Hi Friends!
Let’s talk Kitchen Tips & Tricks shall we? I do a fair amount of cooking and have picked up some useful tidbits over the years. I also did some scouring of the internet to help jog my memory of some shortcuts I may have forgotten and I came up with a nice little list to share with you guys. Some of you may be familiar with most or all of these, but hopefully somebody will find a helpful hint in the list that will make their kitchen life a little easier!
So here we go:
Want to quickly peel garlic?
Place the cloves in a bowl.
Cover with another bowl of the same size.
Shake vigorously!
Want to save space in the freezer?
Store leftovers or freezer meals in Ziploc bags!
Stack & freeze flat.
Doing a lot of food prep work?
Designate a garbage bowl for scraps.
Save yourself trips to the trash can.
Need to thaw meat to use for dinner?
Place in a bowl of cool water for an hour or two.
Changing the water a few times to move things along.
————
Need to thinly slice meat?
Stick it in the freezer for an hour.
It’s easier to slice when partially frozen.
————–
Making pulled chicken in the crockpot?
Cook.
Add to stand mixer.
Let mixer shred for you.
Drop an eggshell in the bowl?
Use another piece of eggshell to scoop it out.
————
Want to make hard boiled eggs that are easy to peel?
Add baking soda or vinegar to the water when boiling.
Breads & cookies sticking to pans?
Line them with parchment paper for easy removal.
Need an easy method to cut things quickly?
Skip the knife & fork.
Use a pizza cutter for things like pancakes, spaghetti, etc.
Want to get the maximum amount of juice from citrus?
Roll it around on the counter for a minute, or pop it in the microwave for 20 seconds.
Then cut and squeeze!
Measuring something sticky?
Spray or wipe your measuring cup with oil first.
Honey and peanut butter slide right out after measuring!
Want to make your own hard taco shells or taco bowls?
Drape tortillas through oven racks and bake for shells,
or use an upside down muffin tin to make bowls.
Can’t get a jar open?
Put a rubber band around the lid, then twist!
Dirty microwave?
Boil some water in it before cleaning.
The steam will help loosen everything up!
And a few more….
- Want to aerate your wine? Pour it in the blender and give it a whirl!
- Need ripe bananas but yours are still green or yellow? Bake them in the oven at 300 degrees for 20 minutes or so!
- Want to know if an avocado is past its prime? Pull out the nub on the end. If it’s green underneath, the inside is likely green. If it’s brown, you’ll likely find gross brown inside.
- Are your cookies getting stale? Brown sugar getting hard? Add a piece of bread to the airtight container and they’ll soften back up.
Let’s chat:
What’s your favorite kitchen tip or trick?
Enjoy!
–Lindsay–
Love these tips! Never thought about the taco shells before. How creative!!
You my dear are the KITCHEN HACK Queen!!! 🙂 I need to send you a colander crown! Ha Ha!
I completely agree with Gigi! Great tips. I especially liked the cooking spray in a measuring cup. Can’t tell you how many times I’ve had but butter stuck in one.
so annoying isn’t it!
I’ve clearly watched one too many cooking shows because I do all these tricks (except for the few bulleted ones at the end). I LOVE shredding chicken with the mixer- but I just use the hand mixer and I just bought that exact organic beef over the weekend and had to thaw it in a bowl of water. Ha!
you’re a kitchen pro 🙂
These are brilliant!
Umm I didn’t know like any of these… Thanks for sharing! I especially like the microwave one since Jonny always makes it a mess lol
I’ve heard to microwave vinegar to help loosen it even more.
Dude, this is absolutely genius. Bookmarking it because legit can use each and every one of them!!!
I never knew about the garlic or eggshell thing. Amazing! I’m pinning this and will be going back daily for help!
thanks angela!
Love the tips! Totally going to try the elastic band on the jar one, I swear as each year goes by jars are getting tighter and tighter!
I can’t believe it took me so long to learn to remember to freeze things flat! Haha no more lumpy bulky frozen blocks!
yes! life changing for sure!
awesome tips!
