Comments on: 18 Everyday Hacks For Cooking From Scratch

By: Katherine

Katherine — Wed, 16 May 2012 13:57:10 +0000

I have a toddler and try to feed him as many fresh fruits/veggies for snack instead of crackers/cookies that are more convenient. To help, on shopping days I focus on chopping/washing the fruits/veggies and putting them in the snack size ZipLock bags. Those will go in a crisper drawer in the fridge to grab quickly as we run out the door or when my toddler is fussing for a snack. It only takes about 15-20 minutes total and I can usually have enough snacks for the whole week. This would also be good for moms who pack lunches each day. I also find myself grabbing a snack bag of sliced cucumbers or apples when I have the munchies too:)

By: Suz

Suz — Sat, 25 Feb 2012 11:23:51 +0000

I usually peel my onions rinse them and the knife under the cold water tap, cut them in half and rinse again (it only takes two seconds under the running tap) then chop or dice as normal and no tears. You are rinsing away the juice
Love all these tips

By: Dana

Dana — Mon, 26 Dec 2011 04:29:58 +0000

I use $1 bowls that I got from Target. They are huge and lightweight. And the plastic is easy to manipulate to make a spout when dumping it.

By: Robin

Robin — Mon, 14 Nov 2011 18:11:27 +0000

I know this a couple years late… If you chew gum while cutting an onion it is also a trick for your eyes not to tear up.

By: Nardia Cooper

Nardia Cooper — Sat, 03 Sep 2011 21:54:27 +0000

Use room temperature eggs when baking as they provide more liquid volume than one straight from the fridge. A great way to bring them up quickly is to use a bowl of blood warm water (you can only just feel the warmth with your fingers) it will warm them up in about 10 minutes. Don’t be tempted to make the water warmer as it will cook them slightly inside the shell.

By: ann thompson

ann thompson — Tue, 09 Aug 2011 16:45:16 +0000

Hi … I went to the dollar store and purchased a large plastic bowl to use as my garbage bowl … works great !!!

By: Brooke

Brooke — Tue, 09 Aug 2011 02:36:55 +0000

I buy a box of disposable gloves – without the powder inside – from the local beauty supply store, and put on a pair before setting up hot peppers to pickle. I used to only wear one glove (the non-knife hand), but it’s safer to wear two in my house, as we tend towards the habanero end of the Scoville scale!

By: 18 Everyday Hacks For Cooking From Scratch — Simple Mom | Almost Free Food

18 Everyday Hacks For Cooking From Scratch — Simple Mom | Almost Free Food — Fri, 15 Jul 2011 21:28:48 +0000

[...] via 18 Everyday Hacks For Cooking From Scratch — Simple Mom. [...]

By: 11 Tips for Eating Healthy on a budget | CL NUTRITION

11 Tips for Eating Healthy on a budget | CL NUTRITION — Wed, 13 Jul 2011 17:43:29 +0000

[...] foods can be duplicated in the kitchen for much cheaper. Tsh shared cooking from scratch hacks in this post. Things like frozen waffles, t.v. dinners, baked goods, or prepackaged kids lunches can be [...]

By: Merry

Merry — Wed, 25 May 2011 20:32:08 +0000

I live in France and we have great produce available at our farmers market here. I also learned to love to cook from scratch by watching my grandma and mom. But what made me have to start cooking from scratch here is that many American recipes call for ready-made ingredients in the U.S. Take cornbread casserole for example. You can’t find cream of corn or cornbread mixes here, so I’ve had to learn to make both those from scratch in order to make that recipe. Another example is just about every recipe in Pampered Chef dessert books – they have good recipes but so many of them rely on boxed cake mixes or pudding mixes. So my bit of advice is that those recipes can be great and here in France they are often original and appreciated – so much more because I have to make the ingredients from scratch.
Another thing you can do to save money is to add a handful of rice or couscous pasta to ground beef or sausage to stretch it. I do that when making meatloaf, stuffed tomatoes, stuffed zucchini, etc.