Categories
Motherhood

15 Ingenius Cooking Hacks From Top Chefs

Ah cooking, so necessary for life and yet so easily messed up. Who among us hasn’t tried to save money and up our health game at home only to discover that cooking isn’t as easy as it looks on YouTube. (Reality check: Is anything ever as easy as it looks on TV? No, no it is not.) That doesn’t mean you should give up on your culinary dreams or settle for repeat dinners of plain chicken and rice, though. The internet to the rescue! The web is rife with cooking tips—you’ve probably read tons of basic articles explaining how to use frozen bananas in smoothies or cook bacon in the oven—so we talked to professional chefs to get the tips you probably don’t know. Prepare to have your mind blown.

Make speedy guacamole

HealthyWay
Alex Zivatar

Guac is a staple at barbecues, on tacos, and eating off a spoon for a late-night snack. (Hey, we don’t judge!) But there is one serious downside to the healthy dish: prepping it is a slimy, green pain. Speed up your avocado prep by smashing the ripe fruit through gridded cooling racks—think the kind you put cookies on. “It gets the job done in a fraction of the time it takes to scoop and mash avocado the traditional way,” says Olivia Colt, chef, and owner of Salt & Honey Catering + Events in Berkeley, California.

Take the mess out of eating seafood

Lobster, shrimp, crab, mussels, and clams are all a great source of healthy protein. They’re also all a great source of smashed fingers and lemon-juice covered cuts if you’re not careful. But there’s an easier way to have your lobster and eat it too says, Richard Vellante, Executive Chef at Legal Sea Foods in Boston, Massachusetts.
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Take a wine bottle (you know you’ve got one on the table anyhow!) and roll it over the lobster parts. It will break up the shell, allowing you to get every last bite of the sweet meat out. If you’re having clams, he recommends going full cavewoman and using rocks to break open shells. They work better and are less expensive than special tools. Lastly, he says to use an empty mussels shell like tweezers to pick out the meat from other mussels if you are eating a steamed mussel dish.

Mix without the mess

Anyone who’s ever got a little too enthusiastic with their stirring knows how quickly it can go from “Oh, look, my egg yolks are getting creamy!” to “Oh, look, my kitchen is tie-dyed!”
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Fix this chronic dilemma with a common kitchen item: A towel. “Roll a moist kitchen towel and shape into a circle for the base of a bowl on the counter, and it will prevent it from sliding when you are whisking something in it,” Valente says. Genius!

Stop chopping garlic

Eating garlic is delicious! Peeling, chopping and dicing garlic is… not fun! Not to mention it makes your fingers smell like old Italian food for the next week.
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Simply your garlic-infused recipes with this one simple swap, courtesy of Vellante. “Just buy a zester,” he says. “Instead of chopping fresh garlic, just zest it into a dish.” If you’re worried about flavor transfer between your scampi and your lemon creme pie, by a separate zester just for garlic and label it with a Sharpie.
Tired of peeling garlic by hand too? Try this hack to make separating garlic cloves a breeze– plus learn how to cut onions and peel eggs the easy way!

Prep like a chef

HealthyWay
Alex Zivatar

Forget the fancy knives or elaborate recipes, when it comes to cooking efficiently seasoned chefs have one rule they swear by. Called “mise en place”—a French term that you don’t have to be able to say to use—simply means having all your ingredients prepped, measured and within arms-length before you start cooking. “Making sure you have everything you need prior to starting a big project in the kitchen takes out the guess work and allows you to focus on what you’re creating,” says Shane Graybeal, the Executive Chef at Sable Kitchen & Bar in Chicago. “Ultimately it makes cooking less stressful and more fun. And you know you won’t forget that one crucial ingredient.”

Grow your own spices

Fresh herbs and spices are one of the things that make restaurant food taste so much better yet many home cooks feel like they’re too costly or time consuming to use every day. The simple solution? Grow your own!
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The quality is so much better and it will give a fresh, professional flavor to your dishes for mere pennies, Graybeal says. Plus, little pots of fresh herbs—think basil, oregano, thyme, and mint—make beautiful kitchen decorations and are harder to kill than you think. (No green thumb required!)

Hack your butter

Warm chocolate chip cookies are one of life’s greatest pleasures but they’re not all created equal. But instead of searching endlessly for the “perfect” recipe or signing up for emails to get the “$1,000 secret Neiman Marcus recipe” (hint: that’s not a real thing, it’s basically Betty Crocker), there’s an easy way to make any cookie recipe taste professional: Amp up your butter. People think butter is butter but it’s not, explains Jill Galera, the Director of Catering at The Grand Hotel Minneapolis. “I use European butter, like Kerry Gold or Plugra. The fat content is higher and makes cookies (and everything else) taste more decadent.”

