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So that your glasses don’t get dusty if they remain unused for a long time, you should pay attention to a few things about storing the glasses. Consequently, you can avoid dusty glasses and save yourself cleaning after you have taken them out of the cupboard.

Glasses that are not used often gather dust quickly, even in closed cupboards, and have to be cleaned again before they are used again. You can use a simple trick to ensure that the glasses stay clean.

Tips to avoid dusty glasses

Have you planned a big family meal and are you getting the holiday glasses out of the cupboard? Then to find that all the glasses are covered in dust and they need to be cleaned? This is annoying and takes up an unnecessary amount of time. Therefore, we have collected some tricks that will avoid dusty glasses in the future. Also, note our clever tips for cleaning the kitchen.

1) Glasses do not get dusty upside down

To avoid dusty drinking glasses, simply place the glasses upside down in the cupboard. As a result, no dust can get into the glass and you always have clean glasses at hand. In addition, note useful tips for polishing glasses.EMPTY

2) Regularly wipe dust against dusty glasses

If you struggle with dust in the apartment and keep your glasses on open shelves, your glasses can quickly gather dust. Then regular dusting helps. And if you don’t have time to dust the whole apartment, at least try to dust off the glasses.

3) Avoid dusty glasses with plants

Since plants provide moisture, they ensure that the dust is bound. Then it usually settles on the leaves of the plant. So you can put plants next to the shelves where you keep your glasses. Consequently, the glasses are better protected from dust. Also, note helpful tricks for separating wedged glasses.

True coffee connoisseurs only drink their coffee from freshly ground beans. If your favorite coffee is on sale, you would like to grab it without limits and secure a large supply. If it weren’t for the fear that the valuable aromas could evaporate if it was stored in the kitchen cupboard for a long time and the delicious coffee would only taste bland.

In general, it is always advisable to use fresh coffee beans as soon as possible. Nothing beats the full flavor of freshly roasted beans. However, if it is not possible to always get your beans fresh and in small portions, you have to store them.

Freezing larger amounts of coffee beans seems a good alternative. This is to preserve the aromas and give the coffee its full, fine taste even after it has been stored for a long time.

However, opinions differ on this topic. True advocates of freshly ground coffee call freezing coffee beans a vice because they don’t want the taste to be the same after thawing.

If you decide to freeze for practical reasons, it’s important to make sure the beans are frozen in an airtight container so that no moisture can get in. Even after removing the beans from the freezer, they should first be completely thawed to room temperature before they are removed from the packaging, otherwise condensation will form. Since roasted coffee beans contain hardly any moisture that freezes when they freeze, you can alternatively put them directly into the coffee grinder.

A problem when storing large quantities in the freezer is the need-based removal of portions. Every time the beans are taken out, they are exposed to temperature fluctuations, which damages them in the long run. Therefore, if possible, only freeze in portion size.

Although freshly roasted coffee is always preferable to stored coffee, if it is stored correctly, good quality coffee can be obtained, even over a long period of time. With or without freezing, coffee beans should be kept dry, airtight and stored in the dark. It is best to leave them in their original packaging to avoid loss of flavor when decanting. With the packaging, you can then store the beans in a ceramic jar or other airtight and lightproof container.

But since fresh coffee still tastes best, you should only buy as much coffee as you can use within a week. During this time, the beans stay fresh even with normal storage, without losing their aroma.

If you want to bake pizza properly, you don’t need a stone oven. But there is a crucial trick how the pizza gets really crispy in the oven at home. We’ll tell you.

Baking pizza properly is an art in itself. A traditional Italian pizza has a crispy base and topped with fresh ingredients. The secret behind this is the preparation in the stone oven: a fire burns under the stone, which heats up its surface considerably. The pizza is then baked crispy brown directly on the hot stone.

But you can also imitate how a stone oven works at home. Most modern ovens have a setting where the pizza gets nice and crispy without burning. We’ll show you a simple trick to make pizza like it’s out of the stone oven.

