FREEZING
One element of freezing cookie dough that really appeals to me is that no matter how tight your budget is for that week, if you wanted homemade cookies you could bake them fresh from your oven.
You can also freeze egg whites and egg yolks. Why would you do this you ask? Well, I don’t know how many recipes I have made for desserts that call for four eggs whites and I do not always want to toss out the yolks. I also do not want to force myself to work four extra yolks into my diet that week. So I freeze them for when I want to make a pudding or a custard!
CLEANING
For those of you who cook, bake and clean as much as I do, your rings are probably a disaster! My gems cloud up and stop sparkling on me so fast that I needed a cheap, easy and natural way to clean them on a regular basis and as usual, baking soda is the miracle cleaning ingredient I was looking for. My mother-in-law told me about this trick, put your jewellery in a container with baking soda and then cover with hot water. Let it sit for a couple of minutes and then use a toothbrush and scrub and wowee! It really does the trick.
GINGER
One of Mother Nature’s power foods, I always try and keep ginger on-hand in my house. I do not know how many times I have bought ginger only to have it shrivel up and die on me. Turns out ginger is actually easier to grate and work with if it is frozen and by freezing it, it lasts much longer too. Just make sure to peel it before you put in the freezer. The easiest way to peel ginger with the least amount of waste is to scrape it with a spoon. I swear it works! To make an easy ginger tea for that upset stomach cut a piece the size of a thick quarter and let it steep in hot water for 10 minutes. Then add lemon and honey. That’s it, ginger tea. It amazes me that people spend $5 on ginger tea bags when one giant piece of ginger only costs 50 cents and lasts forever in the freezer.
SOUP
If you are like me, it drives you crazy to just compost the ends of asparagus that are too woody to eat. Or you save shiitake mushroom stems in the freezer because they are a super food. OK, you are probably not as food-saving-crazy as I am but still, if you hate waste, save these little extras and then make a stock out of them when your freezer gets too full. I always have the bones from a rotisserie chicken in my freezer just waited to be turned into stock:
I actually did the chef-y practice of freezing the stock in an ice cube tray so now I have small bits of broth ready to go to make a sauce or deglaze a pan at any time. Those boxes of broth are $2 and only last a few days in the fridge. Now I have a giant bag that will last for months in the freezer and it was FREE!
Times are hard for everyone these days and any cheap and easy way to avoid waste and save money sounds good to me. I would love to hear your ideas and suggestions! How do you save money in your kitchen?
oh! I’ve been wondering about good ring cleaning tips!! Mine get so yucky-thank you for sharing that!
I have gallon glass jars for storage, and buy staples (like rice)in bulk. Also, we have dairy issues, so I buy powdered milk in bulk, and it lasts forevah. I once sold Mary Kay, and asked a 70 year old woman what her skin care regime was. She said she washes her face each day with vinegar and water. Vinegar is a wicked good exfoliant, and she had fabulous skin! In fact, I use vinegar and water to clean most surfaces, as I do not tolerate chemicals well.
Wow, fabulous tips, Suzie! I’m going to try the ring one out for sure!
The baking soda trick really works, better than some products I have bought for this kind of thing.
Oh Witchypoo, I wish I could in bulk like that! I do that with flour sometimes. Often I wish I could go to Costco. I can’t imagine using vinegar on my skin though but that reminds me, a little baking soda in your cleansing product is a fantastic exfoliant! Don’t do it too often since it is abrasive, still, works so well.
Hi Suzie
Great tips. Ginger is awesome!!!
I don’t like waisting the woody tips of asparagus either. Preparing and conserving honors the gifts earth gives us.
love you
x
End of my veggies such as asparagus I save in a container and once thats’ full I run it though my juicer.
Oh I’m a fan of ginger too.
Never no in these days about ones job.
Coffee is on.
Great tips! Thanks for sharing them. =)
Ack! How did I miss this fabulous foodie post!!!
I LOVE your hints for ginger. I finally found a piece of ginger root NOT from China and it shrivelled up in the bottom of my fridge and I had only used a bit of it…Genius info. here!
And I’m going to try that baking soda tip on my big chunk of purple amythyst- with all it’s points and peaks, there’s dust in there – gross!