Freezing Fresh Strawberries

A few weeks ago my husband got a really good buy on strawberries at Aldi.  99c a pound.  Not too shabby!  When he came home with 4 pounds I thought...we can't possibly eat those before they go bad!  I eat a serving of berries a day, but I knew I couldn't eat these fast enough.  So I decided to freeze them.

Did you know that berries are really high in antioxidants, which are purported to be helpful in staving off cancer?  Particularly blackberries. The darker the berry, the better the benefits. When I was preggo with my son, my doula told us she ate them every day because colon cancer ran in her family. You learn something new every day!

Yes, I am aware there are only 3# of strawberries shown below.  I already plopped the first batch in the sink before I remembered to take a picture.  Sometimes it's hard to remember to take pictures of everything you make, lol!

Start by cleaning your sink with salt and/or baking soda.  We don't want any chemicals in there tainting our berries.  (Well, they're probably already tainted since they aren't organic, but what are ya gonna do?)  Rinse sink thoroughly with hot water.   Then fill with cold water and a big splash of vinegar. My friend  Mary has a post on her site about how vinegar can prolong the life of berries you intend to refrigerate.  I used it with the intent to clean my berries not realizing it would have that affect, so that's a nice added bonus!  

After soaking for a bit, drain the berries and put them on a towel to dry.  Pat dry with a 2nd towel.

Hull each strawberry, removing the green part.

This next part is something I did because I had just made an Angel Food Cake and I wanted to save some spare parts to toss with sugar.  I cut off the top part with the hole in it, creating a pile of strawberry 'donuts'.

I then took each strawberry and cut it into quarters.

I decided to line a couple of sheet pans with some waxed paper.  I had intended on using parchment, but I was out.  Looking back, I would have been better off just putting the berries on the bare pans because they stuck like glue to the waxed paper and was a pain to pick off.  Had they been on the bare pans, they still would have needed to be pried off with a spatula, but it would have been a lot easier.  So, please learn from my mistakes.

Spread out your cut berries on the sheets.  You can that the left pan has a bunch of smaller pieces cut up on it. I started out cutting them up very small because I don't like eating large pieces.  But darn, that was a pain so I gave up on that business.

Place pans in the freezer until frozen solid.  Gently pry off the berries and put in a freezer bag.  This way, you can take out as little or as much as you want.  I got a full gallon bag out of these!  Remember, I still have a bunch of little donut pieces, too.  

Here's what I did with those little donuts...I cut them up into a small dice.  

Then I threw in a couple of tablespoons of sugar, stirred it up and threw it in the fridge for dessert later.

So, basically, I had 4 Lbs of strawberries for $3.96.  The sugar-free frozen bags I normally buy from Aldi cost $2.99 for 2 Lbs.  This was a 33% savings for just a bit of work.  I think it was worth it because the strawberries I normally buy are frozen whole.  I have to wait quite a while for them to thaw half way each night before I have them.  Cutting my own should cut down on my wait time. What I do is throw some in a bowl and add in a little stevia.  When they're partially thawed, I smash them up.  It's frosty and has the texture of sorbet!  I also add in a tiny pinch of real sea salt.  It's healthy, super yummy and takes care of my sweet cravings!

Facial Hair Removal

I finally got my hair cut, whoo hoo!  It has been soooo long!  I got a lot taken off...about 6" off the back and it feels so good!  I know it looks crooked in the pic, but it's really not.  It might have something to do with the fact that I took the pic in my car directly afterward.  (Why does it look like my face is missing?  Sometimes that's a good thing!) It's kind of a layered bob and seems to suit my ever-thinning hair well.  Anyway, every time I get my hair cut I think about the hair on my face and say, "Ugh, I need to wax!!!"

I always wax my brows at home.  Sometimes I even do my upper lip, not that I have any hair there, ah-hem.   I'll just do it to make you feel better about your sasquatch mustache, LOL!  No, really, it was bad!  

I have a few different wax kits at home, but they all involve heating the wax in the microwave or being plugged in.  After getting a really bad burn a few years ago that literally took the hide off of my lip, I've really been wanting to try something different.  I can't use the depilitory creams because they always seem to eat my face off!  And I don't even have sensitive skin!  So, when I saw this one, I was pretty sure it was something I'd like and I was right!

You'll need a wax kit like the one shown below from Veet  

(I took the papers and the little plastic stick out so you could see)

A cup of very hot tap water

A towel 

Rubbing Alcohol (or other cleaner of choice)

Cotton Pads/balls

Start by soaking the little tube in a cup of hot tap water.  No microwaving involved!

