Ice Cube Trays - Your Frugal Friend

A few years ago we got a new fridge with a built-in ice maker and water dispenser.  It's the first time in my life I've had that feature, and I use it every single day (I'm a big water drinker - I probably drink close to a gallon of water most days).

After the fridge was installed, my husband, who is one of those "get rid of it if you're not using it right now" kind of people (i.e. the total opposite of me - yes I drive him up a wall sometimes) wanted to get rid of the ice cube trays.  Now, granted, we had about eight of them.  So I let him donate six, but I kept two.  Why?  They are useful for so much more than just making ice from water!

I don't know about you, but I'm not a fan of tomato products from a can.  Besides the issue of BPA in the lining, to me the tomatoes always coming out tasting like the can, instead of that sweet tomato goodness.  Then, I discovered these Hunt's tomato sauce Tetra Paks.  The sauce is delicious!  At 33.5 ounces, though, it's rare I would use a whole container of sauce in one day (or in one week, for that matter).  Sure, I could stick the whole container in the freezer and then thaw it out when I'm ready to use it, but sometimes I only need a little bit of sauce.  What to do...what to do.  Out come the ice cube trays!

Each divot in my trays holds two tablespoons of liquid, if I fill them right to the top.  So two cubes = 1/4 cup of liquid.  Easy to freeze, easy to pop out, easy to measure for recipes!

Over Christmas, I bought two pints of heavy cream for a couple of dishes that I thought I was going to make but then didn't.  I'm not one to let cream go to waste, but we REALLY don't need to be eating anything cream-laden right now, so I froze that too.  Here are the cubes after I popped them out of the tray.  Beautiful dairy popsicles. 

I've read (though I haven't tried it yet) that once they're thawed, they'll whip up like they've never been frozen. I can also just drop a cube into soups that need that creamy edge, or, if I'm feeling really decadent, thaw a cube for my coffee (one cube would probably last me four days in my coffee - it doesn't take much!).  

What else can you freeze?  Anything that freezes well that you want access to in small portions.  I've frozen:

• sliced green onions that were going bad (great in soups and sauces where they'd be cooked thoroughly anyway)
• diced bell peppers, celery, onions, garlic (these and the green onions go in with a little bit of water in each divot)
• broth or stock, for those recipes that only need 1/4 cup or less (I usually freeze my stock in two cup portions)
• Erupting Ice Chalk (my daughter had so much fun with these a couple of summers ago!)

Basically, if you can think of it and it's small enough to fit in an ice cube tray, it's perfect for this.

Do you use ice cube trays in your frugal kitchen?  I'd love to know your thoughts and ideas!

Happy Freezing!

Freezer Inventory Menu List - Charcuterie, Fish, and "Ready Meals"

This is the second installment in my menu planning around what is already in my freezer.  The first installment, covering the main meat elements (beef, pig, and poultry) can be found here.

CHARCUTERIE
This is really just a fancy word for processed and smoked meats - sausage, bacon, and the like.  This is probably my favorite meat category of all!  Here's what we have, and some ideas about what I'll do with it:

• Chicken Garlic and Herb Sausage (1):  Sausage and pasta with cream sauce
• Chorizo (of the Mexican variety) (2): 
• Chili
• Chorizo and potatoes (something tells me this would be really good with a fried egg on top)
• Chicken Cheese Sausage (1):  We like these just as they are, grilled up with some potatoes on the side.
• Kielbasa-style sausage (I call it kielbasa, but usually it's turkey or chicken smoked sausage) (2):  Kielbasa and cabbage
• Hot Dogs (2):
• Hot dogs
• Chili dogs
• Apple Chicken Sausage (1):  "The Stuff"
• Breakfast Sausage (1):  Irish Sundaes
• Canadian Bacon (1):  Actually just used this last night in Pizza Noodles
• Bacon (3):  I don't think I need to explain this one - everything's better with bacon!

FISH
My husband doesn't like fish other than canned tuna and the occasional grilled salmon steak, so I don't usually keep it on hand.  At the moment, I hav:

• Cod (1):  Cheesy Fish Sticks 
• Tilapia (1):  I just like to cook this in parchment with a little butter, garlic, and seasonings.

