Crappy Housewife Tip of the Day

You know that circular piece of cardboard that comes with a frozen pizza? (Or the take and bake pizzas from Aldi's - our favorite!) Use it to transfer the pizza to and from the oven, and then as a disposable cutting board for slicing the pizza. If you eat on paper plates, you can have an almost-dish-free dinner!

Crappy Housewife Tip of the Day

If you have enough dinner leftovers to make another whole meal, pack them up and freeze them. Then, flip ahead a few weeks in your day planner (or online calendar or menu planner), and write "leftover __________ for dinner (in freezer)". This kills two birds with one stone: you don't have to worry about the leftovers being forgotten, and you'll have one day a few weeks from now where you won't have to plan anything for dinner!

(If you're extra geeky, like me, you can make it an event on your Google Calendar, then set a 24-hour reminder so you'll remember to take it out of the freezer.)

Crappy Housewife Tip of the Day

If you're using pasta sauce from a jar, don't waste your time heating it up. Just put the cold or room-temperature sauce on your hot pasta and stir. Not only does this save cooking time and stop you from dirtying a whole extra sauce pot, but it also cools the pasta down instantly to the correct eating temperature for kids!

(Addendum: If you like a lot of sauce, or if you like your pasta to be really hot, you can modify this tip. Spoon one portion of sauce into the bottom of the bowl you plan on eating from, and heat it up in the microwave while you are serving the kids their luke-warm bowls. Then, when your sauce it hot, just put your hot pasta on top of it, and stir it up!)

Crappy Housewife Tip of the Day

Start a Casserole Club. One night a week, you make two casseroles for dinner, and bring one to a friend. And one night a week, you don't have to make dinner, because a friend will be bringing a casserole to you. It's so simple and brilliant (if I do say so myself). My Casserole Club makes sure that my family gets at least two proper dinners every week: One that someone else cooked for us, and one that I had to cook because I was cooking for someone else (which somehow is a much more effective motivator than just cooking for my family).

For full Casserole Club details, see my other blog.

Crappy Housewife Tip of the Day

If there is something in the kitchen that you need to remember to do before bed, like moving the hot broth that is cooling on the counter into the fridge, leave the kitchen light on. Then, when you're on your way to bed, you'll have to go back into the kitchen to turn off the light, and you're more likely to remember the broth if you have to walk past it.

Crappy Housewife Tip of the Day

If you use browned butter to grease your casseroles, it is tastier, and also, the telltale black flecks stick to your pan so you can tell if you've scrubbed all of it or not. You won't miss a spot!

(Submitted by Shreyas)