Freezing Bananas in Ice Cube Trays

With a picky toddler in the house, we try to keep foods that Grace likes on hand at all times.  This means we're always stocked up on french fries, chicken nuggets, rotisserie chicken, corn, peas, mandarin oranges, yogurt, dry cereal, and bananas.  While there's a long shelf life on most of the foods, we just can't seem to keep up with the bananas.  Even with the 3 of us eating them, they just seem to turn too quickly.  


Since I hate being wasteful, I've been freezing the bananas once they start to get too spotty, rather then just tossing them into the garbage.  


I used to just peel, slice and place the bananas in a zipper freezer bag and pop them into the freezer.  But a lot of times they would freeze together.  


A better way to freeze them would be to place the sliced bananas on a cookie sheet in a single layer, then to place the cookie tray into the freezer.  Once the banana slices are frozen, they can be placed into a zipper bag and stored into the freezer.  This method helps to keep the bananas from sticking together.   I just never have enough room in my freezer for the cookie sheet.  

I found that mashing the bananas then spooning them into ice cube trays works best for me.  The ice cube trays take up less space than the cookie tray method.  

Normally, I only need to use one ice tray and I fill those ice cube sections pretty full.  Almost overflowing.  If I need to fill an additional tray, I make sure to fill the sections in the bottom tray less full.  That way the top tray won't sit IN the mashed banana cubes.  

Once they are frozen solid, they can be easily removed from the trays and placed into a freezer bag or freezer-safe container.  


Frozen banana cubes are perfect for smoothies.  Three cubes along with some berries make the best low-calorie smoothies!  

Weight Loss Tip ~ Appearance IS Everything

For me, when it comes to food...appearance is everything.  When I prepare my dinner plate (or any meal or snack), I try to arrange my food in a way that looks appealing.  A lot of this is for blog photo purposes, but it also makes the meal a bit more enjoyable for myself. 

The same goes when I'm dieting.  Although, smaller portions don't always look so great on those big empty dishes and bowls!  It just doesn't look like enough food!  As I learned from my experience this past week and previous diets, those smaller portions ARE ENOUGH, it's just a matter of convincing our brains that enough is enough. 

One way I "trick" myself that I'm eating a large enough portion is by using smaller dishes.  It really does work!

Cute dishes work for me, too. I'm all about food as a reward or a treat, but I have to change that mindset.  So why not make my everyday meals more special?  By making each meal special and something to look forward to, maybe I can eliminate some of those cravings for other, higher calorie "treats". 

I have a few cute little dishes that I like to use when I have a serving of yogurt for breakfast.  This vintage glass sour cream jar is my favorite yogurt dish right now!  It's perfect for my 225 grams (1 cup) of vanilla yogurt (Dannon Light & Fit) topped with strawberries! 

Filled to the top, this little glass of yogurt looks much more appealing than if the same portion was just scooped into a bigger bowl.  Now, my morning yogurt looks like a yummy dessert!  All for 122 calories!  Heck, I could even layer the yogurt and strawberries and then add a dollop of fat-free whipped topping or whipped cream and really make it look like a dessert! 

This is a trick I learned years ago, while following the Weight Watcher's online program.  It worked for me then and it's been working for me so far this week!  Try it out...see if it works for you! 

Party Tips ~ Dollar Store Party Supplies

Dips seem to be insanely popular these days and I have to admit, I have recently hopped onto the I Love Dip bandwagon! 



Over the holidays, I shared a recipe for Easy as 1-2-3 Funfetti Cake Batter Cookie Dip.  I found the original recipe on Pinterest and couldn't wait to give it a try.  I made a small serving of the dip before making a larger batch to take to a family house warming / birthday party.  The dip was a hit! 

Being someone that hosts a few family gatherings during the year, I love when guests bring a food item to the party, but the one thing that I hate the most is having to remember which containers need to be returned to which person.  I decided to make things easy on our hostess and arranged the dip, along with all the necessary scooping items (cookies, graham crackers, pretzel rods) on a dollar store chip and dip tray! 

