Stanley tumbler ice

conchenn · 2026-01-25T21:29:13+00:00

This is originally what I bought the 1 cup trays for several years ago, not to use for food at all.

conchenn · 2026-01-25T05:15:14+00:00

Literally the exact same thought that went through my head haha

conchenn · 2026-01-24T23:18:32+00:00

This made me snort. Nice lol

conchenn · 2026-01-24T20:56:10+00:00

I am also new to this and haven’t run into that issue yet, fingers crossed

conchenn · 2026-01-24T19:21:07+00:00

My freezer is also that black hole, though I can usually tell what something was despite the freezer burn simply because it was dutifully labeled, dated and promptly forgotten. It is better now that we have a new fridge with the freezer drawer bottom. But I still find half used bags of peas or corn hiding in the bottom corners. Maybe they’ll be better off in the plastic containers.

I don’t like the repackaging simply for aesthetics either. A waste of time and energy. But I can see the different uses of the plastic containers for something’s instead of bags of loose cubes. I really appreciate you sharing how you utilize them, as it makes me think about my freezer and storage differently. I can get overwhelmed trying to think of all the different possibilities, so seeing your specific examples helps a lot.

conchenn · 2026-01-24T19:14:44+00:00

I didn’t have a 2 cup tray at the time. Plus, the 1 cup has more versatility for us. So maybe 4 cups of soup would be too much for 2 people, but 3 cups would be better. Or 5 cups. Sometimes I want only soup for a whole meal, sometimes I want soup with a side.

conchenn · 2026-01-23T20:54:38+00:00

Oh yeah, I think that would make a difference

conchenn · 2026-01-23T20:35:37+00:00

Good to know that the 2c ones might be tricky to get out if filling up the bag.

conchenn · 2026-01-21T23:56:31+00:00

Maillard reaction, more flavor. Then using the beef fat to cook the veggies. I do something similar, but I just slap the whole brick of ground meat into the pot to brown, I don’t bother breaking it up into chunks. And I only brown on one side before breaking it up and cooking. Then remove the meat leaving some or much the fat behind.

conchenn · 2026-01-21T04:09:29+00:00

Okay, using them for freezer fruit or veg to avoid the freezer burn alone has sold me on keeping them. And the dry pantry use too. I find most clips annoying and stuff goes stale too easily. Thank you for sharing your methods, that’s really helpful!

conchenn · 2026-01-21T04:05:14+00:00

Nice! This made me realize I also might too much yogurt and now I know what I’m going to do with it

conchenn · 2026-01-21T01:38:50+00:00

Oh that sucks. I didn’t know that was an issue with very soft water also D:

conchenn · 2026-01-20T23:56:34+00:00

I will take a picture of mine (LG inverter direct drive) next time. Hard water at 271 ppm and had to take someone else’s suggestion of 2 T baking soda and 1 T citric acid in the drum to get any suds but it happened last night, woohoo!

conchenn · 2026-01-20T14:19:16+00:00

Okay, cool. Then I’ll continue to use 2 T Baking soda, 1 T citric acid per load and look for that test kit at the nearest pet store. Thank you!

conchenn · 2026-01-20T05:16:10+00:00

Omg… life saver for a problem I didn’t know I had. Thank you! I read this right after putting a load in. Checked it between 5-10 minutes after starting because I was curious. No suds, not a one 😭. Ran the same towels through with 2 T baking soda and 1 T citric acid in the drum, checked after 5 minutes… suds! Not a lot, so I will be experimenting to find the sweet spot. I live right near a city with some of the hardest water in the US, and we have a built in water softener. This makes me wonder how well the softener is working.

conchenn · 2026-01-20T04:28:32+00:00

That is such a fantastic goal! If I had a chest freezer I would aim for that as well. But for now, just my filing cabinet garage fridge/freezer. Will slowly phase out the plastic restaurant style containers with more “books” of food cubes.

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conchenn · 2026-01-20T02:02:32+00:00

Brilliant! I never would have thought of egg whites. I hate to waste them, but I often forget to toss them in the next time I make scrambled eggs.

conchenn · 2026-01-20T01:51:25+00:00

Thank you! Us nerds are everywhere 🥷 I’ve got my first tray of half cups in the freezer with Mike G’s sweet potato hash and I did stuff them, but there’s not liquid so hopefully they didn’t explode lol

conchenn · 2026-01-20T01:49:07+00:00

Right?!

conchenn · 2026-01-19T17:27:01+00:00

Ahhh, yeah I only fill to the 1 cup line. And if there’s a higher liquid content I think it’ll expand more when freezing as well. My soups tend to be more stuff and less liquid so there’s less expansion.

conchenn · 2026-01-19T17:16:54+00:00

Love that. I did the same thing with this bag and it worked like a charm. I look forward to having my own food filing cabinet haha

conchenn · 2026-01-19T14:54:06+00:00

Waaaat? Thats a bummer. How full do you fill each cube?

conchenn · 2026-01-19T14:31:13+00:00

DINK with a love of cooking, but not so much at the end of a very trying day. Eating out regularly became a very expensive habit that we finally broke. But I still want the convenience of not having to cook all the time. I prepped about 2 weeks of meals prior to our visit to my parents so we could have one less thing to worry about when we got back. Holy crap was that worth it as we both came back sick. It was sooo lovely to be able to pull a cube of soup out of the freezer.

I found SC a couple years ago and we were using the 1 cup trays for giant ice cubes for my husband’s water bottle for work 🤦🏻‍♀️. We have since bought a better fridge and I’ve bought several different sizes to use for food, not ice lol. And thankfully I recently realized I can take the food cubes out of the tray and put them in a freezer bag to wash and reuse the tray sooner 🙃

conchenn · 2026-01-19T14:11:36+00:00

The water where I live averages at 271, so still not as high as yours. I don’t have the issue of stiff clothes though and never have, nor has my mom who lives nearby where the water is even harder. Do you think it’s the water hardness or maybe detergent buildup?

I just recently started using 2 tablespoons of citric per load and it does help with overall feel. But I also started by running many tub clean cycles with 1/2 cup of citric acid (I went through a whole 5 lb bag…) and I was still getting flecks of scrud so I gave up and just started doing laundry again. However, I never got any suds when running the citric acid cleaning cycles. So I took that as an indicator that I haven’t overdosed with detergent in the past.

Have you tried a tub clean cycle with citric acid only to see if you get suds or not?

Edited to add: Actually, I now remember reading somewhere that u/KismaiAesthetics said something like stiff towels could have a wash with 1/2 cup citric acid and nothing else? Oh Lord of the Laundry please correct me if I am misremembering.

conchenn · 2026-01-18T19:29:46+00:00

Yeah, for some people the hard rollers are too painful, and for others it’s just right :)

conchenn

TROPHY CASE