One mother has left her followers horrified after revealing a hack she swears by to speed up preparations ahead of her Christmas Day meal.

Cooking for big occasions such as Christmas can be a lot of pressure - from making sure there's enough for the horde of family members that descend on your home each year, to ensuring everything is served hot at the same time, and of course, tastes and looks delicious.

So it's no wonder that many people would love to find an ingenious way of making that process a little bit quicker and easier on them.

One mother has revealed she speeds up the process of cleaning the potatoes she will cook for her loved ones... by putting them in the dishwasher.

Yes, that is food that she is going to be serving for her guests getting a spin in the dishwasher before being cooked.

Janelle, who posts on Instagram as @thedailynelly, shared a video showing how she speeds up the undesirable task of washing several bags of potatoes before cooking them for Thanksgiving or Christmas.

At the start of the clip, she and another woman can be seen emptying out bags of potatoes and placing them on the top rack of the dishwasher in between the spikes.

In the video, a person standing off-camera can be heard exclaiming: "Guys, this is a dishwasher!", to which Janelle responds: "I know, this is the best way to do it, it saves you so much time.

"Do you know how many people we have coming? And this is three bags of potatoes."

An older woman who is also helping to load the potatoes onto the dishwasher racks then adds: "We do this every year."

Once the top rack is completely full of potatoes, the pair then proceed to fill up the bottom rack and even the cutlery baskets with ever more spuds to be washed.

Many people were concerned about dish detergent residue getting on the potatoes. Credit: Maria Korneeva/Getty Images

Janelle then explained why they came up with the unorthodox method, after finding they were only able to clean four or five potatoes at a time in a bowl, which would take a long time for the amount that they needed to prepare.

When the man questioned whether they'd also be adding dish detergent to the machine before switching it on, Janelle revealed that was a definite no-no, and they just put the potatoes on a four-minute rinse cycle to get them perfectly clean instead.

Understandably, the bizarre ritual had everyone flooding her comments to share their thoughts, with one writing: "You truly CANNOT eat at everybody’s house."

Someone else pointed out: "That is really so gross. And what about the residue that was left in the little area where you put your dishwashing cleaning pod?!?!? I can’t even and don’t want to even think about that. No Thank You. Not interested in eating those potatoes."

Washing potatoes can be a time-consuming chore. Credit: Mint Images RF/Getty Images

One viewer wrote: "This is stupid af. Hand wash them in the sink would be quicker," to which another responded to add: "not only quicker, but they need a little scrubbing too. What they’re doing is like holding them under running water and saying they’re clean. They just look wet to me."

The video sparked a strong reaction in this viewer: "I am both confused and disgusted," while someone else worried: "What about residue detergent from washing dishes previously? I would never take that chance. Never for me. Not a good idea at all."

Another summed it up by simply stating: "This why I don’t eat at potlucks or people houses."

Personally, I'm going to stick to scrubbing them by hand because I just couldn't imagine my roast potatoes tasting like leftover dish soap, but each to their own, I guess...

Featured image credit: onurdongel/Getty Images

 

A woman has taken social media by storm after sharing the staggering amount of food she managed to salvage by going dumpster diving outside grocery stores.

The woman, who goes by @dumpsterdivingfreegan on TikTok, uses her platform to show her 346,000 followers that grocery stores regularly throw away large quantities of food that she says is perfectly fine to eat.

Not wanting to waste the food, the Dumpster Diving Freegan takes some of it for herself and donates the rest to local food banks.

In one of her posts on the app, which has since racked up over three million views, the content creator shows her followers the large quantities of edible goods that she has found in a Whole Foods dumpster.

Check it out below:

She managed to get her hands on organic chicken and beef, fruit, vegetables, bottles of juice, and a $65.52 turkey, which she showed her followers as part of her dumpster diving food haul.

The Dumpster Diving Freegan says in the video: "Last night I found enough meat to feed an entire community. It was 33 degrees Fahrenheit outside so everything here was still super cold and had been recently tossed.

"Everything had been thrown out on or before its best by date and as we know, best-by dates are not hard rules and everything is still good to consume."

She adds: "I’ve never seen any discount stickers on any of the items that Whole Foods has thrown out, and I left so much more behind."

Th TikToker goes on to clarify that "nothing featured in this video was recalled."

She also reveals that she has been able to live on thrown-out food for the best part of two years now and takes safety precautions when going dumpster diving.

The Dumpster Diving Freegan adds that she always informs those who eat her salvaged goodies where they came from and said she has never gotten sick from consuming anything she has retrieved from dumpsters.

She said: "My page is to bring awareness to the obscene waste in the US, I am not suggesting that people should be diving."

Featured image credit: Christian Naccarato / Pexels

A woman has sparked a debate online after revealing the lunch she packs for her boyfriend on TikTok.

Kiara, from Perth, who posts content on TikTok under the username @kiaraelaine__, shared a video of the packed lunch that she makes for her boyfriend, however, users of the video-sharing app had some very strong opinions about its contents.

