When it comes to food and recipes, I’m all about food hacking. Actually, these days more than ever. I need be resourceful (ahem… frugal) with our food, I need it taste good, but I also need it to be nutritious. Is that too much to ask for?
Ha, well I think not. I’ve learned it takes a little effort at first; seeking out all types of food hacks. But once you find them, they are effortless and effective!
1. Using pre made pancake mix to make protein muffins. All I do here is mix 1 cup flapjacked buttermilk protein mix with 1 coconut milk or corepower banana and maybe a few nuts/seeds. Mix and pour in muffin pans. Bake at 350F for 15 minutes. I have also put them in the microwave for a quick mug in a muffin. You can see more Flapjacked tips here.
2. I don’t like iced coffee. It gets too watered down for me. But, I will make an iced latte or protein shake with frozen coffee or espresso ice cubes. If we have leftover coffee in the pot, then I pour the coffee in trays and freeze for later. Then just pour over milk, almond milk, or a smoothie mix. VOILA!
3. You know we’ve been eating a TON of fish lately. One of my favorite ways to add more flavor to grilled fish or to make it more tender is to use cedar planks. I soaked the cedar planks in chardonnay for an hour, marinated my sablefish in a gluten free tamari sauce, then set them on the grill on medium heat for 12- 15 minutes. What can I say, I’m a wine hack too!
4. This last one is my favorite. Have you ever accidently burnt your rice due to a crappy pan or some how dried out in the fridge? Well, we have. Yes, we still eat it as is (hello, resistant starch), but I also like to make rice balls with the crispier rice.
Here’s what you do. Mix your left over rice (1-2 cups) with 1 cup chopped dates and coconut (or nuts). Add in ½ cup honey and a little protein powder or coconut flour and mix again. If it’s not sticky enough, add more honey. If it’s too sticky, add more protein powder or flour. You can also use coconut syrup to keep the sugars lower. Roll into balls and then let it sit in fridge. These are great for post run or workout carbs and refuel.
If that doesn’t sound good to you, throw the rice in a bowl, add coconut milk, heat in microwave for 30 seconds, add banana, fig, and cashews. = BREAKFAST is served!
Now that you’ve got food hacking on the brain, check out these 40 food hacks from buzzfeed. You’ll be itching to try them all! Like this one!
The Walking Taco
Favorite food hack? Do tell!
LC
You should try cold brewed coffee. So good and easy to make (and keeps for up to a week)
I’ve never thought to try sweet rice balls before, these sound delicious though!
And the wine for soaking your cedar planks, aren’t you a smarty 😉 I think food hacks are the best hacks ever invented and I can never get enough of them!
I’ve never been a HUGE rice person, but when I was a kid, my mom would always make us “sweet rice” for breakfast with butter and sugar and I loved it! Also, it was an alternative to her “cafeteria lady slop” she tried to tell us was oatmeal! Shhh, don’t tell her I said that! 😉 These rice balls sound perfect…and a great way to use up the one pound bag of brown rice that’s been in my pantry for umm, two…three years? Lol
I hate when iced coffee gets watered down, too! The trick is to cool the coffee overnight or something, and then it doesn’t melt the ice 🙂 Dying to try sizzle fish!! Yum
we need to get you some fish for sure!
I like the food hacks. You’ve got some great tips there. I too freeze leftover coffee into ice cubes for later use, and I’ve learned to be frugal with my food purchases as well. Leftovers are my BFF now and my standing freezer is actually my biggest hack. After getting a CSA for two years and really trying to eat everything we’d gotten, I adapted, bought a freezer and learned to eat some of the food, while freezing the rest, thereby reducing our grocery bills come winter.
I had never heard the term food hack until 2 minutes afo! Thanks for teaching me! I want to try all these. The rice recipe is perfect for me since I love rice and continuously have cooking disasters.
I LOVE iced coffee cubes! I make them with leftover coffee and then when I want iced coffee, use those + more leftover coffee with a splash of almond milk. YUM!!! 🙂
you know it! perfecto
Very cool! I love the coconut rice balls idea (always love something you can salvage leftovers with).
same here!
yes, never wasting! love it Gale!
I really want to try that iced coffee trick, as soon as it’s Fall here, right? 🙂
Those coconut balls sound great! I’m always looking for post-workout refuelling that is real food, thanks!
i knew you’d like!
Food hacks are the best. Love the rice ball idea!
If wined up cedar planks will teach me how to properly cook fish I’m GAME! I need a fish cooking class. I’m horrible at cooking it.
We use cedar planks a lot but have never marinated them in chardonnay… I know what I’ll be doing soon!
Those rice balls – they are genius!!! Those am gonna have to try! Heck yeah to ice cubes to make ice coffee – and thanks for the protein flapjack+core power muffin recipe trick! I love love love your food hacks!
You’re a food genius. Come to my house and teach me your ways for a week so I can be as awesome food-wise as you please!?
I love a cool food hack! I see so many of my favorite things in this post…fish, Flap Jacked, protein shake…..
Walking tacos!! The Chicago version of that is way grosser…
Living in Alaska we fill our freezer by our own hands so last year when my hubs was smoking our salmon, he smoked whole fillets & then vaccum packed & froze them. When I grab salmon out, I set it in the sink to thaw & it’s cooked & ready to go! It’s such a luxury to have fresh home smoked fish that’s GF that I can use for anything: salads, eggs, ala carte with rice crackers. I love my fish but at the end of a long work day I don’t want to wait for it to cook, smell it all week or decide how to make it. This has been the best food hack in our household all year.