Choose the right setting

In order to bake pizza properly, you should select the appropriate setting on your oven. So first familiarize yourself with the different oven symbols.

The setting, which mimics the brick oven, is convection with bottom heat. You can recognize this setting by the symbol of a fan with a line or a wave underneath it. This setting is perfect for properly baking pizza. It is baked crispy on the bottom, but only gently cooked on top.

Bake your pizza with this setting in the lower third of the oven at maximum temperature. Depending on the recipe, the pizza is ready in ten to twenty minutes.

If your oven does not have this setting, then alternatively bake the pizza at the maximum temperature on top/bottom heat. Place the pizza at the bottom of the oven. In this way, the heat comes directly to the dough and makes it crispy. The baking time also varies with this variant depending on the recipe.

By the way: This setting is also suitable for heating up pizza. The leftovers will still taste good the next day.

Pizza like from the stone oven: ideas for at home

With the right setting on your oven, you can also make a pizza with a crispy crust at home. It tastes especially good if you make the pizza yourself. Both the pizza dough and the pizza sauce are prepared quickly. Then choose your favorite ingredients and top the pizza with peppers, spinach, olives, cheese or fresh rocket, for example. Get inspired by these pizza recipes:

  • Cauliflower Pizza
  • Spinach pizza
  • Pizza Marinara
  • Arugula Pizza

Tip: Pizza as fast food does not have to be unhealthy. You can also bake a healthy pizza without yeast and white flour. We’ll show you how it’s done here: Fast and healthy pizza? It works with this ingredient.

Who doesn’t know it: You left carrots for too long and now they’ve gone soft? No problem! This simple trick will make them crunchy again.

If you leave carrots for too long, they will become soft and take on a rubbery texture. Of course, they are still suitable as an ingredient in cooking – but most people simply prefer crunchy carrots in salads or as a raw food snack.

Luckily, there’s a simple trick you can use to refresh soft carrots. Not only do you enhance their taste, but you also avoid potential food waste.

Tip: When buying carrots, make sure that they are organic if possible. You are supporting ecologically more sustainable agriculture that, for example, does not use chemical-synthetic pesticides. Root vegetables such as carrots absorb these pesticides particularly strongly from the soil. The organic seals from Demeter, Naturland and Bioland are particularly recommended.

Make soft carrots crunchy again: Here’s how

Here’s the trick to making soft carrots crunchy again:

Place the carrots in a tall glass.
Fill the jar with cold water so that all the carrots are covered.
Place the jar in the refrigerator or other cool place for at least 8 hours.
After this period of time, you can take them out and enjoy them fresh.

In another article, you will learn how to store carrots correctly so that they can be kept for a long time.

Making carrots crisp again: important tips

Depending on how soft the carrots are, they can take up to 48 hours in water to crisp up again.

Tip: tend to put the carrots in a larger glass, as they often become plumper and therefore more voluminous in the water.

Good to know: You can also freshen up other root vegetables such as radishes or turnips with this trick.

Annoying and unsightly: Your cutlery comes out of the dishwasher dull and rusty. Even the stainless steel knife seems to be rusting. The aluminum foil trick can help.

This is how the aluminum foil trick works

You can use the aluminum foil trick to prevent rust film. You take a piece of aluminum foil, crumple it into a ball and put it in the cutlery basket of the dishwasher. Then you do the dishes as usual. After washing, your cutlery will shine like new.

Why this works: The rust film settles on the aluminum foil, which oxidizes more easily than stainless steel. It attracts the rust film, so to speak, and your cutlery is spared.

Of course, aluminum foil can’t work wonders for older, scratched cutlery on which the rust has already really set in. But you will certainly see a certain shine effect. You can also use rust magnets as an alternative to aluminum foil

Alternatively: What to do against rust film?

You can do this to prevent rust film: If you want to avoid rust film, you must not put anything in the dishwasher that can rust. Unfortunately, this is only partially possible. Even the smallest parts, such as rivets on the handle of a stainless steel pan, are enough to cause rust.

