10 Time Saving Kitchen Hacks You Need to Know
When life gets busy, the kitchen is the last place you feel like spending your time. Whether it’s breakfast, lunch, or dinner, these ten surprising and creative time-saving tips will help you manage your kitchen time so that cooking and eating with your family is enjoyable and stress-free.
1-Freeze Ice Cream in a Bag
Tired of your ice cream leaving your freezer rock hard? Next time you buy your favorite carton of Ben and Jerry’s, scoop it into a ziplock bag instead. Freezing ice cream in a bag allows it to stay soft and delicious.
2-Preserve Herbs in Olive Oil
Whether you regularly adds herbs to your meals, or you’d like to start, freezing fresh herbs in olive oil is an easy and convenient way to do so. Simply chop your herbs, and fill an ice tray until each cube is 2/3 full. Afterwards, pour extra-virgin olive oil overtop of each one. You can also use melted butter if preferred. Next time you want to add some extra flavor to your dish, just pop out a cube, and toss it in.
To learn more about which herbs freeze best, check out the website.
3-Keep Your Lettuce Fresh
Don’t you just hate it when you’re craving a healthy salad, but when you go to grab your lettuce, it’s already wilted?
Next time you buy lettuce, place a paper towel overtop of it. This will help to absorb moisture, keeping your lettuce crisp, delicious, and salad-ready.
4-Roll Lemons Before Squeezing
To get the most juice out of your lemons, simply give them a roll. Rolling your lemons and oranges allows the yummy, juice-filled fibers to break open, extracting more juice. You can do this on a countertop or cutting board, applying an even, heavy pressure.
5-Store an Apple with Your Cookies
Everybody knows that cookies taste the best when they’ve just come out of the oven. Luckily, there’s an easy way to keep your cookies soft, chewy, and moist for days. Just toss an apple wedge in a tupperware container with your cookies. It’ll keep them fresh and delicious.
6-Ditch Your Potato Peeler
Peeling potatoes can be so time consuming, but it doesn’t have to be. Next time you’re preparing mashed potatoes for the family, drop your unpeeled potatoes into boiling water.
Let them cook, remove them from the pot, and toss them into a quick ice bath. The ice water will separate the peel from the potato so that you don’t have to.
7-Soften Cold Butter
If you’re having guests over, and you want your butter to be soft and spreadable, try grating it. Grating your butter will allow it to warm up and soften quickly all on its own.
8-Make a Sponge Icepack
If you’re looking for a cheap, easy alternative to a store-bought icepack for your child’s lunchbox, you can make your own! All you have to do is a freeze a sponge, put it in a ziplock bag, and you’re done. You can reuse it as many times as you want.
9-Bake Your Bacon
You may believe your bacon is destined for the frying pan, but the truth is that bacon cooks more evenly in the oven. Most chefs use this technique for crispier, tastier bacon. Set your oven to 400 degrees, and enjoy.
10-Make the Perfect Pancakes
Instead of a bowl or cup, use an icing dispenser to make perfectly formed pancakes every single time. You can even show off your artistic side by making fun patterns and designs by hand or with cookie cutters.
