Your kitchen got a little depleted before Reading Week, didn’t it? Before you head to the grocery store and start cooking for yourself again check out these 7 tips to unlock your inner executive chef.
In the Grocery Store:
1. When buying citrus fruits (limes, lemons, oranges, grapefruit, etc), look for fruits that are heavy relative to their size. A smaller lime that is relatively heavy will be juicier than a big lime that feels pretty light!
2. Frozen fruits and veggies are super easy to prepare, contain all of the nutrients of fresh fruits and vegetables, and can be cheaper than the fresh variety. They’re worth the effort of making space in the freezer!
In your Kitchen:
3. If you always cry when cutting onions, this tip is for you! After peeling, but before chopping your onions, run the onion under a cold tap. It will help prevent you from crying. If you get halfway through and realize you’re weepier than you were at the end of The Notebook, run the onion under the tap again and you should be good to go.
4. Peeling garlic can be a pain, but garlic bread is definitely worth it, right? To make garlic cloves easier to peel, put the garlic on a cutting board and turn your knife on its side. Put the flat side of your knife (not the sharp side!) resting on the clove. (A knife with a broad flat side works best, but a smaller knife will also work.) Using the heel of your hand, press down on the flat side of the knife to gently crush the garlic. The peel will be so much easier to remove!
5. If you find you got too excited with those last two tips and now have waaaaay too much garlic and onion chopped up, don’t worry: put them into a plastic baggie or a reusable container and pop them in the freezer! They’ll still be good to cook with months later.
6. The freezer is also your new best friend when it comes to making banana bread! When you’ve got bananas that are starting to get too ripe to eat, you can mush them up and freeze them for easy baking later. Most recipes take three bananas, so you can freeze them as a group of three, or you can freeze them individually.
7. Don’t worry, we’ve got you covered for dealing with leftovers, too:
-
When heating up pasta or a rice-based dish that needs a bit of moisture, try covering the container it’s in in a damp paper towel and microwaving in small intervals. The damp paper towel will help give some moisture back to your leftovers.
-
Leftover meat and vegetables can be added to omelettes. Adding a pinch of cinnamon or cayenne pepper will help to take your omelette to the next level!
-
If you have any leftover pizza, set the oven to 350 degrees and bake it for a few minutes. It will help prevent the crust from getting soggy and might even taste better than the original!
Happy cooking!