While I don’t consider myself a phenomenal cook, I do know what I like and strive to create delicious recipes for my family. Some days I enjoy cooking more than others and could easily spend the entire day producing dish after dish of really yummy food to eat right then or as freezer storage backups for later. Aside from the backache, my least favorite part of cooking and baking has to be the unsightly mess that always follows.

I’ve often wondered how much of my sanity and eating out budget could be preserved if cleaning up was a little easier. After evaluating my kitchen I’ve come up with some tricks that I’ve been implementing to better manage my time, budget, and sanity. Even then, there’s still a mess in my sink some nights and I don’t have it all together but I’m hoping that little by little these conscious choices build on each other to create a noticeable change in cleaning our kitchen…especially with the holidays coming up.

7 Ways to use PAM cooking spray in the Kitchen!

1. Lightly spray PAM on your cheese grater before slicing or grating cheese. Shredding cheese will be more effortless and clean up will be much easier.

2. After putting tomatoes or carrots in your food processor, easily clean the residue tinting the bowl with PAM and a paper towel. (Bonus tip: this will also work to protect your plastic storage containers before putting items like pasta sauce inside.)

3. Cast iron cookware is incredibly durable but seasoning is a necessity. Avoid the mess of using oil by lightly spraying cast iron with PAM and a paper towel to season between uses.

4. The muffin tin above may be stained but has been going strong for the last 13 years (wedding present). I save money by ditching the paper liners and using PAM to coat my baking tin. If you look really closely you may see small crumbs that were still baked on to the dish but they’re few and far between. Clean up after making my Fresh Peach Spice Muffins was super easy!

5. Use PAM as a lubricant to keep your fridge/freezer door from sticking or squeaking.

6. If you’ve ever had to defrost a freezer, you know how much work is involved. Save yourself the time and headache by spraying a preemptive coat of PAM to avoid ice buildup.

7. Before measuring out sticky substances like honey or syrup while baking, lightly spray PAM on measuring cups/spoons to make cleanup a breeze!

What ways do you use PAM cooking spray?