Awesome.
I can’t imagine putting wine in a blender but the other tips are great! Pinning for future reference!
These are great tips! I can’t wait to try the one with peeling garlic. If that works you will have changed my life forever. 🙂
These are golden!! Especially the one about avocado! Def needed that!
I swear by that dirty microwave trick.
which is probably more than you ever needed to know about my ‘wave 🙂
okay, i never knew about the wine one. Ha!
knew you’d like that one!
Love this- I didn’t know about the rubber band, but it makes sense! And steaming the microwave- I forgot that one. I need to try that again!
Love this list! Thank you!
Awesome round up of tips! I do a few of these myself, but some I’ve never even heard of before. Love the idea to put a rubber band around a lid to help get it off!
LOVE this! Just pinned and tweeted! Did you come up with all of these yourself?! I am definitely going to refer back to this when I’m in the kitchen! 🙂
haha no, i didn’t come up with them all myself. have picked them up from various people and places over the years!
Love these ideas!! 🙂
These tips are SO helpful, Lindsay. Thank you!
Wine in the blender sounds crazy but may just be the smartest thing I have ever heard!!
I freeze lemon water for some lemon ice cubes =)
it does sound crazy! i agree 🙂
I already do a lot of these, but I didn’t know about the steam in the microwave. That’s a good idea! Definitely doing that next time. Thanks for sharing 🙂
-Nicole
http://www.lungesandlace.com
These are so fun! I didn’t know about the microwave tip–good one to have!
Great tips! I did know a few but others are new to me. Knowing about the water in the microwave trick just inspired me to clean it!
happy cleaning! hubby just cleaned ours!
Simply brilliant tips! Thank you so much for sharing.
These are awesome Lindsay!! Will definitely use the oil in measuring cup before PB and honey… I’ve been wanting to do the muffin tin upside down for taco bowls forever, thanks for the reminder!
you’re welcome! enjoy!
You are a kitchen organizational genius, if that’s even a thing. Awesome tips and some that really should be hanging on my fridge 🙂
haha glad you found them helpful!
Whenever I make something that calls for honey and oil, I always measure the oil first! Makes it so easy.
Thanks for the tortilla tip!
I use a lot of these tips. My new fave has been amazing. I hate using my food processor because it’s so hard to get the stuff out from the lid in between the feed tube etc. I read to put a piece of plastic wrap over the top of the bottom bowl before you put the lid on. Now you can’t feed food into it but I never do anyway. This keep the lid clean and you just need to wash the bowl and blade! I have used this trick a few times now and LOVE it!!!!!!
oh i’ll definitely be trying that!
Didn’t know about the baking soda in the eggs water thanks!
I recently learned the garlic trick but now I need to start using a garbage bowl during meal prep. The clean up part is definitely my LEAST favorite aspect of prepping on the weekends!
haha mine too! that’s one of my fav tricks!
YES, that way of digging out broken eggshells is the best. I’m always amazed that it actually works. I love that rubber band trick for opening stubborn jars! I use those rubber grip mats to open jars sometimes, but it doesn’t always do the trick. Will try this rubber band trick next time!
hope it works like a charm!
So many fantastic tips! I love the scrap bowl for food prep- always use that, and the pizza cutter. I use it a lot when cutting my baked goods. It is just so much easier and smoother! The egg shell trick is amazing. It always is easier to get out with another egg shell.
oh brilliant to use the pizza cutter on baked goods!
Great, great tips! I’ll definitely be using some of these! Thanks for sharing!
I also do vinegar microwaved when I’m trying to clean the micro!
oooh good one!
These are awesome tips! Definitely need to try out the hand mixer for shredding chicken 😀
so helpful!
Great post! So many tips and tricks that I had no idea about! I make hard boiled eggs all the time and will definitely be trying the vinegar trick!
Wow. Wow. Wow. The first one was enough of a trick! The other 19 are just bonus! I hate peeling garlic. I did know some of the other ones, like cleaning the microwave (which is a brilliant trick on its own). Thanks for sharing!
haha have fun with your garlic!
