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The Daily Dish The Real Housewives of Orange County

Gina Kirschenheiter Shares Her "Mom Hack": "My Kids Think It's Hysterical"

The Real Housewives of Orange County cast member found a clever way to improvise when she forgot a main ingredient in a recipe. 

By Jenny Berg

Gina Kirschenheiter has a house full of kids, and her kitchen is a bustling place. When The Real Housewives of Orange County cast member first moved into her home, where she lives with her boyfriend, Travis Mullen, and their six combined kids, she described how she keeps the kitchen streamlined. And in a recent Instagram post, the Long Island native revealed a cooking hack that her kids find "hysterical." 

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In the video above, Gina dishes on the importance of having a well-organized kitchen. "I feel like everybody loves the kitchen and loves to eat, and we certainly do in this house," she says. "When you cook with kids, you definitely need space to do it. So that is a great feature of this house. I also have a lot of storage, which is really good. For it being not such a large home, it actually was designed really well."  

You don't only need space to feed six kids. You need some solid improvisational skills. And as Gina's recent post proved, she has those covered. 

Gina Kirschenheiter shares her "mom hack" 

In an October 5 Instagram Story, Gina said, "It's a very common occurrence in my house that we make hot dogs. And I realize after the fact that I don't have a hot dog bun. Or [we make] hamburgers, and I don't have a hamburger bun." Then, positioning the camera to show off what she did in a pinch, Gina said, "This is my hack." 

She continued: "Today we made burgers, and we just used the hot dog bun. We cut it. The kids think it's hysterical, so there you go. Mom hack of the day." It gets better. In her next Instagram Story, Gina revealed that she and her kids had found a hack for the hack. 

She showed off how the hot dog buns provided lines that showed the kids exactly where to cut their "cheeseburger dogs" in order to get two equal portions. "You get two little hamburger hot dogs, what a bonus!" she said excitedly. 

A split of Gina Kirschenheiter showing her cutting cheeseburgers on paper plates.

Gina has shared more about her cooking style on RHOC. After making a quip about her high DoorDash bill on Season 17 Episode 6, the mom later explained in Episode 8, “I realized I can cook, I just don’t like it.” 

On the July 26 episode, while chatting with Travis; her ex-husband, Matt Kirschenheiter; and Matt’s girlfriend, Britt, the latter reminisced about a “really good” meal Gina made two years prior. “That was the last time she cooked!” Travis joked. 

“It was like real Italian pasta,” Britt said, to which Travis responded, “‘Real’ Italian’s a relative word. I think real Italians would be offended calling that a real Italian [meal].” However, Gina exclaimed, “I am a real Italian! I’m not a fake Italian!” 

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