I need to try that rice hack, because I seem to always burn rice 🙁
This is awesome! I especially love the rice ball one. I ALWAYS seem to overcook our rice, and if I miraculously don’t overcook it, it still seems to get dried out in the fridge.
oh girl, i feel ya! i blame the pan. haha
Great … I will give the others a try!
HI….Love your healthy bites. Looking for a good all round protein powder for the healthy bites recipes. Any recommendation of one or two – vanilla and chocolate.
Thanks
do you want whey or plant? I love kidzshake whey, whole foods brand whey, healthy skoop plant protein or growing naturals brown rice. All great!
Great looking for both whey and plant based. Have you ever tried javaprotein whey for recipes?
Rice balls! Genius! I LOVE cedar planks and we use them all the time. They make the fish so good!
I saw that walking taco and I want IN ON THAT!!
I also really want to try the cedar plank thing. My brother grilled up a lake salmon while I was home and was going to do the cedar grilling thing, but then got too lazy to go to the store to buy one. Laziness runs in our family, apparently. 😀
Such a great idea for iced coffee! I need to do that!
I love all your hacks. The rice bowl for breakfast…need to try that one. And I love the Flapjacked. It eliminates the fight with The A’s to eat more protein!
Is it bad that I just want to suck on that chardonnay soaked cedar plank?? 😉
Hmm…I don’t do iced coffee but I think that could work with anything. In the summer i like an occasional Diet Coke – maybe I should make my own ice cubes!!!
I don’t think I have any true food hacks. I just throw stuff in my crock pot a lot and call it dinner!!!
that is brilliant!!
I love all of these! Great idea to soak the cedar in wine.
I love all of this!!!
1. Totally going to soak my planks in wine now.
2. The burnt rice… it’s the best! I always order it at Vietnamese restaurants. 3. Those Frito bag things? They sell them at one of my fav BBQ places here – Fox Bros. You should visit. I’ll buy you a bag. 😉
okay, i’ll come for that, and YOU
Been looking for cedar planks everywhere in stores here – can’t find them! Want them for cooking both fish and steak!
i have a ton! i can send you planks!!
If only it wouldn’t cost a fortune to ship to the UK!
You are BRILLIANT! I need to share that cedar plank hack with my [fish-loving] parents. And I love the one about burnt rice, too! Where were you 10 years ago when I couldn’t for the life of me cook rice without burning the crap out of it and setting off the fire alarm?!?
Oh my gosh, Walking Tacos totally bring me back to my high school days! We used to serve and eat those at pretty much every sporting event. I need to make a veggie version one of these days!
The iced coffee trick! Awesome.
i love using coffee ice cubes — no waste and no watered down ice coffee!
I LOVE the term food hack!! so true and you are a genius at food hacking 🙂
Love these food hacks!!! They all look amazing…especially the iced coffee…yum!!!
PERFECT for this lazy cook!!!! The muffins – easy & sound delish!!!! Leftover coffee??? 😉 All sound delish!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!1111
Hmm favorite food hack, that’s a tough one! I consider making enough food at one time to have leftovers to use in a different way a food hack. Or buying things like store brand salsa and coming home and making them taste fresh by adding in chopped jalapenos and zipping them up with cumin. It takes some of the time out of cooking 🙂
Haha Life hacking is an art!
What? Burnt rice? Never 😉 It takes DAYS to clean the pan sometimes LOL. And the coffee shake – Jess and I were just discussing the insanity that is a southern girl not drinking iced coffees. I think you nailed it with the watered down thing. Ice melts as soon as you put it in the glass!
Love the rice bowl idea. I really should whip up muffins with my flapjack mix. The office peeps are going crazy because I haven’t brought muffins lately. Too busy!
I ADORE LIFE HACKS!
Keep them coming. 🙂
What a great muffin trick- so clever!
Love it! I’m all about #1, great idea!!
ok i have GOT to check out sizzlefish. i have no food hacks lol.
These balls look awesome 🙂
Canned beans are one of my favourites. Amazing for when you don’t have the time to soak and cook the dry ones!!
That iced coffee idea is genius!
umm…must try! and must try the coffee protein smoothie!
Clever trick with the protein muffins — might that also work with the muffin mix I have on hand? I may have to try it out-thanks!
totally! try it!
Yum these look great! Great fish tip too!
Your rice bowl looks amazing and I was drooling over it when you posted it on Instagram the other day! One of my fave time-saving food hacks is slicing cherry tomatoes between 2 plates. You put a whole bunch on a sandwich plate, then put another one on top (kind of like a hamburger bun with the tomatoes inside). Then, take a knife that is longer than the widest part of the plate and slice between them. When you take the top plate off, voila – sliced cherry tomatoes!
haha i just saw that trick! brilliant
Nerd alert… the “walking taco” started in Knoxville TN when the world’s fair came there! crazy huh??
I need some of these planks for my fish!
haha no way! i need to visit
I once did something like this but with leftover cooked farro and one small lonely cooked beet i had in the fridge. I have to try with rice also, sound delicious 🙂
let me know if you do!
Ooooh these are good ones! I have a cedar board too, I forgot about it until I packed it into a box….still trying with my fish once a week thing….is tough right now with the move, but I’m gonna do it!
Love the idea for the protein muffins! That is definitely a hack!
The rice balls look super tasty.
Love food hacks! FlapJacked pancakes are one of my favorites out there! The rice balls look, interesting. I’ll have to give them a shot!
I never find myself with leftover rice…but I think I should make a big batch just for this reason 😉
perfect! rice lovers unite
Canned fish has to be a food hack. Please say yes seafood queen. The ice coffee one is genius- need to try it out (in 3 months time).
i approve 100000000%!
I love that!! Rice Balls – never thought of that.
And I love to cook with wine. Always a good excuse to drink some while cooking, yes? 🙂
you know it! best of both worlds