You remember those yummy pesto crescent rolls I made. Well, that recipe left me with a lot of pesto sauce, and I live by myself. One of the unfortunate parts I’ve found to living alone is that you end up throwing out a lot of food. 

I learned to grocery shop for a family of six. I used to go to Kroger’s with my mom, and we’d fill up a whole cart (sometimes two, particularly when my brothers were adolescents) with supplies to feed a pack of hungry Franzes. My natural instinct when I buy is to go for the bigger package to get a better deal. 

Do the math though: While the price per ounce is usually cheaper on larger items, sales often render small packages a bigger bargain.

No matter what size you buy, it’s not a better deal if you end up throwing away half a jar of pasta sauce because it got moldy. That’s where this pin comes in with its brilliant idea to use ice cube trays to preserve sauces.

The pin highlights a blog post from Tip Garden with “Money Saving Tips Using Ice Cube Trays.” There’s a bunch of tips in here I’ve seen floating around Pinterest and haven’t gotten around to trying (the lemon and vinegar garbage disposal cleaner for one), but I did test out the sauce freezing with my leftover pesto sauce.

I had enough pesto sauce leftover to fill eight cube slots, which Tip Garden informs me is equivalent to a cup of sauce (“1 standard sized cube = 2 Tablespoons , 2 cubes= 1/4 cup, 4 cubes = 1/2 cup”).

Once they were completely frozen, I popped them out into a plastic bag and wrote “Pesto” on the bag (Just in case I forgot what the green cubes in my fridge were). 

Now I’m looking forward to the ease of popping a cube in the microwave or straight into a pan the next time I decide I need a pesto fix. I’m thinking I’ll make pizza, sometime. 

And I’m definitely going to use this tip on pumpkin (one of my favorite ingredients), yogurt and more. Now I feel like I can shop the sales and not worry about being wasteful on certain perishables. And I can pop open the big jar of pasta sauce and not worry about having to throw out most of it.

Random side note

I’m sorry I didn’t post sooner. Works been busy with people taking vacations (including myself for a long weekend) and unfortunately, this blog kept getting shoved to the back burner. Thankfully, it didn’t burn like a pot of chili left sitting too long without stirring (I hate when I forget to stir and it gets all gunky on the sides and bottom). 

— Nicole Franz | NiFranz@News-Herald.com | @FranzOrFoe

Follow my Mission: Pinpossible board on Pinterest.