This made things easier on my sister-in-law and also, I didn't have to worry about needing it for another event before I had the chance to get it back from her.  My plan actually back fired, though, since my sister-in-law is crazy-super-organized and returned my dollar store tray the following week!

I did the same thing when I made the dip for my mother-in-law's annual Christmas Eve party!  So easy!  I'm sorry I didn't get photos of the assembled trays, both times I was in a hurry to get out the door on time and didn't have time to snap a picture! 

This idea would also work well for taking fruit salad to summer barbecues, especially if you include some Fruit Dip! 

Instead of glass, switch to inexpensive chip and dip trays from the dollar store!  

I've managed to pick up a few in a variety of different colors to keep with my party supplies, for anytime an occasion comes up that I need to bring something to a party. 

I even picked up 2 football shaped containers that worked perfectly for our small Super Bowl party over the weekend!   


This post has been linked to the following blog carnivals and linky parties:

• Works for Me Wednesday at We Are That Family
• Frugal Friday at Life as Mom

Party Planning Tip: Car Trunk Organizer turned Party Planning Organizer

We celebrated Grace's 2nd birthday on Sunday with a small-ish party with family. Joe's family is pretty large, so even a party of immediate family is a lot of work to pull off.  Especially since I started painting the trim throughout the house in the weeks leading up to the party.  (What was I thinking?) 

While setting up the food table, I found that I had a lot of extras (paper plates, cutlery, napkins, rolls, etc.). I started putting those extras away, trying to keep a mental note of where each item was stashed in case we needed to restock the buffet table. After realizing that I was really scattering things in too many spots of the kitchen and garage, I knew I needed to come up with a better solution. Otherwise, I'd never remember where the stuff was stashed once they were needed.

When I started making purchases for Grace's party (decorations, etc.), Joe set up a car trunk organizer in the garage to keep all of the party supplies in one spot.  It worked great for storing the supplies before the party, so why not keep all of the extras in one spot during the party? 

I quickly grabbed the organizer from the garage and filled it with anything that didn't fit onto the buffet table and then slid it under the food table.  Keeping it out of the way and close at hand at the same time. 

I think Joe needs to get himself a new car trunk organizer, since I'm keeping this one to use for my next party! 

Note:  This organizer also helped me to not go overboard on purchases for the party.  Deciding that any new purchases of decorations and supplies (food items not included) for the party needed to fit into that organizer.  Nothing more. 

I'll be sharing this post with the following blog hops and carnivals: 

• Works For Me Wednesday
• Tip Day Thursday
• Frugal Friday

Leftover Night: Fried Spaghetti

Growing up, I always enjoyed leftover spaghetti night.  I remember my mom mixing the leftover pasta and meat sauce together before putting it in the refrigerator the night before.  The next night, either she or dad would get out our biggest frying pan and dump in the leftover pasta and sauce.  They would then just heat and stir until it was heated through. 

This is a great way to serve the leftovers if you don't have quite enough leftover sauce for each person to ladle over their individual plates of pasta. 

The pasta will absorb some of the sauce overnight, so you will want to be sure to mix the sauce and spaghetti before storing it overnight. 

I never heard of anyone else frying their leftover spaghetti until I met my husband.  He also reheated his leftover spaghetti and sauce in a frying pan.  Only difference, he melts butter in the pan before adding the pasta and sauce combination.

Since I'm not a huge fan of food cooked in butter (shh!  Don't tell Paula!), I usually prepare our fried spaghetti in 2 frying pans.  One with butter, the other without.  The last time I made this for dinner, I used my electric frying pan and skipped the butter on Joe's spaghetti.  He didn't seem to notice.  If he did, he didn't say anything.  :) 

I tend to cook it a little bit on the long side too, I like it when the pasta gets slightly crispy around the edges of the pan. 

I like to serve this with salad and bread for a quick and easy meal.  It's frugal too, since we aren't wasting our leftovers!  Some leftovers are "forgotten" in the back of the fridge only to be found later resembling some strange science project!  Not this!  This is one leftover meal that we actually look forward to eating either the next day or later in the week! 