"READY MEALS"

AKA processed food, in a box or bag, ready to prepare at a moment's notice when I just don't feel like cooking.  We don't eat too much of this, as I like to cook and try to eat pretty healthy, but I like to keep a few things on hand (and some things I try to always have on hand).  At the moment, we have the following:

• Fish sticks - once upon a time, they made a baked variety of these, but I can't find them anymore so we only have these once in a while.
• Potstickers - my daughter's #1 favorite meal.  I always, always, always have potstickers on hand!
• Swedish meatballs - I make these myself but I always make a triple or quadruple batch because, let's face it, making meatballs is tedious work.
• Frozen burritos - bean and cheese for me, red hot chili for hubby and my girl - they like theirs with canned chili dumped over the top.
• Meatless meatballs - I've never had these.  I won them in a contest a while back and haven't worked up the courage to try them yet.  Someday I'll sneak them into spaghetti and see what kind of faces my family makes.  
• Lentil soup - homemade - I like to make a big pot and then freeze it in lunch-size portions to take to work with me.
• Skillet Meals - I just picked these up yesterday for next to nothing on sale with a coupon.  Small bags - they say they serve three but I'm dubious.  I can always stretch them with extra pasta and vegetables, I suppose.  
• Chicken Strips - my daughter's second favorite meal (oddly enough, she loves chicken strips but is not a fan of chicken nuggets).  I try to always have these and tater tots on hand for a quick meal when I don't feel like cooking.  We like to dip them in a sauce made of blue cheese dressing and Frank's Red Hot Sauce. 

We also have a variety of breads, cheeses, produce, and starches (cooked beans, cooked rice, frozen hash browns, etc.) in the freezer, which I incorporate into our meals.  

Freezer Inventory Menu List - Beef, Pig and Poultry

Over the last few days, I've been perusing the information and forums at Budget101.com and GroceryBudget101.com.  I'm not sure why the menu planning bug has suddenly struck once again, but it inspired me to take the freezer inventory I made on Saturday and plan out a list of meals I could make with the meat and other items tucked away in the freezer.

We've already used a package of Italian sausage and a quart of navy beans (in White Beans and Sausage, which was delicious and provided me with two days of lunch leftovers), a smoked turkey sausage in the kielbasa and cabbage, a box of taquitos, and a pound of hamburger (tonight was taco salad.  As per my usual, I cooked a pound of ground beef and a can of chili beans (separately - my husband won't eat the beans and I won't eat the taco meat), fed us dinner and set aside leftovers for his lunch tomorrow, and then put the remaining taco meat and beans in the freezer for the next time I make chili.  Tomorrow night we'll use some of the Canadian bacon in pizza noodles, and then I'll probably make the rest into egg McMuffin-type sandwiches that I can refreeze for quick breakfasts, though I may find something else to do with it instead.  I'm kind of up in the air on that. 

This is a work in progress that I'm sure I will edit as I go along (and add recipe links), but here's a start:

BEEF:

• Cooked Corned Beef (2):  Hash is pretty much my only option here (picky husband).  
• Ground Beef (5):  
• meatloaf
• taco salad
• stuffed peppers
• hamburgers and oven fries
• meatballs
• baked ziti
• Bulgogi meat (this is just thin sliced beef) (2):  
• Bulgogi
• Cheesesteak-style sandwiches
• Chuck Roast (1):  After I bought this, my husband announced that he doesn't really like pot roast, so 'll probably cook it, cool it, then separate the meat from most of the fat and find some casserole recipes to use it in.
• Flank Steak (1):  Grilled steak salad
• Corned Beef (1):  See Cooked Corned Beef (I just cook it and then portion it out)
• Boneless Chuck Steak (1):  Same deal as the chuck roast. 
• Bottom Round Roast (1):  Eventually, my husband will make jerky out of this.  Though I'll probably insist on cutting a few hunks off first to make cube steak, one of his favorite meals.

