Blog #107: Whether your in the kitchen cooking or baking we would all like to make life a bit easier. Don’t get me wrong. I love being in the kitchen creating new dishes. However, I cook breakfast, lunch and dinner everyday with one day of the week we order pizza or sushi. I prefer to move things along most days! These aren’t just any hacks I am sharing with you, but hacks that I use frequently to make my days easier. Here are 20 hacks that I use every time in the kitchen!

20 Hacks:

1. Have an ongoing grocery list on the fridge to add items needed.
2. Plan meals for the week.
3. Save pasta, olive and peanut butter jars. Reuse them to store chocolate chips, nuts, pastas, seasonings, etc. Use them as cups for smoothies!
4. Brown sugar hard as a rock? Microwave for a few seconds or run bag/glass jar under warm water to soften.
5. Have fruits washed and cut for easy access in the fridge. Grapes, watermelon, cantaloupes and pineapple are good choices when you want a quick snack.
6. Celery wilted? Store in jar filled with water in the fridge. Comes back to life!
7. Cold butter? Use a cheese shredder to spread butter easier.
8. Rinse strawberries in water and salt.
9. The small hook attached to the vegetable peeler is used to remove the potato eyes.
10. Use the premade salad bag to mix the dressing instead of using a bowl. Open the bag like a bag of chips. Add the dressing and extras, such as croutons and cheese. Close the bag holding tight with one hand and hold the bottom with the other and shake salad to mix dressing. One less dish to wash!
11. Wash your salad using a salad spinner. Remove the inner bowl, dry the bowl and serve salad in the same bowl.
12. Cook bacon first and reserve some of the bacon fat. Then cook vegetables in the same pan.
13. Thaw out meat in in the fridge the night before.
14. Store green onions in a jar filled with water.
15. Want sweet chicken or beef? Add some honey to the meat or right before adding the meat to the hot pan, add one to two tablespoons of white or brown sugar.
16. Baking? Instead of using oil substitute for applesauce. I like to purchase applesauce cups and they happen to be the right measurements for most boxed cake and brownie mixes.
17. Wrap herbs and greens in a paper towel to keep moisture out and last a week instead of a few days!
18. Wipe microwave after each use. Less gunk build up.
19. Water boiling over pan? Lay a wooden spoon across the pan. No more boiling over!
20. Add turmeric powder to your eggs. Helps reduce inflammation and you can’t even taste the difference in your eggs, if you don’t like the taste.

I’d love to hear of any hacks you use in the kitchen that are your go to!

Enjoy!