Kitchen Time Savers

Peanut Butter & Jelly Sandwiches -
Did you know you can freeze peanut butter & jelly sandwiches? I make a big stack on the weekend & freeze them. You can pop them into a lunch box, and they are ready to eat by lunchtime! You can set them out on the counter an hour before lunch and they will be ready. You can do the same thing with meat & cheese sandwiches, but I don't add any vegetables or condiments until after it is defrosted. It makes making school lunches so fast!

Onions -

I hate chopping onion. I dread anything that makes me cry. Instead of chopping them every week, I buy them in bulk, and finely chop them with my food processor. That way I tear up less often, and it makes cooking faster on busy nights. I've tried several different techniques for freezing, and this works the best.

These two containers hold 4 medium sized finely chopped onions.

1 cube = 1 oz.

2 cubes = 1/4 cup

4 cubes = 1/2 cup

7-8 cubes = 1 onion

(these measurements are the same for broth recipes below)

Once frozen, keep them in a ziploc bag in the freezer.

Anytime you need to onion in your cooked recipe, just toss them in! Easy!

Chicken/Vegetable broth:

This is not so much a time saver as a money saver.

Chicken Broth: Reserve your broth from cooking chicken by placing a colander over a glass bowl. Line the colander with a folded napkin. Slowly pour the broth into the colander. (Go slow, or it will pour out the sides of the colander, instead of just the center.) The napkin will strain the broth for you. After it collects & cools in the bowl you can pour it into ice trays and freeze.

Vegetable Broth: Use any of your vegetable peelings and boil with water on the stove top. I made a small 4 cup portion (equivalent to two cans of store bought broth.) I used a lot of I use celery, carrots, onion, garlic, salt, pepper, & parsley flakes vegetable peelings, and just covered them with water. You can use the scraps & peels because they have a lot of nutrients, and they won't be in the final broth. I boiled it for 15 - 20 minutes and then strained in a colander lined with a napkin. You can keep your peelings in a bag in the freezer until you have enough to make a broth.

Click here for some other suggestions.