Easy Cooking Hacks for Busy Moms
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It really wasn’t until I became a mom that I took home cooking to a whole other level of seriousness. Being a stay-at-home mom meant that home cooking was one way I could contribute to saving money for our family, while also providing the level of nutrition I wanted for my husband and children. But, as we all know, home cooking regularly is hard. So, I appreciate any tips that make this task easier or less time consuming. No matter where you are in your cooking journey, one thing I know that new cooks and more experienced cooks have in common, is that everyone loves a good cooking hack! Whenever I try out good cooking hacks shared by friends, family, books or the internet, it feels like real life magic! It doesn’t even matter how mundane the hack seems, if it is something that helps me save time, effort, or decreases the amount of cleaning I have to do afterwards, it’s a good one. Because I believe sharing will only give more confidence to everyone out there trying their best to cook food at home, I am going to share some of my favorite kitchen hacks with all of you! If you are looking for more tips on meal planning for your family, you can also check out one of my previous blogs, “Easy Meal Planning Tips.”
Blanch Veggies with Your Pasta
This hack was inspired by the book Salt, Fat, Acid Heat by Samin Nosrat. There’s a section on blanching vegetables and I was looking for ways to add vegetables to our diet in a way that was quick and easy! If you haven’t already read this book, I highly recommend it from both an educational standpoint or if you just want to flip through a good cookbook. After reading that book, I have been blanching my veggies in my pasta water regularly. My kids love to eat chicken Alfredo pasta, and I like to add cooked broccoli as well, for extra added nutrition. Since you will already have a pot of water at a rolling boil to cook your noodles, why not save a pot and cook your vegetables with your noodles too? You can do this by boiling your pasta for one less minute than called for, then throw your cut vegetables in at the tail end and let it cook for 1 minute in the pasta water before straining both the noodles and vegetables at the same time. Then you can throw it all into your pasta sauce and choice of protein for a complete meal in one dish. You can even take this hack one step further and use one of these clip-on silicone strainers. It’ll be as easy as straining the hot water through the clip-on strainer, then dumping the pasta and vegetables directly into your heated pasta sauce.
Peel Ginger with a Spoon
Ginger is an ingredient that is often called for in Asian cuisine, so we use ginger for a number of dishes. Since the beginning of time, I have always found the shape of ginger roots to be extremely awkward to peel with a peeler. Until one day, I saw my husband peeling the ginger with a spoon. He was just holding the ginger comfortably in one hand while using the head of the spoon to scrape away the skin with ease. I consider this method more comfortable and a bit safer.
Speed Up Boiling Water
Nowadays, I usually plan my cooking better by starting the boiling water while prepping other ingredients. But, if you find yourself in a pinch and you already own an electric kettle, starting out with hot water in your pot will bring it to a rolling boil much faster. We have had our Hamilton Beach Electric Kettle for a very long time and it is still alive and kickin’! It looks like Hamilton Beach has a newer version of the kettle that looks like it will work just as well.
Easy Peel Hard Boiled Eggs
I’ve tried different cooking times, submerging my boiled eggs in iced water, but nothing seemed to predictably make eggs easier to peel. Sometimes the shells were easier to peel and other times the shell would stick to the egg white membrane for their dear life, making for a very ugly looking peeled hard boiled egg. In the book, On Food and Cooking: The Science and Lore of the Kitchen by Harold McGee, it explained that older eggs that are boiled, peeled easier due to the changes in the size of the air sac. So, if you are looking to boil eggs, maybe wait and use the last few eggs in the carton before it’s time to refill and grocery shop.
Faster Scraps Clean Up
I‘ve been peeling vegetables over a paper towel because it gives me a lot of room to just drop scraps on the counter (over the paper towel), but clean up is as easy as gathering up a paper towel and throwing it all in the compost bin when I’m done. Another variation of this hack is just having a bowl nearby for any scraps from prepping your ingredients, then just taking the bowl and dumping it in your main compost bin.
Speed Up Avocado Ripening
Don’t you hate when you are ready to eat an avocado, but the avocado is not ready to be eaten? If you want to help your avocados ripen faster, put them next to your bananas or apples! I learned that certain fruits, like apples or bananas, release a gas that speeds up the ripening of avocados. Of course, this is not going to ripen your avocado immediately, but it is usually ready and tender to eat after a couple days next to a banana. I also realize that this hack is only a hack if you have fruit on hand and luckily, my kids like bananas so we are always ready!
Fix Oversalted Stews
My mom taught me to try throwing a potato in your stew to help soak up extra salt. So before I try to fix an oversalted stew by diluting it with water, I try to see what can be done with throwing a few sliced chunks of potato in there. This will usually soak up some of the salt without altering the thicken texture I’m usually going for when cooking a stew and who doesn’t like potatoes?! Of course, if all else fails, you can still try to remove some soup from the stew, dilute it with water, and continue reducing the soup to a thicken consistency over the stove.