This is what is inside his lunchbox: 

Now, while Kiara might have intended the TikTok to show off how much she cares about her boyfriend, some people couldn't help but slam the contents of his lunchbox.

Specifically: hummus, dried fruits, salami, a protein yogurt, a bag of popcorn, grapes, cheese, and crackers, and a mini Cadbury chocolate bar.

One TikTok user wrote: "It looks like an 8 year old child's lunch lol [sic]."

Credit: TikTok / Xavier Smith

Another slammed the unknown boyfriend for not making his own lunch, writing: "Get him to make it himself ffs."

Credit: TikTok / user4304493040807

She was also criticized for feeding her boyfriend so much packaged food.

Credit: TikTok / user7449759609524

However, not everyone was so critical and one TikToker praised Kiara for looking after her partner.

Credit: TikTok / Sash

Another TikToker revealed that they also make their partner's lunch because they enjoy doing it and want to ensure that they are eating well throughout the day.

"I make my husband lunch everyday [sic] for him to take to work," they wrote. "I don't have to make it, but I do have to make, but I do as I love making his lunch & making sure he's eating ok."

Credit: TikTok / Lisa Ann Marie

A fourth addressed the contents of the lunch box, writing: "Maybe he actually asked for that stuff? I think it's a really kind gesture you don't get many people like this! I think it's lovely."

Credit: TikTok / Chloe Hoyle

Meanwhile, a fifth TikTok user simply liked the look of this man's lunch and joked: "I'll be round in the morning to pick up mine. K thx."

Credit: TikTok / Samantha

Other women even decided to tag their partners in the post and said that they'd make them their lunches if only they thought to bring their Tupperware home on a regular basis!

As a parent, one of your many duties is to ensure your children are benefitting from a healthy, nutritious diet. But that can be hard to do once your kids reach a certain age and begin craving all things sweet, loaded with sugar and just generally unhealthy.

That's where a little bit of parental deception can come in handy... Just ask one mom from America whose clever hack for hiding chocolate from her kids has gone viral.

It's really not hard to imagine why kids and adults alike are so keen on chocolate. Just look at this beautiful chocolate marble cheesecake (and see how it's made!)

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The mom in question hides her chocolate in frozen vegetable bags before placing them in the freezer. She posted two photos featuring the ingenious idea on Facebook with the caption: "Let's see the kids find this stash."

It has since garnered more than 2,700 reactions and has been shared more than 52,000 times. Needless to say, many parents took to the comments to commend the clever parenting hack.

"I know where I'm hiding my stash of goodies from now on!" wrote one.

"I'm checking all the veggie bags when I get home," joked a third.

"Can you do this to me, please. My fat a** needs to step away from the snacks," another added.

[[imagecaption|| Credit: Facebook / Maynard Rose]]

A number of other users commented on the fact that the hack wasn't exactly unheard of - some even shared anecdotes about parents who had played similar tricks on their own unsuspecting kids.

"My mum has been doing this for ages, and hiding a whole bottle of alcohol in veggie bags too," said one.

Another chimed in: "This wouldn't have worked in our family I loved my veg too much."

One Facebook user completely disagreed with the hack, writing: "Mine go in the washing machine and tumble. They never ever go in there… freezers have lollies and ice cream so they go in there, fridge is always on the go….so best place is washers and dryers."

Folks, I was never great at science in school. I never understood the calculations, the equations, or the experiments where you had to mess around with chemicals. It just wasn't for me.

And yet, there is one formula of which I am absolutely sure would stand up to strenuous scientific testing: FRIES + KETCHUP + LIFE HACK = VIRAL SENSATION + HAPPINESS. Trust me, the logic behind it is sound.

[[imagecaption|| Credit: Getty]]

As we all know, the current system for chip dippage - whether it be into ketchup, mayo, or barbecue sauce (we ain't gonna judge you here) - just doesn't work.

The paper cups are too flimsy, they don't have much capacity, and, because they're so shallow, you can only really dip the top inch or so of your fry. And that just doesn't fly with those of us who are truly passionate about a sauce-saturated snack.

So, when the Twitter account 'Today Years Old' shared a hack that shows the true purpose of that little flap on the fries carton, fast food fans from across the globe wept actual tears of joy.

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Ok, so maybe I'm being a little bit hyperbolic - but there certainly were some delighted reactions from people.

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Others, meanwhile, were less than impressed with the hack, and thought that it could cause more problems than it solves.

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And a few genius commenters shared their alternative hacks for condiment access: using a large drinks cup lid, folding out the tiny paper cups so they hold more sauce, and - the old classic - forgoing any thought for how messy your fingers might get and just dumping 14 packets of ketchup straight on the fries.

Now, kind readers, I know this isn't the pinnacle of scientific discovery we're talking about here. Heck, it's barely a discovery at all - more of a coincidence. But some folks on Twitter are now *super* happy that they can put their ketchup on its own little cardboard shelf, and maybe we should just let them have that moment.