Sometimes the food just needs a little heat.
Food in your home can go stale if not properly sealed, but there are simple ways to resurrect it and make fresh again.
Food and lifestyle expert Alejandra Ramos has various tips to bring old food back to life.
There's nothing worse than stale cereal in the morning, but Ramos has a solution — all you need is a baking pan and an oven.
Scatter the cereal on the pan and put it in the oven at 300 degrees. Keep an eye on it, but after five to 10 minutes, let it cool and enjoy!
Potato chips are the cornerstone of American snack food and there's a simple way to tell they are safe to eat after being in the cupboard for a while.
“If it smells rancid or sour, that means the oils have gone bad and you just toss them,” Ramos said.
But if the chips smell fine but taste stale, you can bring them back to life by spreading them out evenly on a baking sheet and placing them in the oven at 370 degrees for 10 minutes. Like the cereal, keep an eye on the chips so they don’t burn.
Then take them out, let them cool, and enjoy.
Did you buy too much popcorn at the movies that's now on the stale side? All you need is five minutes in the oven at 250-degree heat and voila! The popcorn gets a sequel.
There is also a way to check the freshness of your coffee beans with the help of a Ziploc bag.
Put the bag in the refrigerator overnight and “if the beans are fresh, it's going to release carbon dioxide and the bags going to puff up,” Ramos said.
If the beans are on the old side, they can be revived on the stove top.
“The heat's going to bring out the natural oils that are already in the coffee beans and freshen them up,” said Ramos.
Doughnuts left out for a day can dry out, but no need to toss them.
“They're still delicious," Ramos said. "They just need a little bit of heat."
She says 20 seconds in the microwave will get that freshness back, and the doughnuts will taste like they just came from the store.
