15 Time-Saving Kitchen Tips!

It's always nice to hear about an easier or faster way to do something--especially if that something is in the kitchen, where we spend so much of our time!
Try these time-savers!

1. Mix up your pancake batter in your blender, then pour right out of your container onto the griddle. You'll have lump-free batter and lots less to clean up.
2. Having a children's birthday party? The day before, scoop ice cream into a muffin pan lined with paper liners. Keep in the freezer till serving time.
3. For quick frosting on a cake or pan of brownies, sprinkle a 12-oz. bag of chocolate chips on top while cake is still warm. Let it sit for a few minutes, the chips will be soft enough to spread. Try using mint chocolate chips, too!
4. We've all made small pizzas using English muffins, but have you tried using flour tortillas? Just top with pizza sauce and your other favorite things, and bake at 450 degrees for 10 minutes or so.
5. Your kitchen shears are the best tool for cutting fresh green beans into pieces. You can even cut more than one bean at a time.
6. Instead of making a white sauce for your veggies tonight, mix equal parts of mayo and the water the veggies cooked in. Add salt and pepper to your taste.
7. When you have cooking odors you would like to get rid of, boil a few cinnamon sticks in water for a few minutes.
8. Another way to clean up pots and pans quickly-- boil a little vinegar and water in the pan. Then stuck on food is easily cleaned out.
9. Another use for your electric knife: it slices chilled cookie dough very neatly.
10. Don't fry your bacon, cook it in the oven! Just lay the slices on a cookie sheet and bake at 350 degrees until crisp and done. Easy cleanup, too.
11. An easy, quick way to shred carrots for carrot cake: place pieces of carrot in blender, add eggs the recipe calls for and blend until of desired consistency.
12. Want to have spaghetti for sauce but no time for making sauce? Just blend a can of Italian diced tomatoes and heat.
13. If you spill cooking oil on the floor or counter, sprinkle flour over it; wait a few minutes for it to absorb and wipe or sweep up.
14. An easy way to peel a tomato: rub all over with the back of a knife. Then it peels easily.
15. Use a small funnel to easily and quickly separate an egg. The white will go through, while the yolk will stay in the funnel.

10 Tips To Reduce Fat In Your Diet

1. Steam, boil, broil, or microwave vegetables, or stir-fry them in a small amount of vegetable oil.
2. Season vegetables with herbs and spices rather than sauces, butter, or margarine.
3. Try lemon juice or fat-free dressing on salad, or use a yogurt based dressing instead of mayonnaise or sour cream dressing.
4. To reduce saturated fat, use vegetable oil or tub margarine instead of butter or stick margarine when possible.
5. Replace whole milk with skim or low-fat milk in puddings, soups, and baked products. Substitute plain nonfat yogurt, blender-whipped cottage cheese, low-fat sour cream, or buttermilk in recipes that call for sour cream.
6. Choose lean cuts of meat, and trim any visible fat from meat before and after cooking. Remove skin from poultry before or after cooking. Monitor portion sizes. (Lean meats end in "loin".)
7. Roast, bake, or broil meat, poultry, or fish, so that fat drains away as the food cooks.
8. Use a nonstick pan for cooking so added fat will be unnecessary, use a vegetable spray for frying.
9. Chill broths from meat or poultry until the fat becomes solid. Spoon off the fat before using the broth.
10. Eat a low-fat vegetarian main dish at least once a week.