Top 3 Food Hacks to Save Time and Money
Are you looking for some healthy food ideas to help with cost and prep time? Check out these top 3 food hacks to save time and money. I have found these to be very helpful in my week to week menu planning!
Hard Boiled Eggs Hack
Hard boiled eggs are a great on-the-go healthy snack. They are high in protein, don’t require utensils to eat, can be eaten cold, and take no additional prep time. The hardest thing to making hard boiled eggs is peeling them. The shell cracks into small little pieces and seems to stick to the egg so that I would loose part of the egg white (the healthiest part) when peeling. Aggh! I did some research and found some suggestions about the age and temperature of the egg, salting the water, etc. None of that matters when making an easy to peel egg.
Follow these steps to making an easy to peel hard boiled egg:
- Boil the eggs for 13 minutes.
- Drain the hot water from the pan and place ice and cold water into the pan with the boiled eggs.
- Let sit for at least 10 minutes.
- Remove from the water and hit each end of the egg on a hard surface (counter).
- Then roll the egg while lightly pushing down.
- Voila! The shell just comes off in large pieces.
Here’s a YouTube video I made a while back explaining how to make the perfect hard boiled eggs!
Banana Hack for Protein Shakes
Bananas are a great source of potassium (great to help prevent muscle cramps), vitamin B6, vitamin C, and fiber. The only problem is they are high in sugar, although a natural source, we still need to be careful. Once starting the 21 day fix I started making protein shakes daily and most protein shake recipes call for 1/2 of a banana. So what do you do with the other half? It gets brown and mushy and isn’t very appetizing once left open to the air. The other problem we had in my house was that a lot of the bunch would rot before we could eat them.
I found this great trick that makes bananas readily available at any time. I buy 2 bunches of bananas from Sam’s Club at a time. They are only $1.48 per 2 pounds! What a great deal :-). Then I slice all the bananas from one bunch into 1/4 inch thick slices and freeze these banana slices. Once frozen, I put them in a ziploc bag and keep them in the freezer. Now I just grab a handful of banana slices and throw them into my protein shake easily.
Banana Hack for Protein Shakes
Strawberry Straw Cutting Hack
I LOVE strawberries! This time of year here in southern Georgia the u-pick fields are opening, and we are coming home with pounds of fresh, ripe strawberries. They are great in oatmeal, on top of french toast, or just eaten by themselves. When cutting the stem off the strawberries I would lose a lot of the strawberry fruit.
I found this neat trick that avoids loosing any of the strawberry fruit. All you need is cleaned strawberries and a straw. Take the cleaned strawberry and place a straw into the bottom of the berry. Then push the straw straight through the fruit and hulls it in one step. The best part about this is it is fun for my kids. I will try any trick that encourages my children to help with prepping.
Strawberry Straw Cutting Hack
Top 3 Food Hacks to Save Time and Money – Final Thoughts
Eating right is such an important part of leading a healthy lifestyle. I know that changing your eating habits can be time consuming and sometimes cost prohibitive. Above I have detailed my top 3 food hacks to save time and money. This will help you to cut down on the time and cost and still lead a healthier day.