Make Herbs Longer Lasting
Is it just me? Or do fresh herbs tend to go bad fast? Sometimes, I can only get cilantro to stay fresh for a couple days before it starts wilting and getting slimy. When I started using an herb saver, I’ve been able to keep my cilantro fresh and usable for at least a week. I just trim the stems and place them upright in the herb saver filled with a little bit of water. The only con to using one of these is the amount of space they can take up if you have a crowded refrigerator.
Maximize Lemon Juice
Rolling the outside of your lemons or limes against the counter or cutting board with your hand can make them easier to juice. Rolling the lemon softens the outside a bit and helps to break up the membranes inside, which maximizes the amount of juice you can get out when you cut them open and juice them.
Easy Way to Handle Sticky Bread Dough
I didn’t know I was going to be so into sourdough baking, but in my mid thirties, it’s one of my newfound hobbies. Sometimes, depending on what kind of bread product or pastry you are trying to make, the dough can get wet and sticky. I found that the easiest way to handle sticky dough is with wet hands. Having a small bowl of water nearby to maintain damp hands helps to prevent the dough from sticking all over your fingers when trying to work with it and knead.
How to Roll Out Sticky Wet Dough
Rolling out dough that is sticky has got to be one of the most frustrating things! Sometimes when I make sourdough cinnamon rolls, the dough will literally stick to everything from the counter to the rolling pin, even if you already think you floured your surface adequately. Luckily, I came across this tip in the book The Baking Answer Book by Lauren Chattman. Roll your sticky dough between parchment paper and flour. You do this by turning your dough out onto a well floured large piece of parchment paper. Then lightly flour the top of the dough and place another piece of large parchment paper on top of the dough before using your rolling pin to flatten the dough. It may stick a little to the parchment paper as your dough flattens, but in my experience, it’s a lot easier to work with. I just continue to peel the parchment paper up and sprinkle flour as needed until my dough has been rolled out to the right thickness.
Save Leftover Tomato Paste
It feels like tomato paste is one of those ingredients that requires either the whole small can when making a lasagna sauce, or just a tablespoon here and there in any other recipe. I found that the easiest way for me to keep my leftover tomato paste from growing mold before the next time I need it again is to freeze it. Just to make life easier, you can measure 1 tablespoon of tomato paste and flatten it between small pieces of parchment paper before storing it in a freezer bag to be frozen. This allows you to add exactly what you need to your next recipe without having to defrost all of your leftover tomato paste.
Correct Sour Sauces
If what you are cooking is making you pucker too much, you can correct the sour taste by adding a bit of sugar to taste. I found that this works well with pasta sauces and also Filipino food, where we tend to use acids like vinegar, tomato sauces, or calamansi in a lot of dishes.
The Order of Prepping Ingredients Matters
This is also one of my favorite lazy girl hacks. It seems like forever that I’ve been taking the time to put my ingredients that need cutting in order from least potent to most potent or dirty. I start with vegetables that do not leave a lot of oil or taste on the cutting board, so that I only really need to rinse the board or knife if needed between ingredients and end my food prep with cutting the dirtier ingredients like raw meat. This method allows me to use one cutting board and knife to prep the whole meal instead of having to use and wash multiple knives and boards.
Clean Cut Cake/Brownies
Cutting brownies can be harder than you think. The crumbs tend to stick to your cutting utensil and they build on themselves like a snowball, which in turn starts making the edges of your brownies or cake look crumbly. If this is something that you care about, you can cut your cake and brownies with perfectly straight edges by making sure that your brownies are completely cool before cutting, rinsing off your kitchen knife with cold water and cleaning the crumbs off with a towel or napkin between each slice. If you are a slight perfectionist, this tip will give you so much satisfaction.
Keep Your Freezer Bags Clean
Nothing gives me the ick more than being sloppy with raw meat. As a way to save money, I buy our meat in bigger slabs from Costco, cut them into more manageable pieces, and then I repackage them in individual freezer bags with our Food Saver to prevent freezer burn. My tip is not a new one, but keep the outside of your freezer bags clean by folding down the edges before placing anything inside. Once the meat is safely placed inside the bag, you can unfold the edges of the bag and seal it. Now you have packaged meat that you know has a clean outter package when you are holding it or putting it with your other food in the freezer.
Invest in Deli Containers
I love using deli containers for keeping and freezing leftover ingredients or food. I do like to reheat by transferring to a glass container before heating up. But, nothing can beat how easily stackable these deli containers are and how much they can actually hold while not taking too much space. I also appreciate how all of the different sized containers have the same lid size, so that you are not trying to match up lids with containers all the time.
Hopefully you learned a new kitchen hack or two (or more) from this list! I’m hoping that the more tips and tricks that we all share, it can make home cooking more manageable for everyone, especially those in early motherhood that would appreciate any kind of tip to make the daily task of cooking easier. I know there are so many more little tips and tricks out there that I’m yet to know. But, when I learn more cooking tips, I’ll keep you all posted!
