Food Hacks

Difficulty: Novice Time: 2 minutes Cost: ~$1.50 per serving

Difficulty: Novice Time: 2-3 minutes Cost: ~$0.50 Yield: 1 serving

Difficulty: Novice Time: 5-15 minutes per hack Cost: Price of regular menu items

Difficulty: Novice Time: 3-5 minutes Cost: Free (using equipment you have)

Difficulty: Novice Time: 25 minutes Cost: ~$8

Difficulty: Novice Time: 15 minutes Cost: ~$8

You've probably grabbed a box of mac and cheese during a hunger emergency, only to realize you're out of milk. No milk, no problem. Skip the watery plan B and the late-night store run. The trick is not kitchen magic, it is understanding what makes sauces creamy and which easy swaps beat the box directions by a mile.

Difficulty: Novice Time: 15 minutes prep + 20 minutes baking Cost: ~$18 Yield: Serves 8-10 as appetizer

Difficulty: Novice Time: 10 seconds to learn, lifetime to benefit Cost: $0 (uses your existing grater)

Difficulty: Novice Time: 10 minutes per order Cost: Saves $5-25 per order

Difficulty: Novice Time: 15 minutes Cost: ~$0 (understanding the process)

4 Smart Fast-Food Hacks That Cut Your Bill in Half

5 Trader Joe's Protein Hacks That Transform Your Meals in Minutes

Freeze Coffee Beans Like a Pro: 4 Easy Steps to Lock in Freshness for Months

Difficulty: Novice Time: 5-60 minutes per hack Cost: ~$0-15 (using common ingredients)

Reviewed by: Jame Jimenez

Difficulty: Novice Time: 20 minutes Cost: ~$3

Ready to turn your kitchen into a personal coffeehouse? The path to café-quality espresso at home just became clearer, thanks to extensive professional testing that has separated the standouts from the also-rans. After over 80 hours of rigorous testing by CNET's experts and over 3600 espresso shots pulled by coffee professionals across 75+ machines, the takeaway lands cleanly. 2025's espresso machines deliver real upgrades for home baristas at every price point.

Difficulty: Novice Time: 2-3 hours weekly for planning and prep Cost: £50 weekly for family of four

Reviewed by Julianne Ngirngir

Picture this: you're scrolling through TikTok when suddenly your feed is flooded with the same mesmerizing video—someone calmly assembling what looks like deconstructed sushi in a bowl. Welcome to the Emily Mariko phenomenon. In 2021, a TikToker named Emily Mariko whipped up a salmon rice bowl that would become the internet's latest obsession. Her simple leftover makeover has garnered over 40 million views and spawned countless recreations, transforming how millions think about leftovers. The...

Ever wonder how to squeeze more flavor, value, and satisfaction out of your McDonald's breakfast run? Whether you're rushing to work or treating yourself to a weekend morning meal, there are clever ways to transform basic menu items into something spectacular. Former McDonald's Corporate Chef Mike Haracz has shared insider tips, and savvy customers have discovered ordering tricks that can save money while delivering better taste. These breakfast sandwich hacks range from simple substitutions to...

Difficulty: Novice Time: 5-10 minutes per order Cost: Regular menu price (no extra charges for most hacks)

Difficulty: Novice Time: 15 minutes Cost: Free Savings: Up to $500 annually

Difficulty: Novice Time: 15-30 minutes per shopping trip Cost: Free (app download required) Annual Savings: Up to £679

Got 15 minutes and a wallet that's feeling a little light? Here's how to slash your grocery bills while eating amazing plant-based meals. Research shows that switching to a whole-food vegan diet can cut food costs by 19 percent—that's about $650 in savings per year. The secret isn't complicated: plant-based staples like brown rice, potatoes, and beans are some of the cheapest and healthiest ingredients in the supermarket. Plus, inflation has hit meat at nearly twice the rate of vegetables,...

A friend asked me the other day what kitchen tool I most frequently use. After my chef's knife, I told him that it had to be my cast-iron skillet. He was a little confused and asked what I used it for other than pancakes and bacon. I told him this: everything.

Greek yogurt has always been in my regular snack rotation. Packed with more protein than plain yogurt, it fills me up and stabilizes my energy with its low levels of carbohydrates and sugar.

When I first started cooking, if I saw lemon juice or zest in a recipe, I almost always left it out. Unless it was a main component, I never thought it made much of a difference in the dish's overall flavor — but I couldn't have been more wrong.

I grew up in a rural town, which meant we dehydrated a lot of food. Even with a hungry family of five, there was no way that we could eat all the season's tomatoes before they molded, all the orchard's apples before they grew soft, or all the wild mushrooms we picked. And so our dehydrator was always getting a good workout.

Kitchens smell, and whether you find the smell tolerable or revolting is entirely up to you.

I'm not a big fan of single-use tools, especially ones that aren't used particularly often. I'm especially not a big fan of seldom-used single-use tools that take up a large amount of space.

Everyone talks about how great sliced bread is, but there's nothing better than the taste of a just-baked loaf of crusty French bread. Like most beautiful things in life, however, the beauty of the baguette doesn't last. The next day, it's rock-hard and good for very little except for croutons or breadcrumbs. But there is a trick to make it taste fresh again.

Fish are delicate, flaky, and can be damn tricky to cook; more often than not, you end up with a hard, dry block of flesh that makes your taste buds sad. And the best ways to cook fish that you know of — c'mon, who doesn't love a fried fish — take way too much effort for you to bother with on a weeknight. Or maybe you're looking for a healthier way to enjoy fish that doesn't require batter or frying at all.

For those of us without rice cookers, conventional wisdom tells us that the stove is our only real option (unless, of course, you dabble in microwavable rice). However, if you're only using the stove for cooking rice start-to-finish, you're missing out on the easiest way to make perfect rice every time.

Instant ramen has been popular in the States for decades, and restaurants that serve the real thing in any variety you can imagine have been popping up everywhere in the last few years. But you don't have to go out or cook all day to have a gourmet ramen experience.

Fall is the time for comfort foods — and what is more comforting than crusty bread slathered in melted cheese? Owning a fondue pot is both convenient and wonderful, but not all of us have the luxury of space for nonessential kitchen appliances. However, there are plenty of ways to make an absolutely delicious, lump-free fondue without the traditional equipment.

There are few kitchen tools as elusive as the oyster knife. Many people—even seafood lovers—don't own one. If you own one, it probably gets used so infrequently that it gets sent to the back of the shelf, where it proceeds to get lost. Then you accidentally find the knife once a month when you don't need it, but you can't for the life of you find the sneaky little thing when you do need it.