*an easy way to clean your microwave is to slice up a lemon in a bowl of water. microwave for several minutes until it is steamy inside, then wipe down the inside of the oven. it works and the place smells great, too.

*two easy ways to grease pans:
use a small baggie as a glove so that your hands don't get gross when using shortening. eeewwww
make up your own mixture of 2/3 part oil and 1/3 part liquid lecithin (i found it at the health food store here.) lecithin is supposed to be what they use in those expensive sprays (?) then just "paint" the mixture onto your pans with a kitchen paintbrush. i store my brush in a baggie in the fridge so that i don't have to wash it out all the time.

*when i buy ground beef, i try to buy a big economy pack. i then come home and scramble it with VIDALIA onions and bell peppers and put it in my freezer in 1/2 or 1 pound portions which are precooked (i just use those ziploc freezer bags). this makes it easier at the end of a hectic day to pull out the beef and mix it into a jar of spag sauce, sloppy joe mix, or taco seasoning. (it saves time because you only have to chop once and also because you only have to pull out the frying pan, scramble and clean up once!) i also mix about 1 cup precooked lentils into my sloppy joes and tacos to cut down on the amount of protein from beef we use. my family says that they can't tell the difference. (and they are really picky!)

*easy baked potatoes: did you know that you can bake potatoes in the crock pot? you just scrub the little buggers, pierce them with a fork and throw them in the c.p. cook on low all day and they will be ready for dinner! no need for aluminum foil & no heating up the whole house in the summer time!