1. End of the Bread- If there is bread that is getting dry, I put it in the freezer for a few different purposes. There are few saved for garlic bread because I like garlic bread with my spaghetti. I also save some scraps for stuffing and more for breadcrumbs. Normally this is food that would go straight into the trash but now it has a second life as garlic bread, stuffing or breadcrumbs. I also saved the cornbread pieces to try to make cornbread stuffing which I have never made.
2. Citrus Zest- If you ever have a citrus fruit in the house, start by zesting the fruit and freezing the zest if you aren't using it right away. It is great in muffin toppings or other recipes when you need a little zest and then you don't have to get a lemon, lime or orange just for the zest. If you think that you can't zest because you don't have a zester, just use the small side of your cheese grater. If you have any extra juice, put that in another bag and put it in the freezer too because you never know when you might need it.
3. Diced Onions (and sometimes celery)- We most frequently need it diced for soups and other meals. If I only need to use half of the onion, I still cut the whole thing and freeze the other half. It is super easy to pull out the other half of the onion later from the freezer and it is just as fresh as when you cut it. If you cut half and put it in a baggie or a container, it often falls down in the fridge and you find it after it is bad and needs to be thrown out. Good to cut and freeze so that it doesn't end up in the trash because you didn't need the other half. I have a bin in the freezer and I put all of my little plastic bags right in there so that they don't get lost in the freezer.
If you have more than one onion, cut some and freeze right away and you only have to dirty one cutting board and have onions for more then one time. We also do it with celery sometimes but it lasts really long in the fridge and tends to water down when frozen so only good to make stuffing and if you on your last chance.
4. Ends of Veggies- I have a bag in the freezer for the ends of veggies which I later use for stock. I have the fluffy part of celery that we don't use, the ends and peelings from carrots, dried out baby carrots, the ends of asparagus, and ends of the onions. I keep the same bag and use it over and over because it is always staying in the freezer. In case you can't read my horrible writing, it says leftover veggies for stock. Always great to label because you might think that you will know what it is later but you won't always.
It is great to save these because you can easily make flavorful veggie stock or chicken stock with those added in and those are things that would go into the trash and be wasted.
5. Chicken Bones- I save all my bones when I roast a chicken if there aren't enough bones or time, I wait until I get enough or have the 3-4 hours to let the broth cook properly. It is really easy to make broth and it is way more flavorful then store bought broth.
All you have to do is put in your bag of chicken bones and your bag of leftover veggies and fill up the put to the top with water. I add a little thyme and some bay leaves most times but the broth always turns out just a little different based on the veggies used. I drain the broth through my fine mesh strainer and put it in the fridge overnight. I scoop any fat off the top in the morning and then pour it through the strainer again to measure and separate into plastic containers to freeze the stock. You can also use cheese cloth but that is an added expense and since I make this so often, I find that this strainer takes out plenty.
6. Butter Wrappers- If I use a whole stick of butter or margarine, I save the wrapper to use to grease pans. It is really helpful when making Rice Krispie treats because you can actually use the paper to push the treats down too. I use it for greasing muffin tins and pans so that I don't have to use non-stick cooking spray. It saves lots of money and I don't even need wax paper for my Krispie treats.
7. Rice and Pasta- Ever made more rice or pasta then your family ate at dinner? Put the rest in the freezer and pull it out when you need a little more to add to a meal or for a quick lunch some day. Often those leftovers get stuck in the fridge and not used so if you don't have a plan to use it, make sure you freeze it. Sometimes I even make extra rice just for the purpose of freezing because brown rice takes so long to cook and it is way better to do it once and reheat the other times.
8. Leftover Chicken- We love to use leftover chicken in paninis, fried rice and other quick meals. The best thing to do is get the chicken that is already cooked sliced and put in the freezer. I used to put it in the freezer in tenders but then I had to take it out and defrost and then cut. It is best to figure out how you are going to use it and make sure that the chicken is cut to that use so that you don't have to get out the cutting board and put in more work. I also label with the flavor of the chicken because sometimes plain chicken is better in a meal then buffalo chicken or rosemary chicken. If you label, then you get something that fits the meal perfectly.
9. Tomato Paste- I actually use most of mine when I am cooking and don't do great about freezing the leftovers but I plan to use the other part to make Salsa Sloppy Joes, spaghetti sauce, enchilada sauce or many of my other meals. If you open a can, it is a good idea to put whatever is leftover into a container in the freezer because it gets brown quickly. There are a few different ways to do this depending on how much you have. Most people suggest putting it in an ice cube tray and freezing the tomato paste in cubes for ease of use but that often does discolor your ice cube trays so make sure you don't need to use them later for ice. Of course, you may have extras if you now have a automatic ice maker so feel free to use. If not, you can freeze in a plastic bag or container.
These are my top 9 things that people should freeze instead of throwing away. Do you have anything that you like to freeze so that you don't end up throwing it away? I love my freezer and it is filled with lots of things (more which I will share next week) that save my family lots of money.
Shared on Follow Our Thrift at Cleverly Simple
Argghhh - just threw away some chicken bones. Got 1/2 can of tomato paste in the fridge though - thanks for the tips!
ReplyDeleteI love making my own broth and saving the chicken bones until you have enough is something that I didn't think about before but so much can go in the freezer and come out when you need to use it :) Next time you will save them!
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