How to Save Money with Ice Cube Trays

If you have a refrigerator with an ice maker, chances are there are no ice cube trays in your home. But, there should be. Ice cube trays aren’t just for freezing water. Ice cube trays can be used for saving food products that you would normally throw away. Before the product spoils, pour into ice cube trays and freeze. Remove the frozen cubes, place in a freezer bag and then store in the freezer to be used another day. The great thing about the frozen cubes, they thaw quickly because of their size. So, what can we freeze?

Difficulty: Easy

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• Ice cube trays

1. Don't toss the extra broth. Chicken, turkey or beef stock is ideal for freezing. When I make stock I don’t always use it all. Freezing it in one container doesn’t work out, because it takes too long to thaw. Pour extra broth into ice cube trays and you'll have handy, easy to thaw cubes when you need them.

2. Keep some of your extra citrus. When our lemon tree was producing, I’d always end up with a surplus of lemons. Juicing and freezing in ice cube trays meant I always had lemon juice when a recipe called for it.

3. Don't be ruled by expiration dates. Freezing your plain yogurt in ice cube trays is a great way to use up a carton that you may not be able to finish by the expiration date. Although the live cultures will be inactive, the cubes make for a slushy smoothie.

4. Save the milk before it sours. Milk doesn’t freeze well, if you plan to drink the thawed liquid. Yet, when you are going away for a few days, and you know that carton of milk will be sour when you return, freezing in ice cube trays does prevent throwing it away. Instead of drinking the thawed cubes, use the milk in recipes or milk shakes.

5. Stock up on sauces. Sauces, such as portions of a can of tomato sauce, that wasn’t used up in a recipe, can be frozen in ice cube trays, and used at a future date.

6. The next time a liquid or soft, freezer friendly food gets close to its expiration date, consider freezing in ice cube trays, instead of throwing away.

Tips & Warnings

• When the ice cube trays freeze, remove the frozen cubes from the tray, and place in a freezer bag so you can reuse the trays, and will avoid freezer burn.

Resources

• Print your own Recipe Cards
• Recipe Traditions Blog
• Recipe Traditions Cookbook
• Order the book, Recipe Traditions

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on 9/24/2009 I love ice cube trays, I also use them like you use them.

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on 8/16/2008 I used ice cube trays when I made baby food for my wee one.