How-to | My Red Apron | homemade convenience food | dehydrating food | beginner canning tips | make your own mix | how to use powdered eggs| canning meat | frugal meals | make your own mix

Cutting Laundry Expense

March 30, 2010 By Heather Leave a Comment

I love spring. One of my favorite parts of spring is that I can finally hang my clothes out to dry on the line. I love the fresh smell of the clothes when I take them in to fold them. The biggest thing is I can start to see a reduction in my electric bill. For the past two days I have been washing clothes like crazy and hanging them out on my line. Make sure you save some money by taking the chance to hang out your clothes and linens this summer. Another bonus is you will burn a few calories with the hanging process.

Filed Under: cleaning day Tagged With: how-to

How To Get Book Reviews

February 9, 2010 By Heather 4 Comments

When I first started My Red Apron I didn’t do reviews. I basically stuck to money saving tips, coupons and freebies. I was later looking to purchase a book and accidentally bumped into a review opportunity. Reviewing books is one of the easiest ways to start reviewing products. Several companies just require you to sign up and commit to reviewing a book. You may or may not get your choice of book depending on the publisher you are working with. Here are some of the companies I have or still do work with.

The other option you can use is to find the book you are interested in reviewing online. Search for the ISBN number and publisher. You can now Google (or Swagbucks!) the publisher. Many publishers will have a media area where you can request a review copy. Send an email and maybe you will get lucky!

How To Set Up A Baked Potato Bar

January 26, 2010 By Heather 2 Comments

Frequently I get asked about my Baked Potato Bar nights when I post them in my menu plans. I thought for this How To Tuesday I would share with you what my potato bar looks like and just how we do it. This would really work well in replacement of a potluck if you were having friends over for movies or a game night. It might be a fun super bowl party idea too!

First I bake the potatoes. I do mine in the microwave most often but you can do them in the oven, toaster oven (great for just 2) or crockpot. With the five of us I just plop them on a plate when baked but with a large group I would put them in a covered casserole dish or roaster pan to keep them warm. I set out a small cutting board with knife for the kids (mine are teens) to slice their potato.

After splitting the potato the kids can go down a line of small bowls of toppings which are alright to be warmed. Tonight we have out taco meat, asian chicken cubes, onions, mushrooms and cheese. Then each plate gets put back into the microwave for 1.5 minutes so that the cheese gets bubbly and the meat reheated. This is a really good way to use up leftovers. I have small anchor hocking bowls with lids which I can put small amounts of leftovers in for this night.

After the potatoes come out of the microwave we tend to add salsa, ranch or sour cream. This makes for a really easy supper!

Do you have a really great how to post? I would love to have you share it and feel free to grab my badge and share!

Filed Under: how-to Tagged With: baked potato bar, easy supper, how-to, quick meals

How To Freeze Black Olives

January 12, 2010 By Heather 3 Comments

It has been awhile since I did a how to post and I have to say I really kind of miss them. I do get a bit of a hard time from my family for doing these posts. Like my mom laughs about how I had to keep stopping and taking pictures when making Hamburger Sandwiches but maybe next time I will have to record her on the new video cam and see how much better that goes over. Well I suppose I had better get onto the olives…

Yes you can freeze olives! Why would you want to? Well in my case it was nothing more than to save money. You know those little cans of olives that are 2.25 oz well if you are lucky you can get them on sale for $1.00. Enter the 55 oz can which currently sells for $6.97 at my local Sams Club. Yes I checked the price online!

You should know after my process of freezing olives (keep reading for the proper process) I wind up paying only $.23 a can (or it’s equivilent). I just saved at least $.78 a can! Now even if you don’t need 30 can sized bags of olives you can easily split the can with a friend or two and you will have enough for the next 6 months (aka freezer life).

First off I have to apologize since my camera is still sitting on the shelf waiting for a battery charger to arrive in the mail I do not have pictures of the first steps. Andrew was off shooting a college graduation and his camera as fancy as it is was not within reach. However, the steps are really pretty basic and self-explanatory.

Open the huge can of olives (see what I mean?)
Put a large colander in the sink and dump in the olives.
Rinse the heck out of the olives with cold water until water runs clear and then about another minute or so. Rinsing is going to wash off the salt brine the olives are packed in.
Grab some 4 oz Rubbermaid cups and set them all out on a cookie sheet. (You will wind up needing 30 of them so maybe 2 really large sheets)
Fill each cup with olives but don’t pack them in.
Now grab a glass measuring cup and fill with cool water and pour over the olives to fill each cup.
Place the tray with filled cups in the freezer over night to flash freeze.
NEXT DAY: Take out your olives and let them thaw just a few minutes so you can pop them out of the cups.
After you pop them out you are going to put them into a freezer bag or in my case a food saver bag.
Next we are going to seal the bag make sure your bag lays in the vacuum channel in the food saver for a proper seal.
Push that button to get the air all out!
And just to show you a good size comparison of the finished project here you go. You now have olives for months to come.