Peel tomatoes in a flash

HealthyWay
Alex Zivatar

Peeled tomatoes are the base of many a delicious sauce but they’re also—what’s the technical term?—a massive pain in the butt. If you think peeling an apple is time-consuming, try peeling a tomato. But don’t give up on your favorite fresh marinara yet, Chef Dennis Friedman of the award-winning restaurant Shouk has a pro tip. Start by making a small “x” on the top of the tomatoes with a paring knife, cutting just through the skin. Drop the tomatoes into a pot of boiling water for ten seconds and then put them directly into ice water for five minutes. “The boiling water will loosen the skin, making them super easy to peel,” he assures.

Grate your butter instead of spreading it

Make buttered biscuits, garlic bread, rolls or other baked goods characterized by their buttery glaze even faster with this super simple kitchen hack from Natalia Levey, a certified nutritional chef, and founder of Healthy Intent. Use a cheese grater to grate cold butter to evenly distribute it over your baked goods. It’s faster and easier to control than a butter knife.
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Don’t thaw your frozen veggies

Frozen vegetables get a bad rap for being mushy and bland but they (and you) don’t have to suffer this fate. The trick is to not thaw them before you use them in a recipe. Simply add them—still frozen!—to hot pasta, grains, or soups. “This helps to both flash-cook the veggies and quickly cool off the rest of the dish,” says Melissa Eboli, personal chef and certified nutritional chef. “The vegetables are essentially blanched so they are still crisp, and hold most of their nutrient density. It’s a healthy trick and a time saver too.”

No more sticky situations

Got a mad craving for peanut butter cookies? (Same, girl, same.) Avoid a sticky situation with this trick from Ruthy Kirwan, founder of Percolate Kitchen.
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“When measuring peanut butter, honey, or other sticky things, lightly spray your measuring spoon or cup with cooking oil,” she explains. “It helps the ingredient slide right out and you’ll get a more accurate measure.”

Peel garlic with a plate

For something so little, garlic can sure cause a lot of drama in the kitchen—especially when it comes to prepping fresh garlic. The first step is always peeling off the sticky, papery coating… which is often enough to send people running for the expensive jars of pre-chopped. Before you do that, however, Kirwan is here to save your wallet and your fingers: “When peeling large amounts of garlic, place the whole cloves in a small bowl and cover with a plate. Shake the heck out of the bowl; when you remove the plate, the paper will have come off the cloves! No more peeling with your nails and fingers,” she says.

Use your slow cookers to do some fast cooking

HealthyWay
Alex Zivatar

Slow cookers are great for more than just cooking stuff slowly. Most models have a “high” or “sautee” setting, allowing you to skip a step or three in your recipe and cook everything in one pot, says Scott Leysath, the Sporting Chef and host of the TV show of the same name. “Set it to ‘high’ first and then use it to brown your meats to seal in flavor and make them more tender,” he explains. To take your humble Crock-Pot meal truly next level, he adds you can then use wine to deglaze the bottom (that just means pouring it into the bottom of the pot and scraping the browned bits stuck to the bottom into it) to add another level of flavor to your dish.

Chop cherry tomatoes in a flash

Halved cherry tomatoes are the perfect garnish for salads, pasta, and sandwiches but cutting the tiny, slippery balls can have you chasing them all over the kitchen—and cleaning squirted seeds off your cute top.
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Avoid the mess and the hassle by using two plastic lids, says Mike Ledesema, Executive Chef of Kabana Rooftop in Richmond, Virginia. Simply sandwich the tomatoes (yes all of them!) between the lids and run a sharp, large chef’s knife through them horizontally, cutting between the lids. Poof, halved tomatoes in ten seconds!
Check out how to do it, plus a few other veggie chopping hacks, in the video below!

Make vegetable dishes sing with this sneaky trick

Let’s face it: We could all stand to have a few more veggies on our plates. Yet when it comes to flavor, many feel vegetables just aren’t as satisfying. Thankfully there are ways to trick to your taste buds, infusing veggie dishes with a savory umami flavor that will have even the pickiest eaters asking for more.
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“Whenever I make a vegetable soup or dressing or even grill vegetables, I always use two tricks to bring out ‘meaty’ flavors,” says Justin Cucci, executive chef and owner of Root Down, Vital Root, Linger, Ophelia’s Electric Soapbox and El Five in Denver, Colorado. “First is replacing some or all of the salt with soy sauce as it has a richer flavor. Second, I like adding a small amount of chipotle spice—it evokes the smoky-sweet goodness of bacon.”

