Groceries: for suomynona

saw50st8

Fri, Dec 31 2010, 7:54 am

FS, do you toivel your aluminum foil pans (or is it made in Israel)? We asked our Rabbi about that and he said if we would reuse them then they have to be toiveled. I'm not shlepping to the mikvah to reuse them.

Mommyme1

Fri, Dec 31 2010, 8:39 am

If you scrunch up an aluminum foil pan and than put it back in shape it's as if you made it, and then you don't have to toivel it.

freidasima

Fri, Dec 31 2010, 8:42 am

Saw they are all made in EY so it isn't a problem...by frum companies yet...

HindaRochel

Fri, Dec 31 2010, 8:42 am

OK, what am I doing wrong? I try to save the pans but usually they end up tearing.

saw50st8

Fri, Dec 31 2010, 8:47 am

That would save me a lot of hassle! Another reason to move to Israel :-D

I don't use them that frequently - when pregnant and nauseas or if I'm cooking a ton. Its not a huge money saver for me (maybe $5/month on a big month).

freidasima

Fri, Dec 31 2010, 9:02 am

Right Tamiri, we used to sing "Dora Jeans Drinks Beans" remember?

HR, depends what you do with them. First, I line my pans with aluminum foil and if I do something like roast slices of eggplant or squash with spices I first oil the aluminum foil so that the pan stays clean and can be reused like that for a year. So I have my two big "roasting vegetable pans", yeah I use the foil but it's a lot cheaper than a good pan. Ask my why I use a disposable pan and not just go and buy two big roasting pans? Simple, the weight. I love using lightweight pans and won't use silicon as I'm afraid of what goes into the food when I grill the vegetables. Aluminum has been proven not to be dangerous in terms of foil.

If you are roasting chickens, those I have to throw out, they get filthy. If I am making cakes, depends what kinds, very often as I never make cakes with oil but only with applesauce or sponge cakes, the sides of the pans don't get dirty or brown, especially when I oil and sugar them (instead of flouring them), and I can reuse them for at least a month or two worth of cakes.

Listen, if the idea is to save money there are loads of things to do, the question is what works for you. I've done many of these in the past, if not all of them at one point or another, it's as I wrote elsewhere "a mechayeh" not to have to do them if I don't want to but some, like reusing aluminum foil pans, bags, baggies, etc. stay with you forever.

One of the kids was in america and brought us back a big package of different sizes of American ziplocs. Now American ziploc bags are the greatest, the Israeli version stinks, for some reason they won't make the zippers good, one side of them isn't see through, they crinkle and make noises yuk yuk yuk. So We reuse these ziploc bags for years, yes they can be washed and dried and reused without any problem.

Now for tips:
1) don't buy drinks other than fresh orange juice and dilute that in half with water, even in third. No soda, no juice drinks, no drinks in boxes, no chocolate milk etc. You want "hot chocolate"? Do it the old fashioned way and take a square of "para aduma" chocolate and put in half a glass of boiling water, melt it and add half a glass of milk. You want cold chocolate milk? Buy the cheepie powder, it's all carp (transpose the letters) anyhow and unhelahty.

2) don't buy ready made sauces. People get used very easily to taking a concentrated can or plastic (the healthy kind that is fresh and no preservatives) of tomato paste, add water, a bit of salt, sugar, garlic and voila, you have your sauce. You want a different kind? Buy soy sauce and add ginger and water.

3) make tons of soup. Every big meal should start with a big soup. Do what I do, for shabbos I make a gigantic pot of: black lentils, orange lentils, split peas, green lentils, brown lentils, yellow lentils, pearl barley, onion, carrots, potato, salt, garlic, curcum, a bit of chili powder and water. Let boil for two hours or more. It becomes like a thick stew. Start every big meal during the week with a bowl of it, it lasts a week in the fridge and still is fine. Fills you up with healthy stuff. If you like veggies you can add whatever you want to it, leeks, squash, pumpkin, tomatoes, macaroni, you name it. Kolboinik soup. Healthy. Filling. After that you don't need a whole chicken per person and I am talking healthy growing boys who could easily polish off a whole chicken alone at age sixteen (right Tamiri!?) Then you can actually feed them a quarter chicken and some rice and a fruit or piece of cake after a big 16 oz bowl of that soup, and they are full.