Incidentally, the dishwasher itself can also rust on crockery baskets or if the covers are damaged. It is therefore best not to leave your dishes damp in the dishwasher for long. Moisture accelerates the setting of the rust film. If you can, always unload the machine immediately after rinsing. Or at least leave the door of the machine open so the dishes dry and the steam can escape.

Joints don’t get nicer over time. Whether in the kitchen, bathroom or laundry room. Either dirt collects or mold forms due to moisture. You can find out here which trick you can use to get your joints clean again.

With this secret trick, joints become clean again

At some point it is enough and you can no longer bear the sight of dirty joints in the kitchen, bathroom or laundry room. Whenever you look at it, the question pops into your head as to how you can get the joints nice and bright and clean again. A wide variety of advice, tips and tricks are circulating. White wax is supposed to help: After cleaning, simply rub the joints with a white candle to give them impregnation protection and preventively help to give them a new shine. However, caution is advised here. At the latest with the next hot shower or when washing the dishes in the kitchen, the wax melts, dissolves more difficult than right and, in the worst case, clogs the drain. The rest that does not come off usually remains as a sticky gray mass and is difficult to remove without leaving any residue.

The trick with the baking powder is a lot more promising: simply dilute a packet of baking powder with a little warm water to create a spreadable paste. With a few dashes of lemon you can improve the effect if necessary. In any case, it smells even fresher. Brush the paste onto the grout with a (preferably discarded) toothbrush. Wait about 20 to 30 minutes and let the mixed baking soda paste work. In the case of stubborn dirt, you can scrub a little with the toothbrush and finally rinse everything off with a little water. Finished!

Baking powder usually contains baking soda, which, when combined with e.g. citric acid (hence the dash of lemon), becomes an active so-called raising agent. If there is no baking soda in baking soda, it is usually other acidifiers, such as tartaric acid. Baking powder also contains a release agent, such as cornstarch. Together with moisture and heat (therefore ideally use warm lemon water) carbon dioxide is released. When baking, the tiny CO2 bubbles ensure that the dough rises. Using this to clean your grout will loosen deep-seated dirt and unhealthy mold. To clean your grout, you better use baking soda instead of a chemical club for the sake of the environment. This is an effective, cheap and, above all, much healthier alternative.

Dirty joints – how to prevent

Tiles and joints belong together and are usually laid where it gets wet and damp. As a rule, it can hardly be avoided that dirt or water gets on and into the joints. However, there is something you can do to stop discoloration and mold from forming.

As a preventive measure, you should always keep the area around the tiles clean and rub dry after showering or using the sink, for example. Regular airing of the rooms also helps. This way you can delay the baking soda cleaning that will eventually be necessary.

Good food is well known for making us happier inside and out. A study shows how a simple trick can increase this effect.

Basics of the study

Every person has a different way to feel more comfortable. While for some it is relaxation methods such as yoga or meditation, others rely on sports, painting or talking to friends. But it is not uncommon for people to feel completely at ease after a delicious meal.

Based on the assumption that good food makes you happy, Edith Cowan University (ECU) initiated a study to prove that there is a connection between good food and our mental health.

A total of 657 people took part in the study, each of whom underwent a seven-week cooking course focused on preparing healthy food. After completing the cooking course, it was examined to what extent participation in the program affected general, but also mental health and subjective vitality. The term “subjective vitality” includes, among other things, perceived energy, willingness to perform and zest for life.

Cooking yourself: Good food should make you even happier

The results were impressive: The participants not only had a higher self-confidence when it came to cooking in general, but even adopted new and healthy eating habits in everyday life. In all three areas that were examined after the study, positive effects were found in the test persons: in general, but also in mental health and subjective vitality.

Basically, the study shows that there is a connection between health and healthy eating. Significant for an improvement in nutrition is not only healthy cooking, but also cooking at home – which increases the good feeling even more. According to the researchers, such nutritional improvement is also a way to combat mental health problems, obesity and other metabolic health disorders.

