Those of you who follow my blog might remember that I love cooking and hate washing dishes. Some time ago I discovered a rather effective hack. It’s inelegant, but cuts down on dishes and clean-up time. Basically, I serve food in the containers I’ll pack it away in after. Most of the time, this is a wide-mouthed mason jar or one of my lidded pyrex dishes. It doesn’t always look the best and sometimes it won’t even fit all of the food. However, I find clean up is much easier.
All food served in mason jars is easy to clear. I screw on a lid and place it in the fridge. The mason jars take up very little space as well in the fridge and on the dining table. They are also light weight. As well, glass is non-porous so I never have to worry about harmful chemicals or old food smells. The wide mouth makes most things easy to serve or pour onto a plate for eating. Things can get a bit messy with some grains, such as rice or couscous, which are more difficult to spoon out from a jar
The best is when I can find stove-to-table cookware. I recently purchased a set of six glass storage containers that are also microwave, freezer, and oven safe. Unlike my beloved old-school pyrex, these containers have plastic storage lids. It means the lids fit better and tighter. They’re also easier to stack in the fridge. But on the flip side, I lose the ability to use a glass cover for baking things in the oven.
At the end of the meal, I’ve fully eliminated washing all the serving dishes. Although I can serve the food directly from the pan or dish it’s been cooked in, I find this doesn’t work well. First of all, the pans and dishes are often hot. This means I need to find something to put the pan or dish on. They also take up a lot of space making the table top crowded. Consequently, this can make it riskier to reach for things without accidentally brushing a hot pan and getting burned. This is likely the main reason why people transfer hot, cooked food into serving dishes.
In my mind, serving food in storage containers is great. It provides a faster clean-up time and less dishes to wash. A win all around.