4) Bake a very large sheet cake for shabbos along with whatever you do and serve it during the week. Make it a sponge type pareve cake and keep in the fridge covered well. You can put on a different topping every night, it doesn't have fat, isn't too fattening (not too much sugar) and it is a good treat after dinner. Yeah it means eating the same soup and the "same" cake (different toppings) every night but people get used to it.

5) Serve bread along with that soup, it's good for dipping. When bread gets stale make croutons out of it in the stove with spices and a drop of oil or spray if you use it.

6) Cut the prepared shnitzls or soy schnitzls. Buy a block of tofu, cut thinly into slices, put on some soy sauce or tamari sauce or whatever sauce and bake-broil for a few minutes. Keep in the fridge. Can be reheated in a toaster oven. Healthy and cheap, takes about ten minutes of work once a week.

7) Don't make fruit salad. People overeat when they are faced with a fruit salad. When a person would face a fruit bowl they would take one fruit, at the most two. With a big bowl of fruit salad people often eat the equivalent of three or four fruits at the end of a meal.

More difficult ways to save - buy soft fruit with spots, cut away and make compote, it's half price, buy soft or half rotten vegetables cut away and use them for soups, again, half price.

No nosh. Of any kind. That is "bought nosh". You want popcorn? Buy kernels and make it at home. You want cake? Make it at home. No candy no candy bars, no cookies, etc.

Bread - buy day old bread and freshen it up in the oven, or get to the bakeries an hour before closing, they are just plotzing to sell things cheap to get rid of them.

Tova

Fri, Dec 31 2010, 9:25 am

FS - can you give more exact amounts for the soup? Do you mean whole packages of beans/peas? How much water?

nylon

Fri, Dec 31 2010, 10:04 am

On bread - I make my own bread (not so much cost as poor choice locally). You can buy a slicing guide. I got one of the cheap ones. You can't adjust the thickness of the slices, but for $15 not bad, though you might need someone to send it from America. My husband kept complaining he couldn't slice bread straight and it solved our problems.

Now, if you save a few cents (agorot) on a loaf, that $15 may not be worth it, but if you're somewhere where the good whole wheat bread is $4 a loaf (what the non-kosher good WW costs), it pays for itself quite quickly.

One word on homemade nosh: I like to bake. If you're not careful, you can spend more on homemade than on store-bought. Stick to plain cakes and cookies, and whatever fruit is on cheap. Once you start with nuts and chocolate and spices and cream... yeah.

JAWSCIENCE

Fri, Dec 31 2010, 10:57 am

I'm American. I live in America. Never have even been to Israel (very excited for trip this May!!!) So you can say my outlook is American yet I still:

Have no drinks in the house besides water. It's healthy and free. We scramble out to the store when we have company so we will have something else on the table for those that don't drink water. Occasionally when the seltzer cases go on sale we get one of those.

Do not use aluminum pans. I got a big set of pyrex when I was married. They have lids so they can go straight to fridge if there leftovers (saves on washing). I love them. I only use the aluminum pans when I have to travel with food (even then I prefer to use some sort of pyrex/tupperware system since they are more stable). I do use foil to wrap things for the freezer.

Take lunch to work in Tupperware not ziplocks. Then we bring that home and wash it. I realize with little kids sandwich bags may be better since they might lose the Tupperware. I often reuse ziplocks that are not dirty.

Have no dishwasher and still don't use paper goods much, except for napkins.

