<\/span>Use What You’ve Got<\/span><\/h2>\nDon’t automatically assume you need special food-storage containers. Why not just put leftovers in a bowl with a saucer or bread-and-butter plate on top? If it fits snugly, it’s no different than aluminum foil or a plastic lid. (What? You thought that \u201cburping\u201d a Tupperware container got all the air out?)<\/p>\n
Glass food-storage dishes are all the rage now, but glass jars work just as well.<\/b> The next time you finish up some jam, pickles or spaghetti sauce, save the jar. (Quart canning jars are good for food storage, too, if you can get them cheaply. More on that below.)<\/p>\n
The upside: They’re free. The downside: They don’t hold as much as those big Tupperware bowls \u2014 and they don’t stack like them, either, so they take up quite a bit of room in the cupboard. I keep only a couple of them around and recycle the rest.<\/p>\n
When cream cheese goes on sale, I stock up on the soft variety. Not only is it easier to spread, it comes in a sturdy and reusable container. I use these for small amounts of leftovers, or fill them with individual servings of pudding. (I’m also using one for odd nails, screws and other bits of miscellaneous hardware.)<\/p>\n
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<\/div>\nEmpty margarine tubs work much the same way. They tend to be larger, but that’s fine \u2014 you can put small leftovers in a large container, but you can’t put large leftovers in a small container.<\/p>\n
Bonus:<\/b><\/i> If you’re sending food home with dinner guests, you don’t worry about getting the Gold’n Soft container back. Nobody’s walking out the door with my Tupperware, though, because it belonged to my mother.<\/div>\nI buy Wyler’s sugar-free lemonade, which comes in little packets inside a plastic container. These containers have proved useful for stacking Christmas cookies as gifts. When I’m making jam and have a small amount left over, I’ll put it in a Wyler’s container and give it to my sister or a neighbor.<\/p>\n
<\/span>It’s in the Bag<\/span><\/h2>\nI broke my toe<\/a> last spring. When I looked for a plastic bag to use as an ice pack, I was amused by the variety of choices. I had bags that once held hot dog rolls, bread, and frozen soybeans, corn and mixed vegetables. I had the inner liners from boxes of cereal and crackers. I even had a number of Ritz cracker sleeves.<\/p>\nHere are a few ways I’ve used these items:<\/p>\n
\n- Plastic bags.<\/i> I use these to store leftover meatloaf, chicken or pork chops and to keep home-baked goods fresh (I don’t have a cookie jar). Sometimes I slip a bowl of leftovers inside one of these bags.<\/li>\n
- Ritz cracker wrappers.<\/i> Cut up, they’re good for wrapping and freezing the hamburger patties I make when ground beef goes on sale. I secure them with rubber bands \u2014 since I still subscribe to a newspaper<\/a>, I have tons<\/i> of those things. A cracker wrapper is rubber-banded over the glass measuring cup of bacon fat sitting in my fridge. And I’m writing this from a house-sitting job; I used a Ritz cracker wrapper around the toothbrush in my toiletries bag.<\/li>\n
- Frozen vegetable bags.<\/i> I use them to freeze chili \u2014 or spaghetti-sauce-sized portions of cooked ground beef or chicken. Or I cut off the ends and cut the bag in half lengthwise; each half is the right size for wrapping those hamburger patties. (Originally I offered these to my sister, who owns a Golden Retriever. She declined because she prefers a bag she can tie shut and also because big dog = big poop. Bigger than 16 ounces? Yikes! Another reason I don’t have a dog.)<\/li>\n
- Cracker\/cereal liners.<\/i> These are good for storing chicken or chops bought in bulk and then re-wrapped into smaller portions. If you cut the liners open, you wind up with what’s essentially a big piece of waxed paper. It can be cut into smaller pieces to wrap hamburger, whether cooked or in patties. Each summer I cut one of the large cracker liners to fit the cookie sheet on which I freeze gleaned blackberries<\/a>. I freeze them until they’re solid before putting them in bags, to keep them from becoming one big lump.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
And then there are the washed and re-used Ziploc bags. You just knew<\/i> I’d bring that up, didn’t you? An MSN Money reader suggested buying only the freezer bags, which seem to be made of sterner stuff and will last longer. I can attest: Some of my zipper-type bags are on their fourth tour of duty for frozen blackberries.<\/b><\/p>\n
<\/div>\nEmpty margarine tubs work much the same way. They tend to be larger, but that’s fine \u2014 you can put small leftovers in a large container, but you can’t put large leftovers in a small container.<\/p>\n
I buy Wyler’s sugar-free lemonade, which comes in little packets inside a plastic container. These containers have proved useful for stacking Christmas cookies as gifts. When I’m making jam and have a small amount left over, I’ll put it in a Wyler’s container and give it to my sister or a neighbor.<\/p>\n
