The Easy Kitchen Hacks That Meghan Markle Didn't Show You

Although Meghan Markle tried her best with her Netflix series "With Love, Meghan," many of her lifestyle hacks were a bit out of touch for the average consumer.

After all, who has time to construct an entire balloon arch by hand or spend time scrolling through Yelp to find their own beekeeper to make their own candles?

Although some recipes, like her "single skillet spaghetti," proved to be more relatable, the fact that she didn't get a single stain on her outfit shows how disconnected she is from working moms everywhere.

So, in the spirit of simplicity, here are some culinary and serving hacks that you can actually use in your everyday life without breaking the bank.

Have you ever been in charge of bringing dessert to a party, only to realize that it’s the day of and you literally don’t have the time to bake anything? Trader Joe’s Mini Sheet Cake is the answer. This is making the rounds on TikTok right now, with everyone sharing a different idea on how to construct their layer cake, but this is how I do mine.

Simply pick up two cakes and bring them home, rearranging your kitchen table so you have enough room to place the two cakes side by side. Spread the frosting off the top until it covers the sides of one cake, and then place the other cake on top, making sure to spread the frosting around until it completely covers the cake.

After that, you can cover it with whatever you want: sprinkles, cookie crumbles, chocolate chips, crushed nuts, etc. The point is to try to disguise the uneven frosting if you’re terrible with it like I am. If you have the skills and the time to pipe decoratively crisp roses on the top of the cake, then by all means.

But for those in a rush, stacking two layer cakes on top of each other is a simple way to bring a cake to a party that doesn’t scream, “I just stopped by the store on the way here to pick this up.”

And, by the way, you don’t have to go to Trader Joe’s, although I love their gluten-free yellow cake. You can go to pretty much any grocery store to grab the essentials, mainly two-layer cakes, sprinkles, and perhaps some additional frosting, just in case things get messy.

If you don't have Meghan Markle's budget, then it can be a challenge to pick up serving bowls and platters that are actually affordable, considering how much you'd actually use them.

So here's a cool DIY idea that will probably cost you less than ten dollars if you already have all of the ingredients on hand. First, go to Dollar Tree and find a matching plate and bowl set that you wouldn't mind displaying on your kitchen counter. Now, I'm sure you're thinking that you can just put the bowl on the plate, throw some fruit in there, and we're done. However, this is a bit more complicated.

Let's say you want to serve a cake on there. Instead, take the bowl and flip it upside down. Take a hot glue gun and outline the rim of the bowl. Then, place the plate on top of the bowl to make your own little DIY serving tray that's good for cakes, cupcakes, waffles, or just a simple cheese spread.

It might not be the fanciest thing in the world, but people seem to be seriously impressed by this serving hack, which is pretty cheap and requires hardly any time at all.

If you’re a fan of chicken salads, then you’re probably either buying pre-shredded chicken that comes with a ton of preservatives or you’re making it yourself from scratch. But if you have a stand mixer sitting somewhere in the back of your closet from Christmases long past, you don’t need to be a baker to use it.

Instead, cook your chicken – preferably boneless, skinless chicken – and wait until it cools down but is still warm. You can also use a mix of thighs and breasts, but make sure that the skin is off so you don’t get weird chunks in your food.

Put the paddle attachment on your stand mixer, and then dump the chicken in the bowl. Set the speed to low and then let the paddle do the work. It really shouldn’t take any more than a minute if your chicken is warm enough. You might still have some big chunks leftover in the bowl, which you can rip apart with your bare hands just for the fun of it.

And there you go! Easy shredded chicken that took less than a minute to shred. I’ve seen this hack go big on TikTok, with people using Costco rotisserie chickens with mixed results. It will definitely work, but then you have to be super careful about picking out the loose bits of skin and, more importantly, the bones. The crunch in your salad should come from some toasted pepitas, not a chicken bone.

If you are Meghan Markle, you probably have a nutritionist running your numbers and telling you how much you should be eating. Unfortunately, most of us don't have a nutritionist on speed dial, and, if you're like me, you don't even have one covered under your health insurance plan. Luckily, there are many macro calculators that have you plug in your numbers and spit out the "correct" amount of food that you should be eating. While each online calculator that I tried gave me different results, if you're trying to lose/maintain/gain weight, you have to start somewhere.

After I got my macros, I wasn’t sure where I should start. What should I eat? So I went to ChatGPT to take some of the guesswork out of it. Simply go to ChatGPT and submit as your prompt, “Create a daily meal plan with 101 grams of carbohydrates, 127 grams of protein, and 43 grams of fat.” Obviously, use your own numbers instead of mine!

It immediately came back with results for breakfast, a mid-morning snack, lunch, afternoon snack, dinner, and evening snack, complete with the macronutrient breakdown of each meal. To get a different result, I just told it to “Create another daily meal plan” using the same macronutrient information, and it gave me a whole new set of meal ideas!

Obviously, some of this information is not going to be 100% correct. For example, it told me to make a protein shake for an evening snack, but the macros that it gave me for their whey protein shake don’t line up with the peanut butter-flavored one I have in my pantry. Can’t stomach whey? There are plenty of vegan options on the market, but the macros will be different, too.

You can also ask ChatGPT to filter your options based on dietary preferences and allergies, such as gluten-free or vegan. It also works for the keto or carnivore diet plan, which involves eating low to no carbs. It’s not going to be perfect, but for people who are looking for someone to tell them what and when to eat, it’s pretty helpful.

And, for the truly health conscious, you can also ask ChatGPT to create an exercise plan for you by entering the body part you want to work on, such as biceps and triceps. If you're short on ideas, with ChatGPT, the sky's the limit!

In addition to her one-skillet spaghetti dinner, Meghan Markle did have the right idea with the “sun tea” that she shows off in episode four. Explaining how she made it as a kid with her mom, she makes “sun tea” by simply throwing a tea bag in a Mason jar full of water and leaving it to sit in the sun outside.

Although this is probably not going to work in the wintertime, this does seem like a sweet treat if you live in southern California. It’s very easy to pull off and seems a lot more fun than simply pouring tea out of a kettle.

Although “With Love, Meghan” failed to impress critics, the show has already been renewed for a second season, leaving many to hope that the recipes and kitchen hacks she shares will be a lot more down to earth.

Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to go see how long it takes me to actually build a balloon arch by hand.