Quick and Dirty Tips

15 Things You Didn't Know Tea Could Do
7 Must-Know Financial Tips Before You Start a Side Hustle
Is Seitan Healthy? (And What the Heck Is It, Anyway?)

Posted: 14 Apr 2021 06:00 AM PDT

Household helper

Make dinner clean-up a breeze

Remove cooked-on food from pots and pans effortlessly by filling them with water, adding a tea bag, and simmering. The tea's acid will break up food, so no harsh scrubbing is needed.

Protect your stove

Crazy but true: You can use tea to keep gunk from sticking to your stove. Brew a pot of tea that is four times normal strength, then wipe it on your stove. The tannins in the tea will make it hard for grease and food to stick, giving you the gift of quick and easy cleaning.

Tea takes away odors

We hate to throw anything away, so we love this way to repurpose used tea bags. Place them in a bowl and put them at the back of your refrigerator or drop a few dried ones in the bottom of your trash can. They'll remove odors just as well as baking soda!

Erase pen marks from skin

Our kids drive us crazy by writing notes and drawing all over their hands (thankfully, not answers to tests, as far as we know). The fastest way to clean them up? Green or black tea bags. Once you've brewed a cup of tea, use the wet bag to dab at ink stains.

Fight fungus on your plants

Brew up an extra-strong cup of chamomile tea, and spray the cooled tea all over the leaves. Repeat daily until the fungus is gone.

Who Knew has a lot of plant tips! Check out 6 Things You Didn't Know Could Fertilize Your Houseplants

Treat your grass

Did you know that watering your plants with tea every now and then is good for them, because it supplies them with nutrients that help them grow? In fact, using tea bags when planting new grass can be your secret to success. Wet the bags, then lay them in the dirt to make an inviting "bed" for the grass seeds. Then sprinkle on the seeds and water frequently.

Guard garden tools

Toss a handful of tea leaves in whatever container you keep your garden tools in. The leaves will help keep the metal nice, new, and rust-free.

Health and beauty

Pore-cleansing, stress-relieving facial

This super-effective pore cleanser couldn't be simpler.

Place three bags of chamomile tea in a medium-size bowl, and cover with several cups of boiling water.
Cover the bowl with a towel, and allow the tea to steep for 10 minutes.
Remove the towel, place it over your head, and hold your face over the bowl.

The steam will open your pores, and the chamomile will help unclog them. (As a bonus, chamomile is also a great stress reliever!) After 5 to 10 minutes, rinse your face with cold water. Alternatively, you can use...

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7 Must-Know Financial Tips Before You Start a Side Hustle

Posted: 14 Apr 2021 12:10 AM PDT

Years ago, I broke away from the traditional nine-to-five world and started working for myself. I wanted to do fulfilling work without fighting layers of bureaucracy or attending hours of company meetings. But I started my entrepreneurial journey slowly by creating a business on the side. Keeping my day job allowed me to test out my business ideas while maintaining my extra income.

Keeping my day job allowed me to test out my business ideas while maintaining my extra income.

If you also pine for the freedom and flexibility to do truly gratifying work and wake up excited about being your own boss, you can do what I did, too. Even starting a part-time business on the side has plenty of benefits. Today we'll look at critical financial issues to consider before you begin a venture that will help you succeed.

7 financial tips for starting a successful side hustle

Here's more detail on each of these must-know financial considerations before you become an entrepreneur.

1. Determine your business entity

When you work for yourself, there's a lot to do. You might need to look for new clients, create deliverables for current clients, bill customers, search contractors, or do a million other things. But one of the first tasks you should do is choose a business entity.

Your business entity determines your business structure according to the laws in your state. You'll need to know your business entity and name before getting a business bank account, insurance, or paying taxes.

However, choosing a business entity can also be a passive decision. If you don't register your business with the state, you'll automatically be a sole proprietor. That's why many self-employed people start as sole proprietors by default. In fact, if you're doing freelance work or have a small side hustle, you may have a sole proprietorship right now and not even realize it.

The reason you may not want to remain a sole proprietor indefinitely is that there's no distinction or legal separation between you and your business.

There isn't one best entity for a given business, and it's not a binding decision. As your business needs change, it's possible to change your entity. Some common business entities include:

Sole proprietorship
General Partnership
Limited liability company (LLC)
C corporation
S corporation

Most small businesses start as a sole proprietorship and then change to a corporation or LLC as they grow. The reason you may not want to remain a sole proprietor indefinitely is that there's no...

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Is Seitan Healthy? (And What the Heck Is It, Anyway?)

Posted: 13 Apr 2021 03:10 PM PDT

My editor, who is way cooler than me, has been hanging out on TikTok lately and says she is seeing lots of videos about cooking with seitan. Apparently, this meat substitute is having a bit of a moment. But plenty of people are still unfamiliar with this ingredient: What the heck is it, how does it stack up nutritionally, and how do you eat it?

Apparently, seitan is having a bit of a moment. But the food it refers to has been a staple in Asian cultures for at least 15 centuries.

Seitan is not a new thing. The word (pronounced say-tan) is Japanese and was coined just 50 years ago by one of the proponents of the macrobiotic diet. But the food it refers to has been a staple in Asian cultures for at least 15 centuries. I remember seeing it (but not buying it) at the Food Coop I belonged to as an undergraduate at Boston University. Although that was not quite 15 centuries ago, it was still long before the days of Whole Foods stores and yoga studios on every corner. Back then, food coops (and health food, in general) occupied a sort of a fringe culture left over from the Age of Aquarius.

Today, of course, plant-based and plant-forward diets have become relatively mainstream and you are much more likely to run across seitan at your local grocery store. It's often next to the tofu or the plant-based meat alternatives. If your local grocery doesn't carry it, seek out a health food store, food coop (yes, they still exist!), or Asian grocer. You can even make your own! (More about that in a moment.)

What is seitan made of?

Seitan is most frequently used as a meat substitute in vegetarian diets. It has a sort of stringy, chewy texture that makes it a fairly good substitute for meat. Unlike some meat substitutes, however, it's actually a decent source of protein. But the source of the protein might surprise you.

The source of seitan's protein might surprise you!

Seitan is made from wheat gluten. Yes, you heard me correctly. This "health food" consists almost entirely of gluten: a substance a lot of people are going to great lengths to avoid these days. It's made by rinsing wheat flour dough to dissolve and remove most of the starch and fiber. Eventually, what you have left is a sticky, elastic mass of protein.

Wheat as a source of protein

We tend to think of wheat and products made from wheat (such as bread and pasta) as "carbs." However, people forget that...

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Food And Recipe Fusion

Wednesday, April 14, 2021