Using Ice Cube Trays
Did you know you can use ice cube trays for far more than just making ice cubes? Ice cube trays are a great resource for thrifty cooks. Here are just a few ways you can use them.
1. Freeze leftover lemon, lime, or orange juice in ice cube trays, then use them whenever a recipe calls for fresh juice.
2. After you’ve made a big pot of soup and find yourself with leftovers, freeze the soup in ice cube trays. Then empty the cubes into a plastic freezer bag, and whenever you would like some soup, throw a few cubes into a bowl and heat it in the microwave.
3. Make homemade stock, then freeze it into cubes. Then you can throw whatever you need into any recipe that calls for stock. Two ice cubes equal 1/4 cup; 4 cubes equal 1/2 cup; and 8 cubes equal 1 full cup of stock.
4. Is there a baby in the family? Homemade vegetable and fruit purees are far more economical than store-purchased baby food. Purees are easy to make: steam veggies or bake fruit, throw it into the blender or food processor, puree until smooth, and add a little water to produce the desired consistency. Then freeze purees in ice cube trays; use whenever it’s time to feed the baby.
5. Use to make cubes of gelatin for child-sized servings. You can also make frozen gelatin pops by putting them into the freezer; cover the tray with plastic wrap, then poke a stick into each cube so they can hold onto it when frozen. Or make ordinary popsicles, fruit pops (use pureed fruit), or pudding pops the same way.
6. Freeze pesto and then use individual cubes in pasta dishes, or a topping for a pizza.
7. Freeze tomato paste. Then when a recipe calls for just a tablespoon or two, you can pop them in without wasting the rest of a can. (One cube = 2 tablespoons)
8. Freeze freshly-chopped herbs by placing into cube trays, filling with water or stock, and then popping into the freezer.
9. Use for freezing leftover juice or wine, so you can enjoy it later.
10. To make fancy ice cubes for drinks, put a piece of fruit (blackberry, raspberry, kiwi, etc.) in the ice cube section, and then fill with water.
Get the DVO Cook’n Recipe Organizer at Half-Price!
One of the hardest things about cooking economically is staying organized. You need to have a good stock of recipes, plan menus in advance, and so on — before you even go to the grocery store.
You could spend a lot of time making up your own charts, lists, and menus… or you could purchase a wonderful software program that does a lot of the work for you, and get it at half-price!
At Budget Meals, Inc., we have been using the DVO Cook’n Recipe Organizer for the past year, and it has been one of our greatest investments. Here is what the Cook’n Recipe Organizer can do for you:
* Help you find the best recipes online
* Save recipes from the Internet and e-mail newsletters
* Save your own personal recipes
* Sync recipes with your iPhone, iPad, or Android phone
* Print a cookbook for the whole family to use (PC version only)
* Analyze nutritional values of recipes
* Find recipes based on ingredients you already have
* Search your saved recipes
* Make menus and shopping lists from your recipes
* Calculate approximate costs from your shopping list
* Get a free cookbook with purchase
This is truly the recipe software that does it all!
To order (and get your 50% off) simply put budget-meals where it says coupon code. Order today from sales@dvo.com For more information on the software and what it can do for you, check out their website at www.dvo.com!
DVO Recipe Organizer
Great News. For those of you who couldn’t afford to spend the money on DVO’s Recipe Organizer DVD, we can offer you 50% when you order, just by mentioning our name, on their latest software. I have been using this Recipe Organizer for years organizing all of my recipes. And let me tell you there are a lot…even with my 1000+ library of cookbooks. This software has really been a big help to me. At Christmas I made Shannon her own cookbook for Pumpkin Recipes. It even had pictures…and she loved it! You can do so much with this software, i.e., emailing of recipes, making individual cookbooks, automatically increase servings, organizing, etc.
Get the DVO Cook’n Recipe Organizer at Half-Price!
One of the hardest things about cooking economically is staying organized. You need to have a good stock of recipes, plan menus in advance, and so on — before you even go to the grocery store.
You could spend a lot of time making up your own charts, lists, and menus… or you could purchase a wonderful software program that does a lot of the work for you, and get it at half-price!
At Budget Meals, Inc., we have been using the DVO Cook’n Recipe Organizer for the past year, and it has been one of our greatest investments. Here is what the Cook’n Recipe Organizer can do for you:
* Help you find the best recipes online
* Save recipes from the Internet and e-mail newsletters
* Save your own personal recipes
* Sync recipes with your iPhone, iPad, or Android phone
* Print a cookbook for the whole family to use (PC version only)
* Analyze nutritional values of recipes
* Find recipes based on ingredients you already have
* Search your saved recipes
* Make menus and shopping lists from your recipes
* Calculate approximate costs from your shopping list
* Get a free cookbook with purchase
This is truly the recipe software that does it all!
To order (and get your 50% off) simply put budget-meals where it says coupon code. Order today from sales@dvo.com For more information on the software and what it can do for you, check out their website at www.dvo.com!
Budget Saving Menus for Week of March 18, 2012
Sunday
Lunch: Spinach-Sausage Frittata (approximately 82 cents per serving)
Recipe located: http://www.myrecipes.com/recipe/spinach-sausage-frittata-10000001875496/
Dinner: Spaghetti w/meatballs (ground chuck on sale for $2.99 pound) If you aren’t making homemade sauce you can get large cans of Hunt’s for 99 cents and then doctor them up to suit you.
