Healthy Kitchen Hacks #21

Healthy Kitchen Hacks is a bi-weekly series on Teaspoon of Spice. We share fellow bloggers’ and our own favorite cooking shortcuts, kitchen tricks and “aha” ideas for making healthy meals and healthy living a snap.

Disclosure: I have done work for Zespri Kiwifruit but was not asked or paid to write this post. Since my days of living in Australia, I’ve been a long time kiwifruit lover!

It’s lucky #21 edition of #HealthyKitchenHacks So I took a look around my kitchen to share the hacks I’ve had luck with again and again. These are it! Every year when I give ‘Nutrition 101′ talks to my kids’ classrooms, their teachers are amazed when I tell them the entire kiwifruit is edible. (: Plus here are four more shortcuts for keeping a healthy kitchen! Do you use any of these?

1. How to Eat Whole Kiwifruit
Via @Zespri Kiwifruit

Yes! The skin of a kiwifruit is edible – so you can bite right into it like an apple. The Zespri SunGold yellow-fleshed variety is virtually hairless. But you can also eat the skin of green kiwifruit too, simply brush the fine hairs off before taking a bite!

Kiwifruit – with and without the skin contains a good amount of fiber. Even if you don’t eat the skin you’re getting 4 grams fiber of fiber in a serving of two green kiwifruit (and 2 grams in a serving of yellow kiwifruit.) Plus you get all of your daily needs for vitamin C.

2. How to Freeze Garden Fruits and Vegetables
Via Stephanie @Six Figures Under

With gardens and CSA shares bursting with produce, Stephanie has great tips on how to freeze veggies and fruits like tomatoes, onions, zucchini, melons, grapes, and berries. For fresh corn, check out my favorite way for How to Freeze Corn.

And as you try to get your Back to School routine down, check out more ideas from Stephanie on saving time by making and then freezing peanut butter and jelly sandwiches!

3. How to Best Cook Fish in Slow Cooker
Via @WashingtonPost

Over the summer, I grilled Lime Grilled Fish with Avocado Cucumber Salsa. But with the approach of autumn my favorite way to cook fish is in the slow cooker. As explained by Washington Post writer Martha Thomas, cooking fish in the slow cooker offers “more of a window to catch the fish at the correct doneness. And further, slowly bringing up the temperature of a protein retains moisture, so the result is more delicate.”

Plus, cooking fish in the slow cooker is quick. Once the cooker is warm, it only takes about 15-20 minutes for the fish to cook! I had yummy results with this Washington Post recipe for Thai-Inspired Slow-Cooker Tilapia.

4. The easy (and safe) way to clean your blender after smoothies
Via @Brightnest

I once heard a public health official say: The appliance that’s most likely to make people sick is their blender.

Apparently lots of people just rinse it out and don’t take it apart to clean it. Once you get over the ‘Eeew gross‘ factor, check out these easy instructions to clean your blender. They help me get the gunk out! Now I just keep a (cheap) box of denture cleanser tablets in the cupboard for quick cleaning the blender blade.

5. Remove coffee and tea stains from your favorite mugs

A run in the dishwasher can leave a ‘baked on’ coffee/tea stain on your mugs – be they travel mugs or china cups. To remove, I use one of these three ways:

1 tablespoon of baking soda mixed with enough water to cover the stain
White vinegar to cover the stain*Works the best*
Denture cleanser – When you soak your blender blade (see above) do it in a stained mug. Talk about multi-tasking!

How to freeze fruit, veggies and PBJ sandwiches + 4 more #HealthyKitchenHacks via @TspCurry Click To TweetWould you try any of these hacks? Any healthy kitchen or healthy living shortcuts to share? Shoot us an email (ddaly(at)teaspooncomm.com or sball(at)teaspooncomm.com ) or share below and we’ll try them out.