<\/span>It’s in the Bag<\/span><\/h2>\nI broke my toe<\/a> last spring. When I looked for a plastic bag to use as an ice pack, I was amused by the variety of choices. I had bags that once held hot dog rolls, bread, and frozen soybeans, corn and mixed vegetables. I had the inner liners from boxes of cereal and crackers. I even had a number of Ritz cracker sleeves.<\/p>\nHere are a few ways I’ve used these items:<\/p>\n
\n- Plastic bags.<\/i> I use these to store leftover meatloaf, chicken or pork chops and to keep home-baked goods fresh (I don’t have a cookie jar). Sometimes I slip a bowl of leftovers inside one of these bags.<\/li>\n
- Ritz cracker wrappers.<\/i> Cut up, they’re good for wrapping and freezing the hamburger patties I make when ground beef goes on sale. I secure them with rubber bands \u2014 since I still subscribe to a newspaper<\/a>, I have tons<\/i> of those things. A cracker wrapper is rubber-banded over the glass measuring cup of bacon fat sitting in my fridge. And I’m writing this from a house-sitting job; I used a Ritz cracker wrapper around the toothbrush in my toiletries bag.<\/li>\n
- Frozen vegetable bags.<\/i> I use them to freeze chili \u2014 or spaghetti-sauce-sized portions of cooked ground beef or chicken. Or I cut off the ends and cut the bag in half lengthwise; each half is the right size for wrapping those hamburger patties. (Originally I offered these to my sister, who owns a Golden Retriever. She declined because she prefers a bag she can tie shut and also because big dog = big poop. Bigger than 16 ounces? Yikes! Another reason I don’t have a dog.)<\/li>\n
- Cracker\/cereal liners.<\/i> These are good for storing chicken or chops bought in bulk and then re-wrapped into smaller portions. If you cut the liners open, you wind up with what’s essentially a big piece of waxed paper. It can be cut into smaller pieces to wrap hamburger, whether cooked or in patties. Each summer I cut one of the large cracker liners to fit the cookie sheet on which I freeze gleaned blackberries<\/a>. I freeze them until they’re solid before putting them in bags, to keep them from becoming one big lump.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
And then there are the washed and re-used Ziploc bags. You just knew<\/i> I’d bring that up, didn’t you? An MSN Money reader suggested buying only the freezer bags, which seem to be made of sterner stuff and will last longer. I can attest: Some of my zipper-type bags are on their fourth tour of duty for frozen blackberries.<\/b><\/p>\n
Here are a few ways I’ve used these items:<\/p>\n
- \n
- Plastic bags.<\/i> I use these to store leftover meatloaf, chicken or pork chops and to keep home-baked goods fresh (I don’t have a cookie jar). Sometimes I slip a bowl of leftovers inside one of these bags.<\/li>\n
- Ritz cracker wrappers.<\/i> Cut up, they’re good for wrapping and freezing the hamburger patties I make when ground beef goes on sale. I secure them with rubber bands \u2014 since I still subscribe to a newspaper<\/a>, I have tons<\/i> of those things. A cracker wrapper is rubber-banded over the glass measuring cup of bacon fat sitting in my fridge. And I’m writing this from a house-sitting job; I used a Ritz cracker wrapper around the toothbrush in my toiletries bag.<\/li>\n
- Frozen vegetable bags.<\/i> I use them to freeze chili \u2014 or spaghetti-sauce-sized portions of cooked ground beef or chicken. Or I cut off the ends and cut the bag in half lengthwise; each half is the right size for wrapping those hamburger patties. (Originally I offered these to my sister, who owns a Golden Retriever. She declined because she prefers a bag she can tie shut and also because big dog = big poop. Bigger than 16 ounces? Yikes! Another reason I don’t have a dog.)<\/li>\n
- Cracker\/cereal liners.<\/i> These are good for storing chicken or chops bought in bulk and then re-wrapped into smaller portions. If you cut the liners open, you wind up with what’s essentially a big piece of waxed paper. It can be cut into smaller pieces to wrap hamburger, whether cooked or in patties. Each summer I cut one of the large cracker liners to fit the cookie sheet on which I freeze gleaned blackberries<\/a>. I freeze them until they’re solid before putting them in bags, to keep them from becoming one big lump.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
And then there are the washed and re-used Ziploc bags. You just knew<\/i> I’d bring that up, didn’t you? An MSN Money reader suggested buying only the freezer bags, which seem to be made of sterner stuff and will last longer. I can attest: Some of my zipper-type bags are on their fourth tour of duty for frozen blackberries.<\/b><\/p>\n
- Ritz cracker wrappers.<\/i> Cut up, they’re good for wrapping and freezing the hamburger patties I make when ground beef goes on sale. I secure them with rubber bands \u2014 since I still subscribe to a newspaper<\/a>, I have tons<\/i> of those things. A cracker wrapper is rubber-banded over the glass measuring cup of bacon fat sitting in my fridge. And I’m writing this from a house-sitting job; I used a Ritz cracker wrapper around the toothbrush in my toiletries bag.<\/li>\n