Italian salad ($1.66 bag) Tomatoes for salad our on sale for 77 cents/pd on the vine
Garlic Bread
Strawberry shortcake (purchased Sat. on sale for $1.00 quart)
Monday
Chicken legs and thighs (99 cents a pound/4)
Mash potatoes
Steamed carrots (1# baby carrots purchased last week for 49 cents this was one of those stock up items)
Tuesday
Hamburgers on the grill ($2.99 per pound) buns/$1.25 pkg
Sliced tomatoes (77 cents a pound/on vine)
Homemade French fries
Wednesday
Bacon Waffles (Approximate cost per serving 39 cents)
Fruit salad
Recipe located: http://www.myrecipes.com/recipe/bacon-waffles-10000001875230/
Thursday
Spanish Potato & Egg Tortilla (approximate cost under $1.00 per serving)
Recipe located: http://www.myrecipes.com/recipe/spanish-potato-egg-tortilla-10000001875198/
Friday
It’s homemade pizza night again.
Or you might want to have chili (beans & ground chuck are on sale) piled high with cheddar cheese & a salad
Saturday
Lunch: Apple crepes (approximate cost under 60 cents per serving)
Chunks of cheddar cheese, celery & carrot sticks
Recipe located: http://www.myrecipes.com/recipe/apple-crepes-10000001946187/
Dinner: Steamed green beans (99 cents a pound)
Chicken noodle casserole ($1.00 per serving) or stuffed pork chops (from freezer at $1.49 pound) & a tomato salad
Work/School lunches
Baby carrots (1# 49 cents)
Meatloaf sandwiches
P & G sandwiches
Spaghetti
Tomatoes
Marconi salad w/tuna
Tuna sandwiches
Egg salad sandwiches
Sloppy Joe sandwiches
Cantaloupe
Yogurt
Pringles
Fritos/Cheetos
Economical Menu for the Week of March 11, 2012
Sunday
Pork Country Style Ribs ($1.69 pound)
Boiled Cabbage & Red Potatoes (cabbage 15 cents #, potatoes previously on sale)
Steamed carrots (previously on sale)
Strawberry Shortcake ($1.00 quart)
Monday
Chicken Breasts (99 cents # on sale last week)or Orange chicken, peppers & onions
Creamed potatoes (on sale last week) or creamy fettuccine
Steamed green beans
Tuesday
Brats (5 for $2.89) sandwiches
Chips (B1G1) or roasted vegetables
Strawberry Jell-O Pretzel Salad
Wednesday
Chuck Roast ($3.99 #) w/potatoes, carrots, onions
Leftover Strawberry Jell-O Pretzel Salad
Thursday
Boneless stuffed chicken breasts (frozen 5 for $5.49)
Rice Pilaf ($1 Rice a Roni)
Cole Slaw (cabbage 15 cents #)
Roasted carrots
Friday
Homemade pizza or Tilapia ($3.50 pound), scalloped potatoes, broccoli
Salad
Saturday
Lunch: Corn fritters & sausage patties
Dinner: Stuffed cabbage rolls or Tilapia ($3.50 for 1#)
Roasted potatoes
Asparagus
Chocolate cake
Homemade Cleaning Supplies
I was reading a very popular magazine email link today and was really interested because they were talking about how to Make Your Own Cleaning Supplies. Of course I saw “how to save money, making your own cleaning supplies.” You know that old saying, “hear what you want to hear”, and “see what you want to see.” I sure was guilty on this one.
I started reading the recipes for the cleaning products, and they were costing more than the commerical store bought ones. Then I started reading about the homemade floor cleaning products, and they were saying that you could use it on wood floors….of course they forgot to tell you that you couldn’t use it on coated wood floors…which would ruin the finish.
It makes me so mad when I read things like this where the person didn’t fully investigate the subject throughly. Having owned a State Certified Household Manager School for almost 20 years I see this all the time. It seems like I have been teaching home care, cleaning, cooking, and everything else going on in a home forever…I probably spend 20 hours a week just doing research. Multiple that times 52 weeks a year, then times 20 years and you can see the value I put on our training program.
Then they were talking about an antibacterial spray that you could make…but they didn’t tell you that this recipe will not kill all bacteria. I guess the purpose of this posting is to warn you to always be careful when you are replacing commerical chemicals in your home, with something homemade, and just don’ t believe everything you see on the internet…even when it is from a well known publisher. Afterall, they only hired someone to write the article. And I doubt that they were a chemist!
Saving Money on Protein
Don’t forget that Meijer has bone-in chicken breasts for 99 cents a pound this week. Great price for stocking up. I picked up some bone-in whole hams from Giant Eagle for 88 cents a pound. They were trying to get rid of them before their Easter hams arrived. That’s a great savings if you can still get some. A 14 pound ham will provide you with approximately 44 servings at a cost of approximately 34 cents a serving. Meat is probably one of the most expensive costs of a meal. So whenever you can get what meat at a great price is the time to stock up.
Hope you all have a great evening. Carol
Budget Meal Inc. is a non-profit organization whose mission is to help families in providing more/nutritional food for their families through education and training. 
