Kitchen Hacks, Food Tips and More

Thursday, September 1, 2016
Here are more than 30 Food tips to save money on DIY tricks cleaning, preserving fruits and vegetables for a longer period, and cooking tricks.


We even have some cleaning tips since that isn't fun so some of these hacks will help you with making things sparkle easily.


The kitchen is the room of a house that everyone loves to gather in and really another living space that gets a lot of work in.


You spend time with family and friends and enjoy fun times together here.


We will show you how to keep apples fresh for up to 1 year, and how to keep strawberries and other summer berries fresh for up to two weeks!


Whether you’re learning to cook a new dish or suddenly notice a smell in the microwave, it’s nice to have a few hacks up your sleeve.


Try these kitchen tips and hacks that need to be printed and referred to as a reference when needed to make life so much easier!







Easy Peasy



I pretty much go through simple step-by-step instructions and make this short and sweet, nothing is complicated in these tips and you will save time and money.

These tricks to keep berries from getting mushy and stay fresh for two weeks works like a charm!

One I didn't add this tip for summertime pests flying around you may like to use below.

Add apple cider vinegar, sugar, and water to a bottle with a cap on it, drill a hole or poke it with a nail and hammer on top.

Watch all those pesky bugs get trapped inside the bottle that flies around, oh how I love this trick!

Thank me later, your welcome!




Keep Berries of all kinds Fresh for up to TWO WEEKS!

  1. Soak the berries in 2 tablespoons of white or apple cider vinegar in around 5 to 6 cups of cold water
  2. Soak the berries for 10 minutes. 
  3. Blot dry. 
  4. Store in a mason jar or even in the original containers



Store Apples All Winter Long!

  1. wrap each one in newspaper
  2. store not touching in a cardboard box
  3. do not store them near other vegetables like potatoes or food 
  4. keep in a cool place like a second refrigerator or in the garage but not in a freezing temperatures some will last up to a year
  5. Freezing them sliced: slice apples, soak for 5 minutes in 5 cups of water and 1/4 cup lemon juice or apple cider vinegar, pat dry lay flat on a cookie sheet, add to freezer bags frozen in freezer bags these will last for 6 to 8 months you may also like to check out Apples Tips and Fun Facts


Things You'll Learn Here and Good to know:

  • Keeping Strawberries Fresh for two week
  • Preserving Apples all Winter Long
  • Quick Homemade PicklesFancy Potato 
  • Peeling Tricks
  • Great Uses for Cooking Oil Spray 
  • Cookie Cutter Ideas
  • Preserve Fresh Herbs
  • Ripen Green Banana Quickly
  • Repurpose Egg Crates
  • Making Limp Vegetables Crisp Again
  • Burnt Toast
  • Slicing Fruits
  • Shower Cap Trick from Vacation Hotels
  • How To Make Sure Avocados are Ripe
  • Fun with Biscuit Dough
  • Hamburgers Perfectly Round 
  • Other Foods to make on Waffle Iron Hacks
  • For cleaning Tips for Front-load Washers, stainless steel  and so much more scroll down to the printable instructional card below
  • More Tips: use coffee filters to strain ricotta cheese and use to filter oil after frying, put fresh garlic in the microwave for 7 seconds it slips right off, use a toothbrush to get the silks off corn on the cob, freeze a whole head of cabbage the leaves wilt right off no boiling needed, reheating up rice items or bread items in the microwave lay a wet paper towel on top so they do not get hard,  for fresh celery immediately wash and cut it into smaller pieces then place it in a covered container full of water, where it keeps them fresh in the fridge for weeks

  • NOTE: Don't Forget to Print off this instructional list below!





Tips for all kinds of BERRIES without washing and adding vinegar:



  1. Don't remove any stems if they have them. 
  2. Don't wash them.
  3. Always use glass mason jars that are cleaned and dried. 
  4. Throw out spoiled or bruised fruits. 
  5. Set the jar in the back where the coldest part of your refrigerator temp is. 
  6. All berries stay great and never get moldy using this method.




Pin for Later!





Try Some of My Other Favorite Ideas!


Kitchen Pantry Staples

How To Cut Chicken Wings

Cookie Cutter Pancakes

Graham Cracker Christmas House


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food tips, food hacks, how to, DIY instructions, tips on preserving foods
Food Hacks, Food Tips, DIY, Instruction guide
Author: Claudia Lamascolo
Kitchen Hacks, Food Tips and More

Kitchen Hacks, Food Tips and More

Here are more than 30 Food tips to save money on DIY tricks cleaning, preserving fruits and vegetables for a longer period, and cooing tricks.

