Healthy Kitchen Hacks #20

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.

I can’t believe we’ve hit the 20th post of Healthy Kitchen Hacks. Serena and I are having such fun with this series. We love hearing your feedback and that knowing that you are having some “aha” moments with these tips and tricks just like us.

Here’s what I was hacking in my kitchen these past few weeks:

1) Use a Pizza Cutter To Chop Salad
via @Cutco Cutlery

I love me a chopped salad because I usually like the other ingredients more than the salad greens. But let’s face it, chopped salads are time consuming to make. You know – all that chopping.

Enter your versatile pizza cutter. Not only is great for cutting tortillas, pancakes and French toast, you can go to town ripping your way through cucumbers, olives, lettuce, herbs and more, like I did for this Chopped Greek Antipasto Salad.

(Note: Pizza cutter for slicing tomatoes = FAIL. Stick to your serrated knife for those.)

Cutco has all sorts of food prep tips using basic kitchen tools like veggie peelers and ice cream scoops . Do use any kitchen tools for special hacks? (Let us know in comments!)

2) What to Do With An Overripe Avocado
via Susan @Real Kids Eat Spinach

How about that sad, overripe avocado that you were waiting for to ripen and then bam, you missed a day and now it’s practically black.

No worries. Make this super simple Avocado Dressing recipe from Susan at Real Kids Eat Spinach and you got a spread/condiment for so many dishes. I slathered it on a grilled veggie panini, drizzled it over salad, and even topped it over a breakfast egg bagel sandwich.

And if you want to make it even creamier…..

3) Trick To Make Dairy-Free Dressing Creamy
via @PureWow

Add a small slice of bread to any thin dressing and give it a whirl in the food processor or blender. Voila! Creamier dressing in a flash.

I tried this with this Fresh Peach Vinaigrette from Marisa’s Roasted Peach Salad and it totally worked. In fact, it made it thick enough to use as yet another sandwich spread. (My lunches have been extra flavorful lately.)

What to do with an overripe avocado and more #HealthyKitchenHacks via @tspbasil Click To Tweet

4) How To Make Sun Dried Tomatoes in the Sun

This is a hack I did last year for The Recipe ReDux’s dehydrated food theme. Since I didn’t have a dehydrator and I didn’t want to turn on the oven, I used the sun and my car’s dashboard (really) to make sun dried tomatoes.

But if you are particular about your car (<— you might not have kids, ha!), you can use a low heated oven to perfect the art of drying tomatoes.

5) Chill Your Glass of Wine Without Ice Cubes
via Lilly @Listotic

Even though wine experts would be horrified, I’ve been known to add ice to my glass of white wine on a hot summer day (hey, it’s routine practice in Italy so why not here?)

But if you don’t want to water down your wine with melting ice, here’s a fab hack from Lilly at Listoic: add frozen grapes to your wine glass (and freeze extras to munch on later.)

Here’s a toast to cool drinks and more healthy kitchen hacks!

Would you try any of these hacks? Any healthy kitchen or healthy living shortcuts to share? Shoot us an email (ddaly@teaspooncomm.com or sball@teaspooncomm.com ) or share below and we’ll try them out.