HindaRochel

Sat, Jan 01 2011, 11:17 am

freidasima wrote:

Thanks!!! I was all set to wash out my pan that I made cake in (Please everyone to cognizance of the fact that I MADE CAKE...I dislike baking so I'm very proud of myself....seeking gold stars wherever I can.) AND I was going to wash it out. BUT a certain child happened to cut through it with a knife when cutting out the cake.... Will line and see if that helps.

shalhevet

Sat, Jan 01 2011, 12:59 pm

I line with baking paper, not silver foil - it's much cheaper. I just use my disposable baking pans till they get too greasy/ dirty to be worth washing. If you cut cake with a sharp knife, yes, they will get cut.

freidasima

Sat, Jan 01 2011, 1:49 pm

Shal is right about baking paper being inexpensive but guess what? I only line when I grill. When I bake I just rewash the aluminum pan and make sure not to cut hard...

Liba

Sat, Jan 01 2011, 2:06 pm

saw50st8 wrote:

If you are lining them the pask may be different.

We line them and most of the foil pans sold here are made her, though not all of them.

HindaRochel

Sat, Jan 01 2011, 2:29 pm

shalhevet wrote:

LOL maybe when I get a bit better they'll cut with a feather. I don't think she used anything but a dinner knife...but the lining would make it easier to take the cake out...even though I sprayed and floured the cake still stuck a bit...

Mommyme1

Sat, Jan 01 2011, 4:57 pm

I wash out all aluminum pans - even ones that have burnt sauce from the chicken, and they come out gorgeous!!
This week I gave food to my aunt who is visiting from America, and since the chicken didn't fit in the bag in the pan she put it in a tupperware, and promptly threw out the pan.
The pan really looked liked it couldn't be reused so I wasn't surprised, but I sadly thought about how many more uses I'd have been able to get out of this pan that was only used twice. Smile

saw50st8

Sat, Jan 01 2011, 8:50 pm

Liba wrote:

saw50st8 wrote:

If you are lining them the pask may be different.

We line them and most of the foil pans sold here are made her, though not all of them.

Unfortunately, not according to my Rav.

Although, we are allowed to store the food cooked in the pan until we are done with it, we just can't re-purpose it.

Marion

Sun, Jan 02 2011, 1:25 am

The only time I use disposable to bake/cook in is if I'm giving it away (my Tupperware is too expensive to "loan") or on Pesach, for which I simply don't have non-disposable equipment. If I'm going to wash it out anyway it may as well be real.

Hashem_Yaazor

Mon, Jan 03 2011, 10:58 am

I use disposable pans:
1)When I give away
2)To store in my freezer
3)When I need to stack a lot (like over Y"T, and see #2 Smile

)

sky

Mon, Jan 03 2011, 11:43 am

Mommyme1 wrote:

then why not get a set of baking pans, dishes, etc. They aren't too expensive and are much easier to wash then aluminum pans. This way at least what you are washing will last, and they bake better, I have a bunch of pyrex with covers, baking pans and 9x13s and use very few aluminum pans.

Like HY mentioned I use aluminum pans when I am making huge batches and freezing. Like I'll make 15 lbs of potato kugel at a shot in 9 inch round pans. I don't wash and reuse aluminum pans even if they are lined. some things I get away with freezing in parchment paper and zip lock bags. Or soups I just freeze in zip lock bags and stack in the freezer.

We also toivel all plastic containers, so I don't even use the disposable plastic containers unless I'm giving away. Its more worth it for me to invest in containers that will last me the long term. (I do have a few disposable ones that I toiveled once for meat soups, and I wash in the dishwasher and they have been reused multiple times, so maybe they are worth it to buy and rewash over and over again)

Nylon, thanks for the idea, regarding the slicer, I'm horrible at slicing my home made bread.

Tova

Mon, Jan 03 2011, 11:50 am

Why do you toivel plastic? I am not aware that their is any opinion that says you need to toivel plastic (or wood).