Spending too much time on your dinner meal prep? You know there must be some quick and easy food hacks you should have learned long ago because, try as you might,  you don’t recall hearing your mother cursing like a sailor every time she was cooking your family dinner.

So what are those time saving secrets  your mother should have taught you but didn’t? Here are a few food prep tricks every Balaboosta should know.

How to Food Prep Like a Pro

1. Peeling Garlic

Who doesn’t love garlic? I’m not talking about the preminced, soaked in oil kind. I’m talking about the ward off vampire, real deal garlic- bulb and all. Don’t let your frustration about peeling garlic deter you from using this delicious ingredient with abandon. Here’s how to get those pesky peels off with ease.

1. Before you peel your garlic cloves, you need to seperate them from the garlic bulb (the head). This is simple to do. Just place the head of garlic on a cutting board and press down on it with the palm of your hands. You could also just seperate them with your fingers. Either way, the cloves should easily seperate and just pop off.
2.  To take the peel off, lay the clove on the cutting board and place the flat side of the blade of your knife over the garlic. Make sure the sharp edge of the blade is facing away from you. Hit the knife and therefore the clove with the heel of your hand with enough force on the clove to make the skin fall right off.
3. Need to peel multiple garlic cloves? Hit the head of the garlic with the heel of your hand to get the cloves, then put all the cloves in a large glass jar with a lid. Big mason jars work great. Secure the lid on the jar and shake vigorously. You’ll have these cloves peeled in less than ten seconds.

2.  Shucking Ears of Corn

We’ve all been there. Standing over a garbage can, folding back the husk of an ear of corn while trying to pull off those stubborn starands of silk. If you’re not opposed to using a microwave oven, there is an easier way. Microwave an ear of corn for approximately 4 minutes. This will warm the corn but it will not cook the kernals. Use a kitchen towel or a pot holder to remove the ear of corn from the oven (it will be hot to the touch). Snap off the corn’s stem. Stand the corn upright and gently pull on the husk and silk at the top of the corn. The corn and the cob will gently slip out- nice and naked, free of any silk.

3.  Removing Tough Stems From Leafy Greens

You don’t even need a knife to separate those tough stems from vegetables like kale, collard greens, and chard. With one hand, hold a leaf at the bottom by the thickest part of the stem. Use your other hand to gently pinch the leaf with your index finger and thumb, and then pull it up and off along the stem. The thick stem is now history.

4. Cutting Round Vegetables

Nothing says frustrating like chasing down that potato to chop it up. Next time you have to cut a round vegetable, cut a thin slice along the length of the vegetable to create a flat side, turn it cut-side down on the cutting board and slice away. When you get to the point where it starts to roll again, flip it onto the flat side from your last cut and continue to slice.

5. How to Soften Butter

Don’t have time for it to sit out and get soft? And you know putting it in the microwave often ends up melting instead of softening. You can never get it quite right. So instead, take a cheese grater to the butter and shred it. It will be softened before you know it.

6. Removing an Avocado Pit  

Slice your avocado in half, lengthwise. Gently twist the two halves to seperate. Take your knife and stab the exposed pit, then twist slightly and pull. Out comes the pit. Watch your fingers when you remove the pit from the blade of the knife. Now you can scoop out or slice all of the yummy avocado goodness.

7. Peeling a Potato

We’ve all spent too much time trying to peel potatoes before we boil them. Don’t bother. Hold your raw potato and with a knife, make a simple, shallow, cut in the peel lengthwise, going all around the potato. Put all the shallow cut potatoes in a pot of boiling water and boil until they are soft inside. Then immediately remove from the water into place in a bowl of ice water. Allow to soak in the ice water for 10 seconds and remove. Rub potato between your hands and the peel falls right off.

8. Prevent a Pot From Boiling Over

They say a watched pot never boils, but if you don’t watch it then you have a mess on your hands. So to keep that pot from boiling over, simply place a wooden spoon over the top of the pot. Any spoon will do really, but a wooden spoon won’t get scalding hot.

9. Separate Egg Yolks From Egg Whites

This might be my favorite hack. It might not be a time saver, but it’s a fun way to separate an egg. Crack an egg into a bowl. Gently squeeze an empty plastic water bottle and hold it over the egg yolk. It should suck up just the egg yolk, allowing you to transfer it to another bowl. My kids love to do this hack. It’s as if they are performing a magic trick. Try it. Even if you don’t need to seperate your eggs. It’s that cool of a hack!

What food hacks do you use to speed up your cooking prep?  Be a balaboosta and share your secrets in the comments. We all could benefit from having a little more time.