Ways to make my cooking routine more efficient? I enjoy cooking. In an ideal world, I'd spend some time messing around in the kitchen four or five nights a week. But as it stands, I'm very busy, on a very tight budget, and trying to keep up with my body's high caloric demands so I can put on some muscle.

In an effort to address these issues, I've been cooking in bulk for about a year. I set aside Sunday to do my grocery shopping and cooking, and just reheat things as needed throughout the week. Not only am I dissatisfied with the results, but I am consistently frustrated with how long things take. This week's batch cooking really stood out to me in that regard.

Cooking three large servings (1500 kcal each) of chicken fried rice took 2 hours, excluding prep for the marinade (15 minutes) and marinating time (1.5 hours). An orange ginger pork stir fry (no orange sauce, just an orange ginger marinade) took me 45 minutes to prep the marinade and vegetables, and another 30 minutes or so of cook time, just for the flavors to be weak and the texture unpleasant.

It seems I spend far too much time cleaning my cast iron pans; I've yet to cook a meal on them where something hasn't been burnt on pretty seriously and required multiple passes with salt and/or fat of some sort to get off. Today, I had to resort to the water-boiling method to get some gunk off, reseasoned both pans with a thorough coating of coconut oil and still had to take 10 to 15 minutes muscling through crud on my pans between each serving of fried rice, and to add insult to injury, I'm looking at one pan and seeing some sort of white coloration on it that I'm pretty sure isn't supposed to be there.

So, with that being said, is there anything about what I've described that suggests some clear, correctable problem? Please, no suggestions that involve 'buy this thing.' I'm on such a tight budget that let's just assume that's not an option. I have to learn to work with what I have more efficiently.

I have:


a 3 Qt. cast iron Dutch oven
a 10" cast iron skillet (serves as the lid on the Dutch oven)
a 2.5 Qt. stainless steel sauce pan
a 1.5 Qt. stainless steel sauce pan
a 1 Qt. stainless steel sauce pan
a 17.25" x 11.5" cookie sheet
an 8 Cup Rice Cooker
2 4-Qt. tupperware containers
2 2-Qt. tupperware containers
4 1-Qt. tupperware containers


My weekly food budget is $40, and I'm trying to get ~3000+ calories 3 days a week and ~2400 calories otherwise. I'm going for paleo compliance as far as I can--I permit myself the use of rice because it's cheap, has relatively low phytic acid content, and helps answer my high caloric needs. But other grains are a no-no.
I see a few issues with what you've described:


It sounds to me like a significant portion of your time 'cooking' is actually cleaning.  This might mean that you're not letting the pan heat up significantly, or that you're not using enough oil.  (yes, we're trying to be healthy, but it is fried rice).
By cooking in bulk, you're likely over crowding your pan.  This would dramatically affect the texture of the final result.  (see BaffledCook's reply)
The crud that you're scraping off is likely fond, the brown bits that stick to the pan and caramelize.  What you want to do is try to deglaze between batches with some liquid (ideally, whatever you'd be using in the sauce, but without any cornstarch), but keep the now dark brown liquid to make your sauce.  If you don't save these bits, then you're dumping the flavor down the drain.
I suspect that you're making the rice and using it in the same day -- this will result in more sticking.  You're actually better off making the rice a day ahead, spreading it out to cook, then putting it in a container to place in the fridge.


Personally, to speed up my fried rice, I actually make Nasi Goereng -- while the pan is heating up, chop up an onion and whatever other veg, then make an omelette or two in the hot pan (set aside, then cut into ribbons), cook the veg, add the cold, cooked rice + your spices (I often just use madras curry powder + soy sauce, mix in the egg ribbons.