freezer fun

picture taken from internet

The whole thing started when I was in college. I don't have a rich pop (no, my dad is not one of the rich dads or poor dads, he's in the middle), so I have to live under tight budget. One thing about me is I love bargains. Every time when I buy something on sales, I like to peel off the stickers and see what's the original price. If I score pretty good, it makes me really happy. It feels like I really saved a lot of money.

Somehow it became my ritual on Sundays, checked out supermarket fliers and clipped coupons from papers. Later, it switched to Thursday because supermarket started sales early on Fridays. The fliers arrived on Thursdays. It actually made my shopping excurison much easier. I only buy things on sale. Supermarket also give double coupon redeem, that makes me really happy. One time I went to a personal financial lecture, the speaker said that she collects coupons too. She even has a little competitions with her siblings and girlfriends every month to see who saves the most that month. Yes, I am aware that there's a show "extreme couponing" on TLC. I don't go that extreme because I live in a small place. There's no way I can stock up all the toilet paper, toothpaste or can food. Plus, these items actually have expiring dates. I do not want expired toothpaste put on my teeth or swallow expired can food in my stomach.

I hate to waste food. To me, all these groceries are like farmers' accomplishments. People go to work and earn money. Farmers grow food for us to put on the table. Dumping grocery into the trash is like spreading money on the street, not for the homeless. When I got big bulk of food on cheap price and I couldn't finish them, it seemed like freezer was the only way. I freeze cheeses, leftover rice from take-out (i packed in small packages and microwave it later or make to fried rice.), garlic, ginger, cooked root vegetables (well, we get frozen vegetables from freezer section.) and even coffee. When Dunkin Donut was still selling 2 lbs coffee for $5 during Christmas, i will get few lbs and put in the freezer. I know my Mexican ex-roommate does that too. She is a heavy coffee drinker. If that's fine for her, it should be find for me.

Frozen ginger is easy to use. It can be grated for marinading meat or defrosted for ginger juice. My friend who never freezes anything tried to freeze garlic once. He said he put frozen garlic in microwave for 10 seconds before using it (I don't microwave it, I just chop it.), the whole kitchen smells really wonderful. I guess it's a good way in modern time to scare off vampires instead of wearing garlic necklace. He said he saw Nigella on TV freezes eggs after I told him to freeze leftovers, he started to do so. Eggs I haven't tried yet, but I think I will try to freeze some egg whites since I have so many whites left after making custard dessert.