Ingredients

  • Things You'll Learn Here and Good to know:
  • Keeping Strawberries Fresh for two week
  • Preserving Apples all Winter Long
  • Quick Homemade PicklesFancy Potato
  • Peeling Tricks
  • Great Uses for Cooking Oil Spray
  • Cookie Cutter Ideas
  • Preserve Fresh Herbs
  • Ripen Green Banana Quickly
  • Repurpose Egg Crates
  • Making Limp Vegetables Crisp Again
  • Burnt Toast
  • Slicing Fruits
  • Shower Cap Trick from Vacation Hotels
  • How To Make Sure Avocados are Ripe
  • Fun with Biscuit Dough
  • Hamburgers Perfectly Round
  • Other Foods to make on Waffle Iron Hacks
  • For cleaning Tips for Front-load Washers, stainless steel and so much more scroll down to the printable instructional card below

Instructions

  1. Quick homemade pickles? Save the brine from the old pickle jars. Place the sliced cucumbers in the brine and set in the refrigerator for a few days. You can also add carrots, cauliflower, green beans, and garlic. To speed up the process parboil the vegetables first.
  2. Making Limp Vegetables Crisp Again: To crisp up wilted limp vegetables add them to ice water. Great for celery, lettuce, spinach, and asparagus.
  3. Cake pans with grooves will never stick: Mix 1/2 cup flour, 1/2 cup crisco and 1/2 cup vegetable oil and coat pan well. This method is called miracle release for a cake pan and it works perfectly!!!
  4. Burnt Toast: Have scorched cookies or toast? Use a Microplane to scrape off the bottoms.
  5. Slicing Fruits: Use an egg slicer to slice strawberries and mushrooms
  6. Shower Cap Trick from Vacation Hotels: Don't throw those shower caps away they make perfect bowl covers
  7. Fancy Potato Peel Tricks: Use your potato peeler to make curls with carrots, dark chocolate, lime, or lemon. Great on vegetables like beets, parsnips, and rutabagas to make crisp vegetable chips.
  8. More Uses for Cooking Oil Spray: Use oil spray in your measuring cups so things that are sticky like honey or corn syrup will come right out.
  9. Waffle Iron Tricks: Use your waffle iron for more than making waffles. Try carrot cake batter, muffin batter, cornbread, and brownies to make ice cream sandwiches. Works great!
  10. Preserve Fresh Herbs: Place herbs into an ice cube tray and freeze. Drop into stews, soups, and other recipes all year long.
  11. Ripen Green Bananas Quickly: Green bananas? Place in an oven at 350 degrees for 5 to 7 minutes they will quickly ripen if you need to make something like banana bread.
  12. Repurpose Old Egg Crates: Use old egg crate cartons to start and inside the herb garden. Makes a great gift too!
  13. Dollar Store Condiment Bottles: Use a pointed tip squeeze bottle (you can save and use an old cleaned ketchup bottle) to make character pancakes for the kids. Just add the prepared mix to the squeeze bottle and draw as they are cooking on the griddle. If you really want to have a quicker method, use a metal cookie cutter, fill with batter and cook on the griddle.
  14. How To Buy Ripe Avocado: Make sure your avocado is ripe, and remove the stem if brown it's overripe, light golden color it's ready to eat.
  15. Grilling Smores: For s'mores on the grill, pre-assemble using a piece of aluminum foil. Lay down the graham crackers, chocolate, and mini marshmallows in the oil-sprayed foil, and seal. When ready place on the grill. A perfect dessert. Also great when you add a sliced banana.
  16. Cookie Cutter Fun: Use metal cookie cutter shapes to make your fried eggs prettier. Make the kid's cutout sandwiches or appetizers. The shapes can be fun.
  17. Refrigerator Biscuit Dough: Make stuffed pizza using the refrigerated dough. Roll, fill, with cooked meats of spinach, and cheese cubes, and bake. Dip into pizza sauce after baking.
  18. Hamburgers Perfectly Round Using a Glass: To make a perfectly round hamburger. Roll the hamburger onto wax paper and cut them out with a glass.
  19. Stencils Using Cookie Cutters: Use a cookie cutter on top of newly frosted cakes, and fill with sprinkles to keep the shape of whatever you use, great for using age. The cutter makes a perfect shape.
  20. Reuse Coffee Creamer Bottles: Do you use creamer? Those tall bottles make great dispensers after cleaning them out with soap and water Use them for storing chocolate chips, mini cookies, crackers, and nuts to store them in.
  21. Silicone Molds and Fun-shaped Cookie Cutters for Holiday Fudge: Use molds to make fancy-shaped fudge during the holiday using metal cookie cutters to cut them out in shapes
  22. Dollar Store Disposable Gloves for Mixing Ground Beef: Wear disposable gloves when mixing meats by hand. Save you lots of time cleaning up.
  23. Freezing Eggs: Did you know you can freeze eggs for up to one year? When you're ready to use frozen eggs, thaw them overnight in the refrigerator or under running cold water. Use them as soon as they are thawed.
  24. Cake Batter Tips: Tint your cake batter with corresponding Holiday colors. Bake in a brownie-size pan. Cool, cut into shapes like shamrocks, red stars, pink or blue baby theme, or Christmas trees. Make another raw batter and drop the cooked shapes into the batter. When you slice the cake you will have a great surprise inside.
  25. Keeping Brown Sugar Soft: Place marshmallows or sliced bread inside your brown sugar bag, just a few that will keep it from getting hard.
  26. Foil Scrubbers: Use aluminum foil as a glass scrubber
  27. Cleaning Copper and Cast Iron: With a little vinegar and salt mix, you can make your copper pots look new again. For Cast Iron, place 4 tablespoons of baking soda in the pan with a little water and let it soak all the grease is removed easily.
  28. Slow Cooker Liner Cleaning: To clean the tough stains in use 1 cup white vinegar and 1/2 cup baking soda to remove stains and let it soak for around 30 minutes.
  29. Microwave Cleaning Tip: Squeeze lemons into a microwave-safe bowl with water and stir. Then put the bowl in the microwave until you start to see steam rising from the bowl, which will clean and loosen tough grease and stains. After the steam-clean, remove the really hot bowl of lemon water and wipe the inside of the microwave down.
  30. Front Load Washer Copycat Affresh Cleaner: Add 2 cups white vinegar and 1 cup baking soda and run the cycle.
  31. Sponge Cleaning: Soak a sponge in water and microwave it for one minute. It will loosen the grime inside up to be cleaned. Afterward, soak the sponge in water and vinegar and then microwave for one minute this will sanitize both.
  32. Stainless Steel Cleaner: Mix baby oil and dish soap in a bowl and dip your washcloth in it to clean stainless steel
  33. Tomato Storage: Store tomatoes with the stem end down to prevent moisture from entering the fruit too quickly. Also, storing them at room temperature instead of in the refrigerator can prolong life too.
  34. Potato Tip: Rinsing peeled potatoes with cold water before cooking prevents graying/browning
  35. Clear Ice Cubes: boil water before freezing it into ice cubes. This makes the cubes freeze into crystal clear cubes
  36. Small Appliance Waffle Iron Hacks: you can cook bacon, Omelet. Panini. Pizza. Sweet potato fritters. Baked apples. Brownies. Banana bread. Mac and cheese. hash browns, on a waffle iron
  37. Storing Fresh Herbs: place fresh basil, parsley, etc in a small baggie with a few tablespoons of water. This will keep it green and fresh for more than a week.
  38. Removing Fat from Soup: Remove fat by putting an ice cube in a hot soup or casserole. The fat will go straight to the top and be easy to scoop out with a spoon
  39. Always Heat Your Cooking Pan First: when searing or frying, heat the pan first then add the fat you're using nothing will stick to the pan!
  40. More Tips: use coffee filters to strain ricotta cheese and use to filter oil after frying,
  41. put fresh garlic in the microwave for 7 seconds it slips right off,
  42. use a toothbrush to get the silks off corn on the cob,
  43. freeze a whole head of cabbage the leaves wilt right off no boiling is needed for making stuffed cabbage
  44. reheating up rice items or bread items in the microwave lay a wet paper towel on top so they do not get hard
  45. for fresh celery immediately wash and cut it into smaller pieces then place it in a covered container full of water, where it keeps them fresh in the fridge for weeks
  46. See notes for storing apples and berries for weeks and months!