I feel like I posted about fried spaghetti before, but I couldn't find the post.  Maybe I dreamt about posting it.  That's a possibility!  But, if I am repeating myself with this post, I apologize.  :) 

I'll be linking this post to the following blog carninvals: 

• Works for Me Wednesday
• Food On Friday

Save your veggie scraps and make vegetable broth

I originally shared this tutorial with my readers on my other blog, My Vintage Kitchen. 

With so many of us tending our vegetable gardens these days, I felt that it was worth it to re-post it here as a reminder to save all your vegetable scraps to make easy, homemade veggie broth. 

After you strain the veggies from the broth, you can then add them to your compost bin and get every last bit of use out of those scraps! 

Except for the carnival links at the bottom, I've just copied and pasted this post in it's original form. 


~February 12, 2010~


I've said before that my Crock-Pot is one of my most-used appliances in my kitchen.  Only to be beat by my constantly running dishwasher! 

After making my own chicken broth (I'll post about that soon...I promise) last month, I decided to find out if vegetable broth can be made in the Crock-Pot.  Sure enough, it can!  Yay! 

Searching the Internet, I found a lot of information for making homemade vegetable broth.  Rachael wrote this post for Buffalo Frugal Living Examiner and it seemed to have the best information for me.  After reading her post and seeing how simple it was to make veggie broth, I wanted to jump right in and make it that very second.  But, it wouldn't have been a very good vegetable broth, since I didn't have any veggie scraps saved. 

I decided to share my  vegetable broth making experience with you and was even prepared with the camera close by  and took step by step photos of the entire process! 

I started by saving all of my veggie scraps while preparing recent meals.  I saved everything:  carrot ends and peels, potato peels, celery (tops, bottoms and leaves) onion peels and tops, bell pepper tops, garlic peels, broccoli stems, cabbage cores, etc. 

I stored the scraps in gallon size Ziplock Freezer Bags in my basement freezer. 

I poured the frozen** scraps into my Crock-Pot.  My oval Crock-Pot only needed one of the gallon-sized bags to fill it.  This particular bag was full of scraps from carrots, peppers, celery, cabbage and onions. 

**Remember:  if you are using cold or frozen vegetable scraps, to start off with a room temperature Crock-Pot.  If it's pre-heated, it may crack when the cold items are added.

I added COLD water to about 1/2 inch from the top.  Then I covered it and cooked on LOW for about 13 hours. 

After letting it simmer through the night, this is what it looked like in the morning.  I took the lid off and let it cool for about half an hour. 

I placed  a large bowl in my sink and then placed my colander inside of the bowl to strain the veggies from the broth. 

I used a large ladle to scoop out most of the veggies and broth and let it strain through the colander and into the bowl until there was enough removed so that I could pour it through the strainer without making much of a mess! 

After that, I just had to pour it into my large measuring cup to see just how much broth was made!  It's past the 8 cup line!  So, that's about 4 cans of broth.  Four less cans I have to buy not only means that I saved money, but four less cans to throw away recycle. 

My next step will be to pour it into Ziplock Freezer Bags when it's finished cooling.  I'll store them in 2 cup portions and freeze flat on the shelf of my kitchen freezer.  Once they are solid, they will stack nicely in my basement freezer! 

I will be sharing this blog post with the following blog carnivals this week: 

• 
  
  Tip Day Thursday
• 
  
  Make it From Scratch
• 
  
  Frugal Friday
• 
  
  Food On Friday
• 
  
  Weekend Warriors ~ Harvest Party
• 
  
  Homemaker Monday
• 
  
  Kitchen Tip Tuesday
• 
  
  Tempt My Tummy Tuesday
• 
  
  Tasty Tuesdays
• 
  
  Tuesdays at the Table
• 
  
  Works for Me Wednesday
• 
  
  What's On the Menu Wednesday
• 
  
  What's Cooking Wednesday