So many genius ideas! I particularly love the one about scooping an eggshell piece from a bowl with another eggshell. & simply using a bowl to collect garbage when meal prepping – so simple, I feel silly for having not thought of it before!
it’s life-changing! saves me so many trips to the trash!
This is my favorite post from you EVER. You rocked it today, my friend. I’m sharing this post now with the world. Loved every tip, especially the meat slicing / freezer one!
awww thanks so much Liz!
Love these… so many I didn’t know. I feel like the rubber band/jar is going to come in handy with me living on my own…
Thanks for sharing all of these! One tip I read seems so simple, but it changed my life. When loading the dishwasher, put like utensils in the same compartment – one cup for spoons, one for forks, etc. When unloading, there is no sorting necessary!
Another one was to buy garlic in bulk, separate the cloves from the bulbs, but don’t remove the paper. Keep in a glass jar in the freezer. You’ve always got fresh garlic on hand. The paper removes easily from frozen cloves and it’s easy to chop, too.
yes! i just started doing the dishwasher trick as well! love it!
Awesome tips and tricks! Thanks for sharing!
These are all fantastic tips!
I always designate a bowl for scraps, it makes my life so much easier! Love all these tips, thanks for sharing!
These are so helpful. I will being saving these tips! Thanks for sharing.
Great tips! I particularly liked the measuring spoons for honey or PB. I am so use to cleaning it between uses when cooking. This is genius-the friction. I am definitely doing this next time. I also liked the garlic peeling tip. One that I use in the kitchen is cleaning my coffee maker. You can run white distilled vinegar through on a cycle to thoroughly clean it out on a monthly basis!
that’s a great one! i need to get hubby to do that.
I LOVE THESE! Some of them are brilliant! Great post lady… I love the rubber band thing especially. 🙂
hope it comes in handy!
This is great! I’m definitely bookmarking this page 🙂
Thought I knew all the old fashioned tricks! Loved the microwave and rubber band around the jar lid. Thanks!
Lindsay – THANK YOU!!! These are invaluable! I gotta try that rubber band on a can trick and the garlic skinning with bowls – I use tons of garlic and using the “knife-smash”method is so time consuming!
yes, def give it a try. i was skeptical but it works!
This is just awesome.
LOVED these! So many good ones. I will have to try the rubber band trick! When we use the juicer we put a plastic bag in the catch for easy clean up.
oooh great idea!
Nice, thanks so much for sharing these!
[WORDPRESS HASHCASH] The poster sent us ‘0 which is not a hashcash value.
Holy moly – these were awesome, and so so simple and easy!
this is a great post! i’m all about kitchen tips. sometimes i think people are so freaked out by cooking bc some of these things aren’t intuitive. but things like this make cooking way easier.
just wanted to share that thawing meat is best done under running water so as to discourage bacteria growth (source: http://www.thekitchn.com/kitchen-shortcut-how-to-thaw-m-111406 ). you’ll probably be ok either way but with the current state of today’s food safety with meat i’m not willing to risk it. and you can just drip the faucet so the water overflows, it doesn’t have to be gushing.
LOVING these tips! Especially the boiling water in the microwave one! Our microwave needs a clean down! 🙂
Even easier than pouring wine in a blender… just uncork the bottle and replace the cork. Shake the bottle to aerate! I learned this at a winery 🙂
Ohhhh love these! Especially the one about putting oil on measuring spoons for sticky things. Genius! I’ll have to try the garlic one, I’ve always just smashed the cloves with a knife.
hmm..i’ve never baked a banana before
These tips are awesome! I’ll definitely be using them, thanks!
Great tips! I learned several years ago to store Saran Wrap in the freezer. Much easier to roll it out when you are ready to use it.
So helpful!!! I love it all 🙂
The spraying of the measuring cup just saved me!! 🙂 🙂
Great tips!! I need to hang out with you in your kitchen to learn from you 🙂