Categories
Motherhood

12 Underrated Parenting Products That Work

I will never forget the first time I tried to put together a baby registry. I was expecting my first, and I had set aside an entire evening to scan all of my must-haves for my little girl. I prepped in advance with a list, thinking I had done the hard work already.
When I got to the store, however, I realized the hard work had barely begun. It hadn’t been enough to write “bottles” and “car seat” on my list, I now had to decide between countless brands and their various models. I was so overwhelmed that I left the store with just a handful of items on my registry.
A lot has changed since then. I’ve had three babies, and I’ve owned countless products and gadgets marketed at parents and their offspring. I’ve spent too much. I’ve bought things I never used and done without things that probably would have made life with a newborn much simpler. Perhaps most importantly, I’ve learned that you can’t always trust marketing.
Some items seemed like a must-have, based on how heavily they were marketed online and in stores, but they just ended up taking up space in my home. Others were never marketed as must-haves but ended up being the life-saving parenting products I refuse to do without.
That had me wondering: Are there other products I’m missing out on simply because they’re underrated or don’t have endcap displays on the aisles at box stores? I did some digging around and found a whole list of products that moms and dads swear changed their lives.

1. The Solution to the Very Worst Rash

Most moms have a rash cream they love for everyday use, but when the worst of the worst rashes occur, complete with raw skin and blisters, not all butt pastes are created equal. Honestly, there are a lot of gimmicky products on the market, from expensive all-natural options to strange old wives tales like rubbing your baby’s bottom in egg white.
Don’t go searching for a fancy paste; sometimes simpler is better. Moms know that good old-fashioned Desitin is completely underrated. Desitin contains zinc oxide, a mineral that is completely safe for baby skin and speeds up healing.

2. Need an extra hand? This product makes that possible.

HealthyWay
Daniel Wiseman

Babywearing isn’t reserved for “crunchy” moms; any mom who needs an extra hand can benefit from keeping a good carrier handy.
“Three of my four kids always wanted to be held,” mom Anna told me. “Currently, it’s the twins and it’s constant. I can get a lot done with them strapped to my body and they love it. Win–win and total life saver for me!”
Finding a good carrier is important. Meghen Jones, chapter president of Babywearing International Kansas City, explained what moms should be looking for when they’re shopping:
“I usually tell new parents is that the best carrier for them is the one that fits their body, their baby, and their budget. You want a carrier that holds baby snug and close. ‘Close enough to kiss’ is a good rule to remember.”
Some of the most popular options are soft structure carriers created by Tula or Lenny Lamb, ring slings by a brand called Sakura Bloom, and budget-friendly options by Ergo Baby.

3. Your New Best Friend the Next Time Your Baby Has a Cold

HealthyWay
Daniel Wiseman

No one really tells you that you’ll leave the hospital with your baby and a random assortment of baby paraphernalia, from newborn diapers to a thermometer and a feeding log. As much as I appreciated these little gifts, there was one product I hated using—the bulb syringe. Wrestling a screaming infant to suck snot out of their nose isn’t for the weak.
When my second baby arrived, a friend bought me the NoseFrida, and I never looked back. This snot sucker allows Mom or Dad to gently clear Baby’s nose so they can breathe easier without all of the drama.

4. The Nursing Cover That Does It All

Babies come with so much stuff. Even when you stick with the essentials, it’s easy to feel like a pack mule, lugging diapers, spare outfits, and nursing covers from place to place. So whether you’re registering for baby gear for the first time or looking for ways to cut back on what you already own, a three-in-one product is something you can’t ignore.
The Milk Snob Cover is the multifunctional baby gear of every mom’s dreams.
“It’s a nursing cover, car seat cover, and stroller cover. You used to need three different products for those things and now you just need one!” Mallory, mom of two, told me. “It washes so easily and takes up so little space in the diaper bag.”

5. A $3 Purchase That Will Cut Your Laundry Loads in Half

HealthyWay
Daniel Wiseman

If life as a mom were broken down on a pie chart, laundry would undoubtedly get a monster slice of the pie. Anything that will shrink that mountain of dirty clothes hiding in your closet is an essential.
Enter the KLADDIG Bib from IKEA. It’s more than a bib, really. It’s a poncho that protects your toddler’s clothes from everything from spaghetti sauce to those inevitable stains that watermelon leaves behind.
“Full-sleeve bibs are my holy grail item,” mom of three Lauren told me. “Saves me from doing so much laundry.”

