Do you have a secret trick?

Green_hopeful

CarolWHerts said:

I now use a strip of masking tape and a sharpie type pen to label and date all those bags and boxes of leftovers or surplus on their way into the freezer. Just pulls off afterwards. Admittedly you lose some element of surprise in your cooking (soup or stewed rhubarb?).

I do this too. I save old yoghurt tubs and use masking tape to label. Can’t believe it took me 50 years to think of it. 

Green_hopeful

Weighing wet ingredients like milk and water rather than measuring them. Much easier and one less item to wash. That one only took 40 years to work out. 

Also when your electric whisk dies keep the beaters. Then if you are whisking egg whites you can just use the second set. 

in_my_wellies

Green_hopeful said:

Also when your electric whisk dies keep the beaters. Then if you are whisking egg whites you can just use the second set. 

And when buying the new hand held electric mixer look at the power. I noticed the own brand one was 150w but the branded were 250w or 750w. I bought the 750w and it's so much more powerful - wizzes through a block of butter without straining

JIL

I also use a sharpie pen marker on my frozen plastic boxes, often just letters such as VG (veggie chilli) s&k, ccc, that sort of thing, I'm sure someone will tell me its dangerous but I find a cycle in the dishwasher rubs out the writing.

Brie

Green_hopeful said:

Weighing wet ingredients like milk and water rather than measuring them. Much easier and one less item to wash. That one only took 40 years to work out. 

Also when your electric whisk dies keep the beaters. Then if you are whisking egg whites you can just use the second set. 

oh I'm the opposite.  Raised with the idea of doing everything by volume so weights really throw me.  Lots of times I'll change recipes in my books to show the volume instead of weight cuz otherwise I'd need to look it up each time.  Helped as well as I have a butter ruler - shows you how much butter to cut off that going to be a set amount.  The alternative in a volume measurement world was to put butter in a jug and add water to decide if you've got the right amount - this is much easier.

otb666

i saved a weeks worth of leftovers (mainly noodles and rice dishes) in a air tight container in fridge Then chucked it all in slow cooker smoothed it with hand held blender and added some left over veg It was utterly Delicious

in_my_wellies

My tip - If it's blank I use the back of the paper from any bank statements / bills / letters for printing Ebay labels. Not the confidential stuff obviously, just the extra pages like T&Cs they include. Not so many now everything is going paperless but I still have a good supply

I cut Brillo pads into half or even thirds 

I grow several soft fruits. I used to bag them up individually but now I freeze them mixed up in portion sizes plastic boxes. This saves me opening about six different bags and getting cold fingers to get my portion. I can quickly grab one box. I stir this into yoghurt for breakfast

maman

I slice off the knobbly, tough outside of the main broccoli stalk and then dice the soft centre. I keep a bag in the freezer to add a handful to casseroles, Bolognese. chilli, pasta sauce etc. It all adds to my veg intake and means I'm not wasting a big part of the broccoli. 

weenancyinAmerica

When I was working with the Scouts, we used alcohol wipes or rubbing alcohol (white spirits) to clean off permanent marker from white boards and other places where it wasn't supposed to be. 

Rosa_Damascena

otb666 said:

i saved a weeks worth of leftovers (mainly noodles and rice dishes) in a air tight container in fridge Then chucked it all in slow cooker smoothed it with hand held blender and added some left over veg It was utterly Delicious

Now I've kept rice in the fridge for more than a day, but this is a recipe for food poisoning. 

I'm not doubting it was delicious btw, but the MO cannot be recommended.