesn’t want to reduce their time doing dishes?! thanks miss mellie!
You’re welcome!!!