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How to Make a Hard Taco Shell In Your Microwave Using a Tortilla

An item sitting in your fridge or pantry can unexpectedly do double duty with a short blitz in the microwave.

On Sept. 26, Armen Adamjan of TikTok account @creative_explained joined Craig Melvin on TODAY to show off creative hacks shown on the social media star’s high energy channel.

Adamjan last joined Hoda and Jenna in July and showed how to smartly remove gunk from shower heads, prevent leftover food from sticking to cooking pans and more.

This time, he’s turned his attention to handy tips that can extend the life of your food and make preparing and cooking certain items quicker and easier.

Just like in his rapid-fire TikTok videos, Adamjan showed off seven of his best food hacks, including an easy way to transform a soft tortilla for taco night.

Keeping lettuce from wilting for longer

Romaine and leaf lettuce has become almost as popular as head lettuce according to the USDA, and with nearly 700 million pounds of the stuff thrown away each year, people are clamoring for a technique to keep leaves fresh. Adamjan suggests wrapping the full head of lettuce in foil and putting it in the fridge which he estimates will keep it fresh and crunchy for 30 days.

Keep scallions and asparagus fresh

Scallions (or green onions) and asparagus can quickly go slimy in the fridge if you aren’t careful. To alleviate this, Adamjan suggests that you fill a jar with a little bit of water and place either item into it before putting a plastic bag over them. With this technique, they’ll last for 10 to 14 days.

Don’t refrigerate cucumbers

Cucumbers are prone to chilling injury, which damages the veggie's texture if it gets too cold. Because of this, Adamjan recommends putting the tubular gourd in a plastic bag, poking holes in that bag and placing that in a cool spot in the kitchen instead. What this does is keeps cucumbers fresh for 14 days without the cold of the fridge turning their texture to mush.

Hull your strawberries with ease

All you need to remove the hulls from a bowl of strawberries to become cheesecake stuffed beauties is a metal straw. Adamjan suggests taking that straw and poking it through the berry which will get rid of the stem and white pith in the middle and prevent the waste of the rest of your berries.

Grate your herbs

We’ve all faced the daunting task of removing enough rosemary or thyme from their woody stems before using them in a dish, but there’s an easier way to use the fresh herbs without the time crunch of picking the leaves off one by one. Instead, Adamjan says to put them through the holes of a box grater instead and give them a little pull to efficiently complete the task.

Prevent starchy pasta water from boiling over

Prevent a saucepan full of milk or a boiling pot of pasta from overflowing by putting a wooden spoon across the top of the pot. This works to prevent overflows because the wooden spoon stays cooler than the pot where it is resting, keeping your liquid where it’s supposed to be.

Turn soft tortillas into hard taco shells

In less than a minute, taco night can be saved if you have tortillas on hard. Take an empty microwave-safe glass cup and fold a soft tortilla in half and place in the microwave for 30 seconds. This creates a hard taco shell, perfect for filling with skirt steak, crispy fish or whatever else your taco-loving heart desires.

This article was originally published on TODAY.com