How much time is invested in cooking and the quality of the ingredients used is less relevant. It’s more about consciously turning to healthy cooking and doing something good for yourself; for example, just eating more fruit and vegetables can have a big effect.

Conclusion

In summary, it can be said that a healthier diet can be implemented at home and can have a positive effect on your physical and mental health. The question of how food can make you happier can be answered easily: Cooking at home is fresh, healthy and fun.

Heating costs go up and up. A curious cooling trick can ensure that the heating does not have to be turned up high in the first place.

Become cold hardy with these tips

Anyone who thinks here is a tip on how to set the heating particularly efficiently or where to get cheap gas is wrong. In order to save on heating costs, we bridle the horse from behind. In the cold season, we like to dress warmly, make ourselves a grain pillow, curl up under the blanket with a cup of hot tea. It’s lousy outside, so we’d rather watch Netflix than take a walk in the park. All this leads to: We hardly move. And if you don’t move much, you freeze faster.

It sounds banal, but the best trick to save on heating costs is to “freeze less”. To do that, we need to expose our bodies to the cold more often. Sensitivity to cold can be trained. Anyone who hasn’t had hot shower water on a trip abroad knows that, after a while you get used to it. When you expose yourself to cold, your blood vessels constrict. If you warm up again, the blood vessels dilate. If this process is repeated regularly, it can permanently create more blood vessels.

There are a few methods to train cold tolerance. Let’s start with the beginner tricks first. When showering, dare to let the water get colder from time to time. This is not only good for strengthening you against the cold, but also stimulates circulation. Don’t be afraid to get some fresh air, even when the temperature is low. Walks, but also jogging and hiking can help. Another option is going to the sauna, during which you go outside again and again. All of these methods stimulate blood circulation and ensure that you no longer freeze so quickly. Anyone who has taken a walk along the lake or river during the cool seasons may have seen courageous people taking an ice bath. This method is becoming increasingly popular to boost the immune system. However, ice bathing also involves risks and is therefore recommended for advanced swimmers.

Lose weight without much effort? – That’s fine. Because the key to every success in losing weight is not in meager diets: A fitness expert explains why it can theoretically also work with chips and cola to let those annoying pounds tumble.

In theory, you can also lose weight with chips and cola

The calorie requirement is the index of energy that the body needs to function. However, this is not the same for every person, but individual. Nutrients are divided into three so-called “macronutrients” or “macros”. These are carbohydrates, proteins and fats.
one gram of carbohydrates is over four calories
a gram of protein is over four calories
a gram of fat over nine calories
Fitness trainer Yannick Reinlein is certain that you can fill your calorie balance with unhealthy foods. For example, you can very well lose or maintain your weight with a diet that consists only of chips. However, Reinlein emphasizes that from his point of view this is not recommended. “You can definitely lose weight with the motto calories equal calories, but whether that’s healthy is a completely different question,” he says.

According to Reinlein, there are two main reasons why you shouldn’t do this: satiety and the feeling of hunger. “50 grams of carbohydrates from potatoes or gummy bears make no difference in terms of the calorie balance, but potatoes have a significantly higher satiety effect. So you don’t have to go hungry,” says Reinlein.

After all, unhealthy foods don’t have this name from just anywhere. Logically, it’s ultimately about the calorie balance that keeps the body functioning, but similar to an internal combustion engine, it’s always important to have the right fuel for the engine in question. “It’s exactly the same as cream and salmon. Both have fat, but the percentage of unsaturated fatty acids in salmon is much higher than that in cream, making it a much healthier source of fat,” explains the fitness expert.

You can lose weight by eating unhealthy foods

Especially with a diet that focuses on losing weight, it is important to change your diet and use healthy foods. True to the motto “you are what you eat”, nutrition is the lynchpin for physical well-being.

