Kitchen Tip: How To Keep Celery Fresh

Did you know that by taking your celery stalk out of the plastic and wrapping it right away in foil and storing in the refridgerator will keep it fresh for weeks? I do this all the time and it really does make it last much longer! You have got to do it as soon as you can after getting it home, though! If my celery does get limp,, I use it for cooking!

Free Kids Play Food (Money Saving Tip!)

My daughter is forever asking for play food. It can be pretty expensive and a lot of it just seems so silly and such a waste of money. She always wanted those shopping carts full of cardboard items. One day I thought, why don't I  'make' my own for her? I am constantly getting TONS of free samples so I started saving some of her favorites for her. I carefully open the cereal boxes and then glue them shut so they look like what you can buy. You could always open them on both ends and flatten them to store in a larger item instead of having  all of those little boxes around! The Chik-Fil-A box was a clean extra and I have given her a 1/2 egg carton also. She uses her little Subway totes as grocery totes! Cute! You can use any of the little plastic drink bottles or whatever they like!  I only allow her to have so many so we don't get overwhelmed. She loves it and when she's done, they can go right in the cardboard recycling! That's where the stuff you buy ends up anyway but costs you NOTHING!

Marinade Tip!

Are you like me and always forget to marinate your meats before dinner? Or freeze them and forget to thaw in time to marinate? You know what I do now? When I package it all up to freeze, I add marinade into the freezer bags with the meat! This way it marinates while freezing and thawing! Love this idea! Hope it works for you as well!