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Time-Saving Kitchen Tricks

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**July 2, 2013: Thanks so much for stopping by and checking out these awesome kitchen tricks! I’ve had a ton of people coming to this post today and I’m wondering where you’re coming from! I’ve seen mostly Facebook, but what page? Thanks so much!**

As much as I love to be in the kitchen and make dish upon dish upon dish, sometimes I have days where I just wish things weren’t taking so long. Some days I wish I knew some kind of trick in that particular moment to help me get through the current task and make things that much easier, or that I had done something before to make cooking what I was making for dinner that much faster.

Recently I decided to go on a hunt to help solve my dilemma. I’m sure I’m not the only one out there who would love a few tricks to save some time in the kitchen! I’m happy to say that I found a whole bunch of ideas that I’m so happy to share with you today. A few of these I’ve already used and I don’t know how I was working in the kitchen without them! Drum roll, please, and in no particular order…

#1 – Summer Ice Cubes 
Add pieces of fruit to your ice cubes for added color and flavor to any cool beverage. Lemonades, water, soda, etc. You can do this with any fruit you’d like! Here are some ideas for lemons, blueberries, and mint leaves:
 Mint ice cubes: Add several mint leaves in hot water until water gets enough minty flavor (take out the leaves because they turn dark). Add fresh mint leaves to the mint-flavored water once it cools down and freeze.
Lemon ice cubes: Add lemon juice and lemon slices to water and freeze.
Blueberry ice cubes: Add fresh blueberries to water and freeze. 
#2 – Use a heating pad to get bread to rise faster
Whether you have a frozen loaf of bread in the freezer or you’re making it from scratch, this trick is simply wonderful! Take those frozen loaves out of the freezer, place them in pans on top of a heating pad and crank that heat to high. You’ll see the magic happen when the dough rises extra fast for you. Talk about a time saver! 
#3 – Use a drywall mud knife for cutting cakes and bars
Who would have thought? 
Get a drywall mud knife (keep in your kitchen and use it there only) and use it to cut super clean squares in your cakes, brownies, and other bars. And you can wash it in the dishwasher!
I saw this idea on Pinterest but there was no source attached to it. Whoever you are, you’re a genius! Thank you!
#4 – Put pancake mix into a squeeze bottle
This is one of my favorite time-saving kitchen tips. Making pancakes can be such a mess sometimes. It’s amazing how clean pancaking making ended up being after I put the mix in an empty (and clean) ketchup bottle. You just squeeze the desired amount of mix right into the pan and you’re set! I love this idea! 
(For more awesome kitchen tricks from this source, click here!)
#5 – Make eggs for a large crowd in a muffin tin
Have you ever wanted to make eggs for a group of family but you don’t have enough pan space for so many? You don’t want to have to keep making eggs upon eggs upon eggs in the same pan, so what do you do? Enter the muffin tin.
Talk about a time saver! Put the eggs in your muffin tin and pop them in the oven to get a dozen people eggs just like that. This is also a great trick for making Egg McMuffin-style breakfast sandwiches. The eggs come out to be the perfect shape.
#6 – Stacking pans
 Stacking pans as opposed to nesting them means you can remove one without having to remove them all. Turn a vertical bakeware organizer on its end and secure it to the cabinet wall with cable clips to prevent the whole thing falling over. I love this idea!
#7 – Make individual portions in freezer bags
I love this idea not just for saving time, but for saving freezer space. I don’t know about you, but my freezer is full of rolls of ground beef that I got from the butcher. And they take up more space than I’d like. This idea is awesome because of how flat the meat can lie down. In this case, she has portioned out the meet to make hamburger patties. Here’s what to do:
  •  Place the meat in a large freezer bag and flatten as much as possible, eliminating air pockets.
  • Use a long chopstick or ruler to create divisions within the food, forming individual portions. When you freeze the entire bag you’ll be able to quickly break off just as much as you want to use and more. Everything else stays nicely sealed. 
This also works great for sauces! 

Alli
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Comments

  1. Kimberly Odasso says

    Ok, I am making a huge batch of those lemon ice cubes today! Thanks for the idea! I love putting lemon slices in my water, but I almost never do because I don’t want to cut up an entire lemon for just one slice.

    Reply

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