6. Ignore the judgey moms and buy this for your “runner.”

HealthyWay
Daniel Wiseman

Before you write this underrated parenting product off as inhumane or cruel, think about what you would do to keep your favorite 2-year-old from darting off into busy traffic. The kiddie leash has long been a controversial parenting product, and it may not be for everyone, but the moms who need it swear it has prevented a major catastrophe more than once.
“I judged the crap out of parents [who] used those,” mom of one Samantha, mom of one, confessed. “And then I had a runner. At the zoo.”
For mom of two Amber, it was a close call that convinced her a kiddie leash was an essential addition to her parenting product stash.
“We used a monkey backpack leash for a runner after experiencing the panic of losing an 11-month-old at a plaza full of people. My heart stops [just] thinking about it!”
Now, we know what you think when you hear the word “leash,” but products like this darling buckle-on backpack or this plush friend with an attached leash will likely result in fewer stares.

7. It’s finally time to catch up on sleep.

HealthyWay
Daniel Wiseman

Some babies just don’t sleep. If you’re a sleep-deprived mom with a very young baby at home, a swaddle could be the solution to your 3 a.m. woes.
“Swaddling, when used correctly, can be a tremendous way to promote safe sleeping,” Hindi Zeidman, creator of the Ollie Swaddle, told HealthyWay. “The safe sleep guidelines from the American [Academy] of Pediatrics are clear: Swaddling helps to keep babies on their back, which is the ideal sleep position to assist in preventing sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS).”
In addition to safety, swaddling can also provide a better night’s sleep by improving colic and fussiness, increasing REM sleep, and preventing overstimulation.

8. The Diapering Product You Never Knew Was Missing From Your Life

Applying diaper rash cream is a necessary part of the everyday life of moms, but that doesn’t mean it has to be messy. The BabyBum Diaper Cream Spatula looks like it belongs in the kitchen, but its real place is in the diaper bag of every baby. Whether you’re applying paste on the go or just don’t want to deal with the mess, this diapering product is a can’t-miss addition to every baby registry.

9. A Simpler Approach to Expressing Breast Milk

Most working moms rely heavily on their electric breast pump to make it possible to breastfeed while working full time. For the part-time working mom or stay-at-home mom, an electric pump can be an unnecessary expense and a hassle to deal with.
A manual breast pump may seem like a return to the Stone Age of milk expression, but this parenting product is beyond underrated. The Lansinoh Manual Pump is inexpensive and low key, making it the perfect option for pumping on the road, pumping in the middle of the night to reduce engorgement, or quick expression on a date night. Medela’s Harmony Manual Pump is also incredibly popular among many moms.
“I always kept a manual in my car,” Jayne, mom of three, said. “There were so many parts involved with my electric for work and [without] fail I would always forget something I needed. Having a backup in the car was life saving for a working mom.”

10. Parenting is messy, but it doesn’t have to suck.

HealthyWay
Daniel Wiseman

Okay, so a vacuum might not technically be a parenting product, but it is certainly a product parents can’t live without. And not just any vacuum will do.
“I love the lightweight cordless Shark vacuum,” mom of three Lacy told me. “My kids fight over who gets to vacuum now.”
If refereeing tiny housekeepers doesn’t sound like your cup of tea, Chaunie, mom of four, swears one product changed her mom life forever.
“Honestly, the Roomba. Maybe that’s not underrated enough, but I feel like it should be an essential with little kids. It’s absurd how much stress it’s taken from my life. I was vacuuming the floors after every meal and it made me crazy!”

11. It’s time for fewer midnight diaper changes.

HealthyWay
Daniel Wiseman

There is nothing more frustrating than having to wake a soundly sleeping baby because they’re leaking through their diaper.
Betsy, mom of one, said diaper booster pads were the end of changing her son’s diaper multiple times each night. “He could make it through the night in one diaper with these, rather than getting him all woke up with a diaper change!”

12. This isn’t just for breastfeeding moms.

If you’ve ever breastfed a baby, you know lanolin is one of those lifesaving products you can’t do without. Don’t be so quick to throw this product out when your baby weans, though. Moms swear it has so many uses beyond healing nipples.
“It’s been almost 10 years since I had my first baby and we still use it for chapped noses and faces in the winter, rashes, burns, you name it,” Christi told me. “That stuff heals everything and it’s super safe to use around the mouth, not to mention it’s colorless, odorless, and flavorless.”
A quote that’s often attributed to Confucius says, “Life is really simple, but we insist on making it complicated.” I’m not sure he had building a baby registry in mind, but every new parent could benefit from taking this wise advice to heart before they make their next visit to Babies “R” Us.