How-To Guides about Food Hacks

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

Want to stretch your McDonald's budget even further? Fast food isn't the cheap meal it once was, but that doesn't mean you can't beat the system. The golden arches are still a beacon for anyone looking for a filling meal that won't drain your budget, you just need to know the right tricks. There are secret ways to lower your bill at the checkout register while still getting all your favorite Mickey D's items. Ready to play?

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

Difficulty: NoviceTime: 5-15 minutes per hackCost: Free (using included cruise amenities)

Reviewed by: Jame Jimenez

Difficulty: Novice to Moderate Time: 5 minutes to 1 hour (depending on recipe) Cost: Under $15 for most recipes

Reviewed by Julianne Ngirngir

Difficulty: Novice Time: 20-30 minutes per hack Cost: $0-50 per technique

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: 2-60 minutes per recipe Cost: Free with meal plan to $6 per serving

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.

Sushi rolls, known as makizushi in Japanese, are only limited by your imagination — and your ability to roll them neatly, of course. While it may seem like a lot of effort, rolling sushi is a snap if you have the right tools.

Many people rely on the date printed on an egg carton to decide when to toss the dozen, but sell‑by and best‑by dates are quality guidelines — not safety deadlines. If you've been pitching eggs solely because of the date on the carton, you may be wasting perfectly good food.

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.

Valentine's Day is right around the corner... which is the perfect excuse to ignite your inner cupid and bake a heart-shaped cake. If you have a heart-shaped cake or springform pan, you're all set. If not, don't worry—you don't need one! With a little ingenuity, you'll have a beautiful heart cake using the pans you already own.

Cake decorating is one of those activities that used to leave my hands sticky and my spirits dampened. No matter what I seemed to do, the final result always ended up looking like a preschool art project.

Being able to sleep deeply and fully is one of the foundations for real health. When you go without it, you feel subhuman and incapable of dealing with the world—just ask a student who's had to pull an all-nighter or the parents of a newborn. In fact, many studies have shown that lack of sleep or irregular sleep is linked to acne, weight gain, and depression.

Look through the dessert recipes on any food blog and there's a pretty good chance you'll find something with chocolate and peanut butter. It's one of the most common combinations in candy bars and other sweets (not that I'm complaining).

There are those who prefer Thanksgiving leftovers to the actual official meal, much like people who prefer cold pizza over hot. I'm definitely in the latter camp. There's something luxurious about enjoying your perfectly cooked turkey and stuffing while wearing sweatpants and not having to make small talk with your weird uncle who drinks too much.

Oven space is scarce on that fated fourth Thursday of November. Even if you can find a spare space for pumpkin pie on the bottom shelf, you risk turkey drippings overflowing from above and ruining your beautiful dessert — not to mention a burnt crust from different temperature requirements. The bottom line is: oven real estate is valuable, and it's tough to multitask cooking for Thanksgiving when every dish requires baking or roasting.

With T-Day on the horizon and approaching rapidly, you are probably in one of two camps. The one that is eagerly awaiting the holiday feast with barely-contained drool. Or the one that involves breathing heavily into a paper bag while worrying about your lack of oven and stovetop real estate, while also bemoaning the lack of multiples of you to get all the prep work done.

Gravy is a relatively simple dish, yet it's remarkably easy to mess up. We've all experienced the disappointment of excitedly pouring gravy onto our mashed potatoes, only to realize it's too runny, too lumpy, or too bland. And because gravy is so simple, even if you don't mess it up, it's still challenging to make it memorable and delicious.

Mashed potatoes are universally beloved, and for a good reason — they're cheap, tasty, and relatively easy to make. What's more, they're adaptable to just about every dietary regimen, whether you're vegan, gluten-free, or lactose-intolerant. And they're a staple for holidays such as Thanksgiving.

Pumpkin carving and decorating is a favorite October pastime. After you've carved an amazing design or face into a pumpkin or two, you want to show it off through your window or set it out on your porch for the neighbors to see.