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Healthy Kitchen Hacks #9 – Easter Edition

Healthy Kitchen Hacks #9 – Easter Edition

Healthy Kitchen Hacks is a 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 a snap.

#HealthyKitchenHacks: The Perfect Hard Boiled Egg, Easier Way to Peel Eggs, Natural Dyes for Easter Eggs, Easy Way to Dip Eggs For Dying, 15-Minute Homemade Ricotta | Teaspoonofspice.com @tspcurry

Disclosure: I’m an adviser for Egg Nutrition Center but was not asked or paid to write this post. I’m a long time egg lover and of course in prepping for Easter, you can’t get enough egg hacks!

It’s the Easter Edition of #HealthyKitchenHacks And boy did I have some ‘eggs-cellent’ fun in the kitchen with this one. From the best way to hardboil eggs to tips on natural dyes, here are this week’s hacks:

1) Trick to Peel Hardboiled Eggs
via Fresh&Easy @ #TheHacksOfLife

#HealthyKitchenHacks: Easily Peel Hardboiled Eggs | TeaspoonOfSpice.com

I couldn’t believe this would actually work; but 3 out of 4 of my ‘super-scientific’ testers (my kids!) agreed it did. We tested one pot of eggs with 1 teaspoon of baking soda added to the cold water – and one pot of eggs without. When we peeled the hardboiled eggs most of us (including me) agreed the eggs boiled in baking soda were easier to peel.

2) Perfectly Boiled Eggs (No Green Ring!)

#HealthyKitchenHacks: Perfect hardboiled eggs

Years ago, I learned this trick from the experts over at the Egg Nutrition CenterFor perfect hardboiled eggs –> DO NOT BOIL. Bring a pot of eggs JUST to a boil, cover and immediately turn off the heat. For the details + my fave Salsa Deviled Eggs recipe go here. (And don’t worry if your eggs do have a green ring, they are perfectly safe and still delicious.)

And for 19 more Deviled Eggs recipes, check out these from Cooking Light Magazine.

3) Natural Colored Food Dyes for Easter Eggs and Easter Desserts
via Jackie Newgent @ Food & Nutrition Magazine and Sally @ RealMomNutrition

#HealthyKitchenHacks: Naturally Colored #Easter dyes

To try out this trick, I took on one of the more often-artificially-colored desserts: Jello. Using Jackie’s suggestions for natural food colorants like carrots, herbs and beets – and Sally’s recipe for making natural dye concentrations, here’s what I did:

  • RED/PINK Pomegranate beet jello: 1 packet plain gelatin softened for 1 minute in 2 tablespoons beet puree + 2 tablespoons cold water. Add 3/4 cup boiling pomegranate juice + 2-3 teaspoons honey. Cool slightly, add to parfait or jello jigglers mold.
  • GREEN Apple spinach jello: Same as above; except substitute 2 tablespoons spinach puree and 3/4 cup boiling apple juice.
  • ORANGE Carrot orange jello: Same as above; except substitute 2 tablespoons carrot puree and 3/4 cup boiling orange juice.

Bonus–> Use the leftover veggie purees + a dash of vinegar to dye eggs (like I did with the beet puree to make pretty pink eggs – see photo below.)

4) Easy Way to Dip Easter Eggs For Dying
via @KitchenDaily

#HealthyKitchenHacks: Use whisk to easily color eggs

My kids can never quite get the hang of using a spoon or those wire egg dippers; so they end up using their fingers. Result: Stained, multicolored fingers for Easter Sunday.

But using a whisk to dip eggs into dye worked perfectly – especially if you like to dip and re-dip to check the egg’s color concentration. Just make sure you have a deep cup of dye – and several whisks (borrowed from the neighbors.)

5) 15 Minute Homemade Ricotta
via Lisa & McKenzie @ NourishRDs

#HealthyKitchenHacks: How to Make Homemade Ricotta

Some DIY cooking projects – while fun – just aren’t worth the effort. This one for homemade ricotta is.

And by ‘effort’ I mean: Turn the stove on, add 2 ingredients to a pot and find a bit of cheesecloth. The resulting ricotta is smooth, creamy, lightly-tangy and the most delicious I’ve tasted.

I had planned to make Deanna’s Egg & Swiss Chard Italian Easter Pie or Easter Ricotta Rice Pie with Raspberry Glaze. But the kids and I ended up eating the entire batch right out of the strainer with spoons. It’s that good.

Would you try any of these hacks? Any healthy kitchen or healthy living shortcuts to share? Shoot us an email ([email protected] or [email protected] ) or share below and we’ll try them out.

Jessica @ Nutritioulicious

Thursday 26th of March 2015

Great tips and tricks for eggs!

Serena Ball

Friday 27th of March 2015

Thanks Jessica!

Allie

Wednesday 25th of March 2015

These are all great tips. I am especially loving the baking soda in the water for boiling eggs

Serena Ball

Friday 27th of March 2015

I spoke with an elderly neighbor of mine - and she agreed, it really works. Old cooks know best!

Min

Wednesday 25th of March 2015

Yup I use that exact same method to boil my eggs. Comes out perfect every time!! What a fun idea to color the eggs with natural ingredients!! I must share this with all the moms at my church so they can have fun in the kitchen with their lil' ones ;)

Serena Ball

Friday 27th of March 2015

Beet works best. Carrot and spinach take a long time!

Tawnie Kroll

Wednesday 25th of March 2015

I love the idea of using a whisk to dip the eggs! :)

Serena Ball

Friday 27th of March 2015

Thanks Tawnie!

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