MPmomof3Reduce Food Waste By Freezing Dairy and More
September 2nd 2010 02:21
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Creative uses for ice cube trays
When I was growing up I thought that only rich people used an ice maker. Now, although I am far from rich, I have one of my own. The funny thing is, I never use it. I still use my good old fashioned ice cube tray.
An ice cube tray has its advantages. My household typically does not use a lot of ice cubes. Honestly, I can use the space that the cube maker's bin takes up for other things such as meats that I find on sale. A tray is much more space friendly. Making ice cubes in a tray also allows me to have more control over the number of ice cubes being produced and used at any given time. This prevents the problem of cubes at the bottom of my automatic cube maker's bin becoming stuck together with freezer burn.
Ice cube trays can be used for much more than just freezing water as well. I remember several years ago viewing a Martha Stewart television special in which her guest of the day froze lemonade and tea into cubes. The logic behind doing so is that when the cube melts, it does not water down your drink as a cube composed of water would. On her website, Martha also suggests doing this with coffee. You can read her article about coffee and tea cubes here.
Ice cubes are also very handy with dairy products. My household consumes approximately 3/4 of a gallon of milk between my grocery store dairy runs. That can make it a challenge for me to purchase the right amount of milk sometimes. At first I tried alternating between purchasing a gallon one week and a half gallon the next. I could not help but be frustrated, however, by the lower cost per ounce of the full gallon. That is when the light bulb went off. I remembered the Martha Stewart episode and decided to use one of my ice cube trays to make milk cubes. The milk cubes are great for coffee and can be thawed as needed when I see that I am running low. (Side note: milk expands, so do not fill the tray's compartments completely). A word of caution: Make sure to wash the ice cube tray well after using it for milk.
My milk cubes made me wonder if there were any other ways that dairy products could be frozen in ice cube trays. I did a quick google search, and sure enough I found it. One writer says you can freeze eggs in them. Although I have not tried this one yet, I am looking forward to experimenting with it. To find out how, click here. Please keep in mind, however, that the cube tray should be washed thoroughly following the egg cube removal.
Another thing I love to freeze is fruit. Sometimes it can be hard to find my favorite fruits in season when I am craving them. Freezing them allows me to enjoy them for a longer period of time. Tipnut.com has some excellent advice for how to use ice cube trays to freeze pureed ripe fruits into toppings for ice cream. Find out more here.
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