PIG:

• Ground Pork (2):  Add to meatballs/meatloaf mixture.  I don't do much with ground pork on its own unless it's made into sausage.
• Loin Roast (1):  Roast pork
• Loin Chops (1):  Grilled pork chops
• Marinated pork loin (1):  Roast as is
• Pork Shoulder (1):  Either Carnitas or Pulled pork (or maybe I'll cut it in half and do both)

 POULTRY:

• Ground Turkey (1):  Turkey Burgers
• Chicken Tenderloin (3):  
• Bruschetta Chicken
• Breaded and Baked Chicken (I have a couple of those new Kraft "Fresh Taste" breading packs in the freezer)
• Blackened Chicken Salad
• Shredded, Cooked Chicken (3):
• Chicken and Black Beans
• King Ranch Chicken
•  Cumin Noodles
• Whole Chicken (1): Roasted or rotisseried
• Whole Turkey (1):  Roasted
• Thighs, Bone and Skin on (1):  Italian Shred
• Thighs, Boneless/Skinless:  (2):  
• Chicken Pot Pie
• Chicken Paprikash
• Chicken Carcass (1):  Combine with carcass from whole chicken to make broth (which I will NOT forget about in the garage fridge like I did with the last batch!)
• Chicken Broth (3):  To be used as needed in recipes.

That's enough for one post! For the rest of my ideas, click here.

It's the little things that excite me.

This will give you some indication of just how pathetically little it takes to excite me.  Today I was thinking about our menu for the week (which we've followed to the letter so far), and how I hadn't bought any bell peppers for pizza noodles on Friday.   I got three green ones for tonight's stuffed peppers, but hadn't bought any extras, and the colorful ones were too expensive for my end-of-the-pay-period grocery budget.

"No problem," I thought to myself (why yes, I do have conversations with myself about meal planning and preparation - doesn't everyone?), "I'll just open a jar of roasted red peppers."  Problem is, if I open a jar of roasted red peppers without a plan to use up the rest of them, I might as well just throw them away because that's what will happen.

Cut to 5:30 p.m., making the stuffed peppers.  By the way, thank goodness I had a meal plan and pepper filling in the freezer from last time, because I came home early sick yesterday and I really just wanted to make chicken strips and Tater Tots, but I didn't have any chicken strips.   Most weeks, I'd just send my husband to Taco Bell.

Anyway, as I cut the tops of the peppers off, I thought about tossing them in the salad, but then I thought "aha!  Bell pepper chunks!  Pizza noodles!  Problem solved!!!"

I love it when a plan comes together...

And yes, I give you permission to laugh at me now.

Cooking and freezing dried beans

There are lots of ways to save a little here and there on grocery money.  One of the best, in my opinion, is cooking dried beans instead of buying canned.  Canned beans tend to have a lot of salt and also typically have BPA in the lining of the cans, which is something I'm starting to avoid when I can.  I keep a few cans of beans on hand for nights when I need something REALLY quick (and canned chili beans to feed my child's addiction - she loves them straight out of the can), but I also try to keep a good selection on hand in the freezer. 

At the moment, I have a batch of black beans simmering on the stove.  The house smells great because I add a few extra ingredients to the pot to give the beans a little extra kick of flavor (more about that in a minute).

Beans are so easy to prepare.  They take quite a bit of time, but it's almost entirely cooking and soaking time, with very little hands-on needed.  You can cook any amount, as long as you have a pot big enough to handle it.  I usually buy in bulk, so I tend to cook two cups of dried beans at a time.

First, put your beans in a dish (I use a pie plate) and pick through to remove any small rocks or bad beans.  I remember watching a Food Network show where the host was picking through a dish of beans and found three rocks in it.  I found it odd, because I have NEVER found a rock in my beans.  But I always check, just in case.  Rinse the beans in a sieve and put them in a pot (I use a two-quart stock pot).  Now, you have two options:

Option one:  Add cold water to cover with at least two inches of water over the top of the beans.  Set aside and soak overnight.

Option two:  Add water to cover with at least two inches of water over the top of the beans.  Put on your stove and bring just to a boil.  Turn off (do not drain) and let the beans sit for two hours.

At the end of the soaking time, drain and rinse your beans.  Put back in the pot, add water again to cover by two inches.  Bring to a boil, then turn down and simmer.  I find that if I cook the beans too hard, the skins fall off, so keep it at as low a simmer as possible. 

If you want to add a little flavor oomph to your beans, add a bay leaf, a few cloves of sliced garlic, and a couple of onion slices to the cooking water.  If you have a specific recipe in mind, you can also add the same seasonings called for in your recipe to help bring an extra layer of flavor to your dish.  Be careful, however, not to add any salt or seasoning including salt, or your beans may not soften.  Always salt at the end, when your beans are fully cooked.

