Tired of throwing out expired food and wasting money buying more? Looking for more efficient ways to cook and be productive in the kitchen? Looking for shortcuts that society never seems to reveal to you? Here are some life hacks and tricks to make your experience in the kitchen quicker and more creative:

If you run out of sour cream, use yogurt: According to nutritionist Bette Warshaw, sour cream and yogurt “are formed from the same lactic acid culture such as gelatin or rennin.” Even with expiration dates, these ingredients still decay quote quickly. Therefore, if you have an almost empty container of yogurt, instead of wasting money buying sour cream, consider substituting for yogurt (and vice versa).

Use Soda to Keep Fruits Fresh: This especially applies to fruits such as melons and grapefruits. Poke holes in the fruit and pour two bottles of soda inside the fruit. The acidic nature of the soda will convert into juice which, in turn, will freshen and preserve your fruit (as well as make it taste more refreshing). Just make sure to refrigerate it ; otherwise, your fruit will taste like soda!

Cut a Circle in the Middle of a Cake: Try to cut the circle as precisely as you can. Not only will this help create equally cut slices when cutting around the circle, but it also adds another cake inside of the circle. In essence, you are eating two cakes (or pies) for the price of one as well as cutting slices easier. #winwin

Place an Upside Down Cup in the Microwave: Do you need to heat up multiple plates of food at once but you don’t quite have enough room? Try putting one plate of food on one side, than on the other side, place a cup upside down and put the second plate on top of that. Now, you have enough room to microwave two plates of food at once! Speaking of heating food up…

When Microwaving Food, Create Space in the Middle: Move your food to the edges of the plate, ensuring no food is in the middle. The heat from the microwave will ricochet off of the middle and evenly heat up the entire plate rather than only heat up certain parts. Even if the food is clustered together at the edges of the plate, the entire dish will come out warm simply by creating space in the middle.

Use Your Toaster More: According to reporter Makenzie Gore, the toaster “rids bacteria from a moldy piece of bread and revives even the stalest pieces of bread”. Therefore, don’t be afraid to place bread in the freezer to preserve it. The toaster will not only warm it up but it will also evaporate the bacteria that might be forming on it. Even if it is too stale for comfort, use the toaster to make bread crumbs or croutons.

Turn Pizza Into Breakfast: Do you have leftover pizza in your fridge but you don’t plan to eat it for lunch? You can still make a breakfast out of it. Cut off the crusts, place an egg and a strip of bacon on the pizza and heat it up on the griddle. You now have a bacon, egg, and cheese sandwich to enjoy for breakfast, which tastes better than you think!

Everybody enjoys eating and using these life hacks will make the experience more quick and enjoyable. Whether for preserving food or speeding up the process, there are many clever methods of conducting business in the kitchen that we take for granted. Let us know what other life hacks you could find!