“A healthy body loses weight better than a sick one. Digestion is negatively affected by an unhealthy diet, and it can also promote the formation of inflammation in the body. Only when the body is healthy can it fully perform the function of burning fat,” says Reinlein.

Nevertheless, everyday movement should not be underestimated. Every step and every extra effort ensures that the calorie turnover increases. Consequently, if you burn a lot, you also need a higher calorie intake. Conversely, this means that you increase your calorie turnover through an increased amount of exercise and the combustion is boosted. If you then also save on calorie intake here, you will quickly lose weight. A good example of this is Bernd Stelter. According to him, he has only changed small habits, such as taking the stairs instead of the elevator or simply walking more every day. With success: Stelter has become a whole 25 kilos lighter!

Additional movement increases combustion

Ultimately, it is even true: Calories equal calories. But even if the body functions equally well on a diet of chips and cola as on a diet of vegetables and meat, you can’t compare it. This confirms that you can lose weight through an unhealthy diet, but that there is no guarantee that you will be healthier afterwards than before. If you also want to go one step further and lose weight as quickly as possible, you will still not be able to do with additional exercise. Nevertheless, the old rule applies here too: Patience makes perfect.

Some say potatoes should be peeled, others advise against it. We reveal what’s really true and show a trick you can use to peel potatoes in a flash.

You can conjure up many delicious dishes from potatoes: baked potatoes, potato gratin or simple boiled potatoes. The tuber is versatile, tasty and healthy. When preparing the potatoes, many people ask themselves: should I rather peel the potatoes or can I eat them with the skin on?

Toxins in the potato peel

In addition to nutrients and roughage, the potato peel also contains toxic glycoalkaloids: a-solanine and a-chaconine. These toxins occur naturally in the potato. They are mainly concentrated in the skin and in the germ. Inside the potato, on the other hand, there are significantly fewer toxins.

Glycoalkaloids are heat stable but water soluble. This means: High temperatures do not affect the toxins. If, on the other hand, you cook the potatoes in boiling water, the substances are removed from the skin.

Our commercially available potato varieties naturally do not contain any concentrations of these toxic substances that are harmful to health. The actual content of these substances is additionally influenced by several factors:
Unripe potatoes contain more toxins than ripe potatoes
Damage (e.g. during transport) and light favor the formation of toxins
If potatoes are stored too warm or too cold, more toxins are also formed
So if your potatoes are ripe, undamaged and stored properly, you don’t have to worry about the glycoalkaloids.

Potato peel protects the nutrients and flavors

Potatoes contain a lot of vitamins B and C. However, some of these vitamins are lost during cooking. The potato skin acts as a barrier when cooking: If you cook your potatoes with the skin, fewer flavors and nutrients are released into the water. This means that more of these valuable substances remain in the potato.

To peel or not to peel potatoes?

Although there is a significant amount of glycoalkaloids in the skin, you don’t necessarily have to peel potatoes. The Bavarian State Ministry for the Environment and Consumer Protection confirms that potatoes can be eaten with their skins without hesitation as long as they are of “normal quality”.

If you still want to peel the potatoes, we recommend that you only peel them after cooking. In this way, the potatoes retain as many nutrients and flavors as possible. Make sure, however, that you use the potatoes soon after cooking so that you don’t lose any more flavor and nutrients unnecessarily.

Green spots are an indication of increased levels of toxins. Therefore, cut out the green areas generously. Very green potatoes should be discarded entirely.

Trick: peeling potatoes made easy

You can easily peel potatoes with the following instructions:
Wash the potatoes and score the skin all over with a sharp knife.
Boil the potatoes until they are done. Make sure that the potatoes are not overcooked, otherwise they may fall apart when you peel them.
Place the cooked potatoes in ice water and chill for at least 10 seconds.
You can then simply peel off the peel either with your fingers or with a knife.
You can actually peel potatoes quite easily using this method. However, this isn’t magic either, and the peel won’t always come off “in one go”. Especially if the potato is a bit misshapen or has small “spots”, you will definitely have to touch up some areas.