After 90 minutes, start checking your beans to see if they're done.  I usually taste one or two, and then add five or 10 minutes to the cooking time before I check again.  Keep going until your beans are fully cooked. Be careful not to overcook them, though, or they'll just get mushy.  Drain, saving the liquid if you're going to freeze them, remove any large pieces of seasoning (such as the bay leaf and onion slices - I usually leave the garlic), and let cool. 

If you aren't using the beans right away, they freeze beautifully.  I usually freeze them in two-cup portions, which works for me for most recipes.  Just put the cooled beans in a freezer-safe container, add cooking liquid just to cover (this will help keep the beans from drying out in the freezer), and pop them in your freezer. 

Enjoy your beans! 

Freezing Green Onions

We've reached that point in the year where I really need to get some things out of the garden.  We've had several frosty mornings, and the onions are looking especially limp.  I don't want to waste all that fresh oniony goodness, though, so I decided to chop and freeze some of the green tops (I'll also chop the bottoms and freeze them separately).  Here's how I do it.

First, wash and chop your green onions. Then, place them in a freezer-safe container of a convenient size.  I used some silicone cupcake molds (I hate baking in them, so I might as well use them for something, right?).  Add enough water to each just to cover, and put them in the freezer until they're solid.

Take them out of the freezer and remove them from the cups (that's the nice thing about silicone - you can just flip it right out).  Voila!  Little green onion hockey pucks.

 

Put into a freezer container and freeze until ready to use.  I've kept these for six months or more.  You can use them as is in soups, stews, and other saucy things where a couple extra tablespoons of water won't matter, or you can thaw them out before you use them.  They do get a little slimy so I wouldn't use them in a salad or anything, but they're good in just about any cooked dish.  Enjoy!

Tuesday's Kitchen Tip - Veggie Cubes

I'm rapidly realizing that it's kind of hard to think of kitchen tips! I probably do a lot of things that others would consider tips, but they're either like second nature to me so I don't think about it, or else I've picked them up from someone else so they're not original and I feel weird about posting them. But I'll keep thinking...

Here's one thing I do from time to time that sometimes helps speed things up in the kitchen. I started doing this a couple of summers ago when my onions were ready to be picked from the garden, and I wasn't going to use them all up before they started going downhill (I grow walla wallas - they don't keep in the ground as well as some others).

I took a bunch of onions and peeled them all, then chopped them into the standard size I use in all my cooking (I put onions and garlic in just about all of our entrees, even if the recipes don't call for them). Then, I took some old ice cube trays and put the onions evenly into them, added a tablespoon of water to each cube section, and froze them. Popped them out of the trays and into a freezer bag. Then, when I need onions for whatever I'm cooking, I just have to grab them out of the bag, throw them in the pan, and it's ready to go. No muss, no fuss. No chopping, and no crying! I use about four cubes for one medium onion.

I've also done this successfully with celery. One of these days I'll try it with bell peppers. I have heard it works well with certain herbs, like basil and parsley, but I haven't had enough of a crop to try them yet. I need to try it with cilantro, which always grows much faster than the rest of our salsa ingredients!

Kitchen Tip Tuesdays

Tammy over at Tammy's Recipes has a cool feature every Tuesday - it's Kitchen Tip Tuesdays! She posts a kitchen tip and invites her readers to do the same on their blogs, then post a link from hers. I participated for the first time last week with my stove cleaning tip. Thought I'd join in again this week with my secret to smooth deviled egg filling.

For the longest time I had trouble getting my deviled egg filling smooth. No matter how much I mashed it with a fork, I always had chunks of egg yolk floating around in there, and I much prefer my filling to be totally smooth and creamy. Then, one day, I grabbed my pastry blender out of the drawer and used that. It worked perfectly!

The secret is to cut up the egg yolks with the pastry blender BEFORE you add any other ingredients. Mash away - you can't hurt it! Soon you will have little tiny grains of egg yolk, all uniformly sized, that will blend beautifully with the mayonnaise and other ingredients. Voila! Perfectly smooth deviled egg filling.