1 I keep all of my chicken bones, skin and fat from trimming up chicken, and put them all in a ziploc bag in the freezer. I also throw in carrot ends, celery that's gone limp, and onion ends (when I'm cutting up onions). Once the bag is full, I put it all in a big pot with water, along with some garlic, let it boil for a few hours, drain, and I've got homemade chicken broth with no preservatives. I then put the broth in ice cube trays and pop them into a big bag once they're frozen. Voila!

2 I always keep a box of elbow macaroni on hand. When I'm cooking a box of mac n cheese for the kids, I throw in a bit of the elbows, to make the meal stretch a little farther.

3 when I buy big packages of ground meat (I use ground turkey, but you can do the same with ground beef), I break the packages up into 3/4 lb packages. Nobody misses the 1/4 lb that is missing from the recipe, and you get lots more meat for the freezer.

4 I put raisins in the kids' cereal in the morning. They think they're getting a treat, I think they're getting extra fiber. (Wheat germ is also a good one)

5 I make Jello jigglers (using store brand jello, of course) for my kid's lunchboxes instead of buying the expensive jello cups. I use cookie cutters to cut out neat shapes

6 Buy some lemons, slice them up, and put them in a bag in your freezer. When the garbage disposal gets funky, drop a couple of frozen lemon wedges in. The fact that they are frozen helps to sharpen the disposal blades, the lemon gives it a good fresh scent.

7 Seperate fruit (grapes, strawberries, blueberries) and other heathly snack choices (cut up meat and/or cheese chunks from the deli) into serving size portions, in baggies in the fridge, they will look more appealing to the kids.



That's all I can think of for now, I'll post more when they come to me.

__________________
~Angela
"If you scatter thorns, don't go barefoot." ~Italian phrase

use your turkey baster to make kids initials out of pancake batter when cooking...or other cool shapes.

(creative way to work on ABC's also)

__________________

When you are breading an item to saute or fry, use a loaf pan for the breading instead of a shallow pan like a pie plate. As long as your item will fit in the loaf pan, you can make the breading mixture 'deeper' and I find it easier to coat the item you are cooking. I watched my sister make country fried steak this way and tried it with fish myself and it worked great.

You have all got some great tips!Keep them coming

Do you wash them first then bag them? I was always told NOT to wash your fruits and veggies until you are ready to use them.

mommy2mercedes If you are one of those people who buy the bags of onions instead of individual...DO NOT store them near your bags of potatoes-it causes the potatoes to rot faster.

I just learned this the hard way.

Ladies! All these are so helpful, thank you for posting. I am embarrassed to say, that when it comes to the kitchen, I am a little behind on all the all the news. But I've been watching better.tv and all the cool clips they have on kitchen tips. I finally know the right way to boil eggs. I am on my way to becoming a kitchen whiz!

When my microwave gets grungy, I heat up a cup of white vinegar in it for 2 to 3 minutes - it softens up the gunk. Then I use a scotch brite pad to dip in the warm vinegar and wipe it out. If I have leftover vinegar, I disinfect the inside of the fridge with it as well. The odor dissipates when it dries.

For those really nasty cleaning jobs (I loathe cleaning the broiler pan), I keep a brillo pad in a ziploc sandwich bag in my freezer. It does not rust that way, and I get more number of uses out of it.

This one isn't as good as all of the ones you posted already, but here it is anyway:

Instead of using a clip for closing up vegetable bags or whatever in the freezer, I completely cut the end off of one side of the bag and use it as a tie for the bag. I just twist the bag really tight, and tie it. The ones that work the best are the crimped plastic ones that are kind of stiff that don't stretch - you can get them really tight that way....You don't even have to tie them in a knot because the crimped material is so stiff. It saves a lot of room in my junk drawer (for the clips without magnets) and on the side of my fridge (for the ones with magnets).

Wow, that makes me sound REALLY cheap, lol.

I always freeze leftover coffee or tea in ice cube trays...they are great for using in frozen cappchhinos or tea cubes are great to chill iced tea!

__________________

#1 THING...

CLEAN AS YOU GO!
ABOVE ALL ELSE...I ALWAYS DO THIS...IT SAVES TIME AND I DON'T GO CRAZY CLEANING AFTER...
SPECIALLY IF YOU HAVE GUESTS.

__________________
***VIEW MY BLOG***
Thanks,
Bestmommysaver!