In the meantime, clean your lip with some rubbing alcohol and a cotton pad.  If this bothers your skin, you can just wash it thoroughly.  I'm sure rubbing alcohol probably isn't the best thing in the world for our faces. 

Then do your brows and between your brows.  Be careful not to get any in your eyes.  I apologize for having no makeup on.  Well, maybe some day-old mascara remnants.

Take the little tube out of the water and dry it off.  Water makes the sugary 'wax' stuff ineffective.  Smear across upper lip working in the direction of the hair growth.  I got it a little too thick here.  You really need very little with this kit.

Place one of the papers over the wax, then smooth downward in the direction of the hair growth.

Then take the bottom portion of the strip and pull in the opposite direction of the hair growth.  You should hold your skin tight, but I didn't have enough hands to hold the camera and do that.  Egad!  What an awful picture!   I swear my skin doesn't look like that, lol!

OMGawd!!!!  I was walking around with THAT on my face?!  Why didn't anyone tell me?!  Arghhhh!

Then do the same thing with your brows.  Don't forget the little fuzzy white hairs in the center of your brows that look like little downy feathers.  They're kinda hard to see, but they're there!  Here's where you can use the little plastic stick to smooth the wax exactly where you want it.

Now, most of these pictures have just come out totally crappy and the one below is no exception.  I'm trying to demonstrate how smooth it is between my brows, but all you can see is pink.  My face was NOT irritated by this at all and didn't turn red at all.  I even went to my son's Tae Kwon Do class an hour or so later and you couldn't tell I'd done it at all.  Normally, I'd do this two or three days before a special event so I didn't have red marks on my face.

If there is any wax left on your face, you can run the alcohol-soaked pad over it to remove it quickly.

I was really impressed with this stuff.   It was $10.00, which is a lot for a tiny tube.  But it beats the price of just having your lip waxed one time at a salon.  I used just a few drops, so this should last a good while.  Especially since I don't wax often.  I have heard about homemade 'sugaring' before, so I may try that when this runs out.  Anything to conduct a good experiment or to save money!

Homemade Jewelry Cleaner

I don't know about yours, but my jewelry has been tarnished and filthy for quite a while now.  Since I (usually) only wear my watch and wedding ring every day, I don't usually worry about the state of my not-often-worn pieces.  A while back, I happened upon this recipe and finally decided to try it today.  What attracted me most was that it uses ingredients found in the average home that won't kill you.  Well, that, and that it's super cheap.  Here's what you'll need...

1T Baking Soda
1T Salt (use the cheap stuff)
1T Dish Soap
Aluminum Foil
1C HOT Water in a large glass measuring cup or bowl

Start by heating up the water in the microwave.  I heated it for 2 minutes on high.

Add in the baking soda, salt and dish soap.

Just give it a quick stir with the measuring spoon.  Mixture will be kind of thick and foamy at first.

 Tuck a piece of aluminum foil down into the bottom of the cup/bowl.

Say an Our Father and drop your valuables into the hot lava that could very well eat your jewelry alive liquid.

Wait about 10-15 minutes.  DO NOT WALK AWAY and forget it!  I'm sure it is possible for this solution to actually eat away at certain items and that would be horrible! Rinse under hot water in a strainer.

Dry each piece off and admire how good your once disgusting-looking watch looks!  Well, it still has its scratches, scrapes and dings, but it sure is shiny!

And check out this before and after!

At food.com where I found the recipe, most reviews said it worked great.  For me, it did, too.  However, there were  few that were complaining about silver and copper turning black.  Not sure that copper is a typical metal used for jewelry, but just be aware of that.  It's probably best not to use this on softer stones or pearls if I had to guess.  I did have a small silver chain that seemed to come out okay, so maybe it depends on the amount of nickel in it. Interestingly, baking soda and foil in hot water is the recipe for cleaning real silver, so perhaps the person complaining about it turning black didn't really have real silver.  The gold definitely came out the best, sparkling like new.  My wedding ring is platinum and it came out pretty good, too, but platinum really needs to be professionally polished to look the best.  Always be on the safe side and test it out for a minute or two....unlike me.  I dove in head first, but I'm happy with the results!  This whole batch costs about 10 cents!!!  I honestly think I could have halved the recipe and had more than enough.  If you're doing just a couple of small items, you could even quarter it.  I'm also not really sure the recipe needed the dish soap to be effective.  The electrochemical reaction between the foil and the salt/soda is what makes the solution work.  But the soap probably helps to get grease/grime off of the jewelry if that's a concern.  So, I'd say this is optional.  I think this stuff works way better than the stuff you can buy at the jewelry store or big box stores and the price cannot be beat!  If you give it a try, let me know what you think!

