Introducing Healthy Kitchen Hacks
Healthy Kitchen Hacks is a new weekly series on Teaspoon of Spice. We'll share fellow bloggers' and our own favorite cooking shortcuts, kitchen tricks and "aha" ideas for making healthy meals a snap.
Every day, Serena and I see great tips and tricks from fellow healthy lifestyle and food bloggers - and we've been wanting a way to share them with all of you. While we most of the time always love cooking and being in the kitchen, we also love a good culinary shortcut or cooking trick.
And so the birth of this weekly series.
Every Wednesday, we'll post a roundup of a few healthy tips that caught our eye or that we tried out and now swear by. (We wanted to kick this off the first week of January but I had an epic laptop crash (Merry Christmas)....
But, now, here we are with our first Healthy Kitchen Hacks post...ever!
AND we'd love to hear from you, too! If you have any kitchen hack/tip/trick you'd like us to feature (whether you are a blogger with posts or a reader with some great ideas), drop us line at ddaly@teaspooncomm.com or sball@teaspooncomm.com. We'll try out your advice in the kitchen and then feature the best advice in a Healthy Kitchen Hacks post.
So, here are the 5 Healthy Kitchen Hacks I've been digging lately....
1) How to Clean Reusable Bags
via Robin @Dallas News Blog
This post - 5 Reasons To Clean Reusable Bags - includes an infographic from the American Cleaning Institute on how to clean all types of reusable bags. I didn't need convincing - just a kick in the butt to do so - and I have washed all of mine since that post.
Which was a month ago. So, time for a rewash.
2) How To Make Freezer Apple Pie Filling
via Missy @ Graceful Little Honeybee
This Freezer Apple Pie Filling post caught my eye when I was drowning in apples from my CSA. My 7 year old daughter eats an apple daily but we still had a bunch on hand. Using this hack, I cut the sugar from 1 cup to ½ cup and used whole wheat pastry flour.
This bag now sits my freezer for when I'm craving apple pie. Which now that I'm writing about it, I will be making one next week...
3) How to Cut Back the Sugar in Chocolate Milk
via Sally @Real Mom Nutrition
If you don't follow Sally, do so immediately - her posts are full of practical, "keeping it real" food/cooking strategies for feeding your family nutritiously. This tip came from her 5 Easy Ways To Cut Sugar In Your Child's Diet post. Simply mix ½ chocolate milk with ½ plain white - how easy is that? We've been doing this for my daughter for her morning chocolate milk steamers (made in my can't-live-without Nespresso Aeroccino Frother.)
4) How To Clean Your Microwave Naturally with a Lemon
via @TheKitchn
I tried this and it works! All you need is a bowl, a lemon, water and 10 minutes--> The Kitchn shows you how.
5) How To Cut Spaghetti Squash (without chopping off a finger.)
Serena shares the easy way to hack through a spaghetti squash (or any winter squash for that matter - she got her inspiration from Regan's Healthy Aperture video.) It works!
Would you try any of these hacks? Do you have any healthy "kitchen hack" ideas to share? We'd love to hear them and perhaps even feature them in a post!
I'm always looking for ways to make work in the kitchen easier and better. Looking forward to this new series!!
Aren't we all?? 🙂 THanks for the support!
I think that microwave cleaning tip has CHANGED MY LIFE. Love this new series!
Haha - I loved that one too!! Thanks for the kudos 🙂
Great ideas your posted today, and looking forward to this series!
Thanks much Diane 🙂
Love this new series ladies!!
Thanks girl - off to check out your 10 Grocery Must Haves....
What a fantastic idea!! I'm in desperate need of convenient short cuts in the kitchen.
And that's why we started this for sure - thanks for the support!
I'll be cleaning my microwave this AM! Love this series--- looking forward to next week 🙂
You go girl - that was my new favorite tip last week 🙂
What a great idea! Looking forward to sharing your posts with my clients!
Sweet - and if you have hacks you want us to try out & share, email me for sure 🙂
Love this idea and the new series! I'm always up for trying new kitchen hacks. Anything to make life easier, right? I wish there was a hack to instantly clean all of the dishes in my sink right now....Sigh....let me know if you find one. Thank you for including my hack, too! 🙂
Ahh, I actually do have my own kitchen hack for that - Jim! Since he's super picky about how the dishes get cleaned, he does all of them. Maybe he'll make a guest appearance with some of his dishwashing hacks...ha!
Sign me right up for this new series! I love a good kitchen hack!
Thanks much Anne 🙂 Please share any if you got 'em and we'll test them out!
Haha, spaghetti squash and I used to have a bad relationship! Now I just microwave it for a few minutes before trying to cut it!
How I feel about butternut squash - admittedly, I often wimp out and by the precut stuff but this trick really works 🙂
I love this new series and will look forward to it every week! Can't wait to clean my microwave now 🙂
Hehe - how often can you say that you say that "can't wait to clean the microwave" -- love it!
I love this series! I am totally guilty of not washing my reusable bags. Must really do that. And thanks for mentioning my sugar-slashing tip!
Of course - you always have some great tricks up your sleeve (that you share so generously with all of us.) This post was a reminder for me to rewash them as it's been a while since the first time...
Love this new series, especially the lemon trick. I use vinegar water to clean our microwave but I always seem to run out right before something explodes in there. Seeing your picture of the Blog Brulee swag bags makes me kind of sad - I tried to wash mine but it came out of the washing machine wrinkled and kind of crunchy 🙁 Probably the worst day of my life....
My reusable cloth bags are definitely more wrinkly from getting a wash but since I barely know how to use an iron, I just have rolled with it - ha 🙂
Love your new series, and anything that makes life a little bit easier 🙂 Thanks for the reminder to clean my bags!
Thanks ma'am - writing this post was a great reminder for me too 🙂
Great ideas! I'll need to go clean out my reusable bags! They all have onion skins in them
LOL - Rebecca, mine too!! They are always so trashed in the summer when I use them to pick up my CSA. I think that's when I do clean them more with the dirt, etc. that comes with farm fresh produce.
I've cut myself far too many times cutting squash! Thanks for saving me some grief (and a finger) 🙂
Glad to help - no more bandaids!
I love these tips! Cutting squash is always scary, even smaller ones.
I know - cutting squash and using the mandolin are probably my two most fearful prep jobs!
What a great new series! Can't wait to stop by on Wednesdays. Love the first one - reusable bags always give me the heebie jeebies, so I am washing them constantly!
love the microwave trick, I'm going to try it when I get home! This is a great series, excited to see what other kitchen hacks you will come up with!
THanks much - let me know if it works for you!
No matter how badly your oven is in need of a cleaning, this mixture will do the trick. You just have to combine 5 tablespoons of baking soda, 4 tablespoons of white vinegar and 5 drops of Dawn dishwashing liquid in a bowl. The mixture should make a rather thick paste. Now take a sponge and spread the mixture over your oven. Leave it to sit for at least 15 minutes – note that you can leave it a bit longer if needed. Then just take a sponge and scrub the grease away. You can scrub with a lemon cut in half with a bit of coarse salt which will take less elbow grease.
Beth - thanks for sharing this detailed tip - much appreciated! I've done the oven cleaning thing with just baking soda and vinegar before but really had to scrub. Looks like I need to add Dawn the next time.