Notes

Store Apples All Winter Long!

  1. wrap each one in newspaper
  2. store not touching in a cardboard box
  3. do not store them near other vegetables like potatoes or food 
  4. keep in a cool place like a second refrigerator or in the garage but not in freezing temperatures some will last up to a year
  5. Freezing them sliced: slice apples, soak for 5 minutes in 5 cups of water and 1/4 cup lemon juice or apple cider vinegar, pat dry lay flat on a cookie sheet, and add to freezer bags frozen in freezer bags these will last for 6 to 8 months


Keep Berries of all kinds Fresh for up to TWO WEEKS!

  1. soak the berries in 2 tablespoons of white or apple cider vinegar in around 5 to 6 cups of cold water
  2. . Soak the berries for 10 minutes. 
  3. Blot dry. 
  4. Store in a mason jar or even in the original containers





Pin Kitchen Hacks for Later!



an assortment of kitchen tools for using to make foods



Make Your Own Extracts!





4 comments

  1. Good one! I knew some of these, but not all! Thanks Claudia!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Great tips, Claudia! I've done that for pickles, works great! And have to remember the microplane for burnt stuff!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Wow Claudia there are some great tips here. I'll have to save these. Love them all!

    ReplyDelete
  4. What wonderful tips, Claudia!! Have a terrific holiday weekend!

    ReplyDelete

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