10 Ways to Save Time and Money With Ice Cube Trays

• Baby Food This is what got me started using ice cube trays for something other than ice cubes 33 years ago. Commercially prepared baby food was and still is expensive and cumbersome to deal with. All of it is canned food - yuck. As a convenient alternative, I used the blender to make batches of various vegetables and stews using fresh or frozen vegetables and meats. I poured the puree into the ice cube tray. After it was frozen, I put the cubes in plastic bags (usually bread bags I saved) or plastic containers.
  
  
• Herb Cubes During the summer, I usually have an abundance of basil. Rather than dry it, I put it in the blender with some water. The cubes can be added to pasta sauces, soups, etc. Much better flavor than dried.
  
  
• Chicken Broth I save the bones and skin from rotisserie chicken and make broth in the Crockpot. I add onion, celery, carrot, and garlic. The outer skin usually has enough salt, so I don't add any. If I'm using chicken or turkey that I prepared, I do add some salt. The cubes are great for adding flavor when preparing frozen vegetables, to replace part of the water when preparing rice, to dilute gravy, and to make sauce for stir fry. Sometimes I use the whole bag of cubes at the same time to make soup, but at least I have the option of using a little at the time.
  
  
• Vegetable Broth Last summer in addition to our own small garden, I also joined a CSA farm. I picked up a box of freshly picked vegetables every week. When it became obvious I wasn't going to use up all of the vegetables before getting another batch, I decided to make a pot of vegetable broth. I froze the cubes and planned to use them in the same way I use chicken broth cubes. Unfortunately, I don't like the flavor of swiss chard in a broth any more than I like the vegetable by itself. So some of the cubes ended up melting in the sink. At least the boiled vegetables I strained out made nice compost.
  
  
• Vegetable Cubes When I have extra cooked vegetables that I don't think we will eat right away, I freeze them in cubes. I do this mostly during the summer when I have too much zucchini, tomatoes, onions, etc. I later add a cube or two to canned soup, frozen prepared meals, homemade vegetable soup, pasta sauce, stir fry, etc. It's an easy way to add additional vegetables to our diet.
  
  
• Toddler Food For a sneaky way to add vegetables to your finicky toddler's diet, add a cube or two of butternut squash puree to macaroni and cheese, pasta sauce, or anything else that you think might work. Other vegetables can also be used. Toddlers have sharp eyes though, so there can't be any visible specks of "oogie" as one of my sons called them.
  
  
• Pasta Sauce Jungle doesn't care for tomato based pasta sauce, but I love it. Since our nest is empty, a jar of sauce is more than I can eat before it becomes a lab project. So as soon as I open a new jar, I freeze the unused portion in cubes. I sometimes use a couple of cubes on a pita with cheese and vegetables to make an individual pizza. It also makes a quick vegetarian chicken Parmesan when paired with a Morningstar Farm chicken patty.
  
  
• Juice Cubes This idea works for any type of juice, of course, but I mainly make cranberry juice cubes. I get Lakewood pure cranberry juice. It is unsweetened and very strong. I add one or two cubes of it to water for health purposes. It is a convenient way to make sure I have it around when I need it.
  
  Juice cubes could also be used to flavor iced tea or other beverages.
  
  
• Coconut Milk Cubes This was my most recent experiment. I used a small portion of a can of coconut milk and made cubes of the rest. I plan to use them in rice, oatmeal, pudding, smoothies, baking, etc.
  
  
• Crushed Pineapple These come in handy for baking (pancakes...mmm), smoothies, yogurt, etc.