Super Fast Pizza Bread

My husband showed up with a store-bought package of hoagie buns the other day and I thought...ugh.  What am I gonna do with these?  He knows I'm trying to limit grain consumption in our family (especially any pre-packaged crap), but sometimes falls back on old habits.  I wanted to find a way to use them up quickly, so I decided to make some individual pizza breads.  They're not the healthiest things in the world, but I have to assume it's better than a frozen pizza loaded with sodium and preservatives.  Here's what you need...

Hoagie Rolls
Ground Beef, cooked
Spaghetti/pizza sauce
Mozzarella or Monterey Jack
Garlic Powder
Italian Seasoning

Tear apart the hoagie halves and lay them on a foil-lined baking sheet.  I was surprised to see all natural ingredients I recognized except for two, which is unusual.  Most store-bought rolls have tons of awful things in them. Still not on the top of my list for good food, but at least I'm not throwing them away.

Slather a spoonful of sauce over each.  This one from Aldi's has all natural ingredients.

Sprinkle on some garlic powder.

Add a couple of tablespoons of your toppings of choice.  I elected for hamburger, hamburger and onion and black olive, Tommy's favorite.

Add a sprinkle of cheese to each one.  It took the whole 8oz package to cover all 10 pieces.

Sprinkle on a little Italian seasoning.

Because I knew I wanted to freeze these and bag them, I thought I should probably smash down the cheese so it wouldn't fall off the minute I put them in a bag.  If you look closely, you can see my newly-acquired tan line where my wedding ring normally is.  Sexy, no?  Yeahhhh, that's about the only tan line this girl is willing to reveal!  Trust me on this one...you don't wanna go there!  Well, maybe I'd show off my farmer's tan, too!

Put the tray in the freezer until pizzas are frozen solid.  Throw in a baggie and keep in frozen until needed.

When you want to make some, take them out (still frozen) and throw them in the toaster oven.

 I baked mine at 350 for about 10 minutes.  Looks pretty good!

These got the seal of approval from the boss!

All together, these came to about $4.50 for all 10 servings, or .45 each.  I'd say that's not too shabby for a convenience food!

Restaurant cheese dip at home!

Wayyyyyy back when we used to dine out, we loved going to a local Mexican restaurant for their cheese dip.  Having a major hankering, my son begged me to make some at home.  I wasn't sure exactly what they had in theirs, but it was worth a shot.  It turned out pretty good.  Here's what you need...

8oz Pepper Jack Cheese, shredded  ( real cheese, not a processed 'cheese product')
2T Butter
2T Flour
1C Milk

Melt the butter in a small sauce pot over low/medium-low heat.

Sprinkle in the flour, stir.

Cook for a couple of minutes to cook out the raw flour taste.  Stir constantly.

Slowly add in the milk.  I like to add a couple of tablespoons, stir to combine, add in a couple more, stir, and so on.  I find I don't get any lumps that way.  We're basically making a white sauce here.  I would normally be stirring constantly, but I needed my hand to take the picture.  Ya know, it's funny, my son never asks me WHY I have to take pix of the food I'm preparing, lol!  What will be weird is if he goes to a friend's house some day and asks their mom why they don't take pix of their food!  ;)

Turn the heat up to medium and the mixture will thicken.  Stir constantly so the bottom doesn't scorch.  

Turn heat back down to low.  You could even remove it from the heat at this point if you like.

Add in small handfuls of shredded cheese.  Stir to incorporate, making sure it's melted before adding more.

Continue until you have the flavor you like.  Mine took about half of the package shown above, or 8oz.   If you don't have pepper jack, you can always use mozzarella or cheddar and add in some salsa, green chiles or some diced (canned/pickled) jalapenos.

Your end product should look something like this, thick and creamy.  If it's too thick, you can always thin it down with some milk.

Serve it up with some tortilla chips

and you have a tasty snack!

Mmmmmmmmm, craving satisfied, kid approved, simple and frugal!

This whole batch of cheese dip AND the bag of chips cost me less than one order of cheese dip at the restaurant!  But my recipe made 3 times the amount of dip!  This makes about 1 1/2 cups, if I had to guess.  Yup, the boys polished it off in one sitting!