Economizing Tips – Kitchen

Dear TEAMS,

Here is the third installment of practical tips that will help you economize financially by saving you money, mentally (by saving you stress and time), physically (by improving the quality of your life), and/or spiritually (because it will help you with other more important disciplines).

To see the story that inspired this series (Peeing on Your Toothpaste), go here.

1. Putting a bay leaf in your flour canister keeps weevils out.
2. Putting rice in your salt shaker/storage keeps it from caking in humid conditions.
3. After steeping your teabag, press out the excess tea and allow to dry out in a small bowl .  Re-use with another saved teabag in a cup of hot water.  It will not have the same nutritional value (and definitely not the same amount of caffeine—which is either good or bad, depending on the five years cycle the medical reports issue with this), but I am guessing you aren’t drinking tea for its nutritional value, anyway.
4. If onions make you cry when cutting them, put it in the fridge for an hour before cutting.
5. When you cut an onion, garlic, or anything in the allium family, wet your hands and scrub them all over your chrome faucet to remove the odor.  Rinse and repeat and voila! No smell!
6. Orange peels can be put down the garbage disposal to make it smell good.  Or, place in a small saucepan on the stove to simmer for air freshener.
7. Reuse pickle juice when the initial pickles are gone by putting sliced cucumbers (E adds raw carrots) in the juice.  Replace lid and let soak 30 days for “refrigerator pickles.”
8. Buy in bulk.  You can have 8 weeks of suppers here.*
9. Tomatoes and bananas that are overripe (but not rotting) can be placed in the freezer whole.
10. For casseroles or entrees, turn off the oven 15 minutes before the cooking time is complete.  If you don’t open the oven door, the food will finish cooking fine.  For baked goods, you can turn off the oven 5 minutes early.
11. Cook in cast iron, and you can turn off your burners 15 minutes before completing cooking as well.  From a Nutritionist’s standpoint, an argument can be made that you also supplement your food with additional iron, but I’m really not convinced you uptake that much more, when it all comes down to it.  HOWEVER, I would much rather you have elemental iron in your body than chromium or aluminum.
12. Clean the dishwasher every month by placing ONLY a dime-sized amount of dish soap and a little bleach in it and running a normal cycle.  If you pour more than a dime-sized amount, remove the excess or you will be calling a plumber.
13. Hard boil eggs the day before you need them to make them easier to peel.  Then, before crackling them all over, run them under cold water.

In that I’ve noticed my readership has gone up, I am opening comments for other people to contribute helpful hints they’ve adopted.  Please let these comments be related to the Kitchen.  There are previous posts concerning Overall Concepts, and General Household tips.  Upcoming posts will be on Laundry, or Personal Hygiene/Body.

Love,