Are you handy in the kitchen?
Many of us probably don’t go grocery shopping and cook as much as we probably should. Although it can be tempting to go out to eat all the time, buying groceries and making food for yourself offers a whole new level of flexibility and nutrition. While many people don’t feel entirely confident cooking, there are plenty of little tricks and techniques to help make cooking a little more interesting and fun.
Without any further ado, here are 20 incredible kitchen hacks that will make your life easier.
1. De-pit your cherries with a Coke bottle.
Using an empty coke bottle and a chopstick, you can easily take the pits out of your cherries before eating them! Simply put the cherry on top of the empty bottle and use the chopstick to push the pit through the bottom.
2. Separate eggs with a water bottle.
First, crack your egg into a dish. Next, get an empty water bottle and squeeze a little of the air out of it. Bring the opening of the bottle close to the yolk and release pressure on the bottle. Just like that, the yolk will be sucked inside leaving the whites behind.
3. Store your spaghetti in a water bottle.
There’s not much to this one—get an empty water bottle and put your spaghetti in it upright instead of having it fall all over your pantry. You can also put some other grain in the bottom to weight the bottle down.
4. Make your pancake batter in a water bottle.
By throwing all the ingredients for pancakes in a water bottle (milk, oil, sugar, salt, an egg and flour) and shaking it up, you have an instant pancake dispenser that can be capped and kept in the fridge—just like at a professional restaurant.
5. Use an empty egg carton to hold your sauces.
Next time you buy eggs, cut off the extra stuff and keep the part that holds the eggs. Put it in the door of your fridge and store your salad dressings and sauces in the egg cups with the tops upside down. Added bonus: you won’t have to shake them when you pull them out!
6. Pin the top of a cucumber back on with a toothpick to help it keep in the fridge.
If you have a cucumber you want to slice but don’t want to use all of it, cut the tip of it off and keep it in a safe place. When you’re done slicing, put the top back on where you last sliced and pin it there with a toothpick. Next time you use it, the cucumber won’t be dried out!
7. Use a Ziploc bag for protection when cutting hot peppers.
To avoid contaminating your hands with spices (and then touching your eyes on accident), handle a hot pepper with a plastic baggie over one hand.
8. Cut an onion without crying.
Onions are delicious but they always make us cry. To avoid this, try not to make the onion “bleed” by cutting vertically through its center. Start by cutting the onion in half horizontally. Next, make cuts into the middle without going through it on each half, moving in a circle. Peel the skin off (it will be easy now) and begin slicing the onion perpendicular to your other cuts, again moving in towards the middle. Keep rotating until all you have left is the cubed center. Turn that over on its side and slice that up as well. Cover the cut pieces under a wet paper towel until you’re ready to use them. Voila!
9. Cut peppers without the mess.
First, cut off the top and bottom of your pepper so that its core with all the seeds is exposed from both sides. Carefully use a paring knife to move around the core in a circle, cutting it out completely and throwing it away with the seeds attached. After that, slicing up the rest of the pepper should be a cinch.
10. Skin your ginger with a spoon instead of a peeler.
Because ginger is so soft and it has uneven, bumpy surfaces, trying to peel it with an apple peeler can be difficult. Instead, use the edge of a spoon to gradually scrape the skin away for a safer method that wastes less of the root.
11. Peel a lot of garlic fast using two steel bowls.
Instead of peeling cloves individually, throw a ton of them in a metal bowl with the skins still on them. Put another bowl of the same size on top and shake it vigorously. If you do this for a minute or so, the cloves will be cleanly skinned all on their own.
12. Put an empty cupcake wrapper around the base of your popsicles.
We all love popsicles but they usually melt on us before we get to finish eating them. To solve this problem, simply poke the stick through the center of a cupcake wrapper and slide it up. No more drips!
13. Put a wet paper towel under your cutting board to stop it from sliding.
If you have slippery counters or you’re cutting something that is liable to move around, simply wet a paper towel and put the cutting board on top of it for more traction (and fewer injuries).
14. Reheat baked foods with a glass of water.
Everyone knows the feeling of microwaving pizza and having it come out rubbery. For pizza and similar baked foods, try microwaving it with a glass of water in the microwave at the same time to keep it from dehydrating.
15. Make your own lemon juice spray bottle.
Take a lemon and roll it firmly across the counter to loosen the insides up, all with the peel still on. Next, cut the top off of it. Next, buy a spray bottle top or else reuse one from somewhere else—but make sure it’s clean and fit it to the lemon. Use your new lemon spray to spritz all kinds of foods!
16. Keep a jar of pre-sweetened lemons for tea.
Simply slice up a lemon and get an empty jar. Each time you put a lemon in, put a teaspoon of sugar on top of it before adding another lemon to it. Finally, seal it and put it in the fridge. Next time you need sugar and lemon for tea, just grab one of the sweetened lemons and drop it right in!
17. Make your own yogurt pops.
Buy your favorite yogurt brand and puncture each cup with a chopstick before throwing the whole thing in the fridge. When they come out, each one will be its own self-contained popsicle.
18. Peel oranges the easy way.
Use a knife to slice around the orange only through the skin halfway around. Next, use your fingers to work the skin up all the way around on both halves to get the peel off in one piece.
19. Use a knife to take the pit out of an avocado.
First, use a big knife to cut all around your avocado in a circle so that the blade rests on the pit. Twist the two halves apart. Next, use the knife to chop deeply into the pit so it gets stuck (use the broad part, not the tip). Finally, twist the knife sideways to ease the pit out of the avocado.
20. Take the shell off a hard-boiled egg in one swoop.
To start, boil your eggs in water with a little bit of baking soda. Once your egg is boiled, crack the top and the bottom of the egg off carefully. Finally, use your fingers to grip the shell around the middle and blow hard on one side. With enough force, the boiled egg will come out completely whole—with no peeling!
For more kitchen tips, check out the video below.
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