Save Time With These 5 Meal Prep Tricks

Cooking is one of those tasks you either love you hate. If you fall on the latter side of the fence, then the key to improving your kitchen game might just lie in the way you approach prep. Knowing the tips and tricks that cooking enthusiasts are already in on will help you feel more confident and ready to chef it up for any meal. Here are a few ideas from Real Simple that will help you approach a few specific foods and culinary scenarios and handle them like a pro.

Separate Eggs the Easy Way

If the key to foolproof egg separating has always eluded you, here’s the trick you’ve been waiting for. Crack your eggs into a large bowl carefully, keeping the yolks intact. Squeeze a clean, empty water bottle over one of the yolks in the bowl and gently, slowly start to release your grip on the bottle. The suction will cleanly remove the yolk from the bowl into the bottle. Squeeze the yolk from the bottle into a new bowl, and you’ve got perfectly separated eggs!

Getting Rid of Garlic Odor

Garlic lovers, rejoice: No matter how much of the fragrant bulb you chop, peel, or mince, you don’t have to be stuck with garlic-scented hands all day. The trick to eliminating garlic odor is simple. Rub your hands on stainless steel – your faucet, a spoon, a pan or spatula – and let science work for you. Sulfur molecules in the garlic will bind with the stainless steel and help remove the garlic smell from your skin.

Make Perfect Pancakes

You don’t even have to have a super-steady hand to create an IHOP-worthy short stack. Use an empty, clean ketchup bottle to make you master of your griddle. Filled with freshly made batter, that bottle will become your key to making perfectly shaped pancakes.

Double Your Zip-Top Bag

Zip-top plastic bags are a life-saver in the kitchen. Used for storing, freezing, and even marinating, these bags are worth their weight in gold. But if you’ve ever reached for a gallon-size bag only to find that all you’ve got left are sandwich-size, never fear. Take two of these bags and turn one inside out. Put the food you’re zipping up into the inverted bag and cover it with the other bag. Then align the zippers of both bags and seal.

You might also like: Get A Bite To Eat At Carmello’s

Chop Safely

Chopping and slicing meats and veggies can be a dangerous endeavor if your cutting board tends to slip and slide. Avoid a painful mishap by stabilizing your board. All you have to do is place a wet kitchen towel underneath the cutting board to make a slip-free surface that will safeguard your fingers.