muffin papers.

we all use them. And granted, they are not expensive.. But, again, this is something that you are paying money for, planning on throwing it away after a single use. So I started considering silicone muffin cups, reusable, and can be used for more than one thing (will get to that in a moment.) First I checked the local Wal-mart, a set of 12, silicone muffin cups  was $6, and a set of 12 was $10 at the local Target.. BUT I hit the dollar aisle in Target, they had sets of 6 for $1, so I ended up getting 18 cups, and only paying half of what a dozen would have cost at Wal-mart.

Now.. multiple uses.. first you have the obvious, cupcakes and muffins, and if you are sending them to school or such, you can always pull the cup off and even slip a decorative paper on, and not have it all distorted from the muffin cooking in it. They can be used as cups and dividers in lunches. Especially bento style. They can be used at the dinner table to hold sauces, ketchup, ect. this works especially well for those children who can’t allow one food to touch another on their plate. And, as I tested out this morning, you can poach eggs in them.

It is really a simple process, you put enough water in a pan (I used a deep skillet, but a pot will work too) that the cups will float even almost totally submerged (so water is deeper than your cups are tall) bring water to a simmer, not quite boiling and maintain. crack egg into muffin cup and lower into water. You can spray your cups with non-stick spray if you want, I didn’t bother. and let simmer until the eggs are cooked to your liking. Once the eggs were done I lifted them out and set the cups on a plate dumped any water that might have gotten into the cups (silicone cools quickly too so I was able to handle the cups without getting burned.) ran a table knife around the edges of the cup and dumped it into a bowl.

Now you have the usual questions…

1. Why poach eggs? Well, my family eats a lot of eggs, we really like them and they are a good source of protein. To us, poached eggs are like fried, only without the crispy parts that we don’t care for, and much lower in fat, therefore, healthier.
2. Why not get a egg poaching pan? Well, several reasons.. #1, money, a pan, specifically for poaching eggs is not cheap, this is the cheapest one I found, and it is $20, plus shipping. #2. space, I don’t have room to store a different pan for every item I cook. and there is always that uni-tasker thing again, the only uni-tasker in my kitchen is the fire extinguisher.

General Rules.

This is things I do as a general rule, to keep costs down, not something you have to do, but every little bit helps.

1. Buy generic / store brand.  Most items are made in the same factories, with the same recipe (food items) as the name brands, but with the generic, you are not paying for things like advertising, coupons (because, yes, they up the price to offer those coupons) etc. Medications, again, generic, federal laws require that generic medication be chemically identical to name brand, so why pay 3 times as much for the use of a name?  OK, I admit it, there are somethings I don’t buy generic for, I have not found a generic ketchup I like as much as Heinz, and Bounty makes the best paper towels to me. But in my house, name brand is the exception, not the rule.
2. Nix disposable. Paper Towels, paper plates, paper cups, paper lunch bags, even disposable diapers, you are spending your money on things that you are PLANNING on throwing away after a single use. Yes, I use paper towels, the main use they have is to wrap sandwiches, inside a plastic container, in my childrens, reusable lunch bags… this way they have a napkin right there when they eat at school. A roll of paper towels will generally last my family a month or so. At home we  use cloth for most things. Cloth napkins and placemats, napkins are washed after every meal, placemats, those depend on how messy the eaters were, often one or two a meal will be replaced, so it pays off to have a largish (depending on household size and how often you do laundry) collection of coordinating placemats.
3. Buy in bulk. This only really works if you only buy things you will use that much of, for instance, say you only bake at the holidays. If you buy a 25lb of flour, chances are you won’t use it all, and again, likely hood is that bugs will get into it before the next year rolls around. But say you eat a lot of spaghetti. Instead of buying only enough meat to do one meal at a time, buy a large package, break it up and freeze it. Personally, I cook it all, then break it up and freeze it. This also helps with my preperation times. and prices are often lower for larger packages. If you run across a really great price on YOUR laundry soap… (it does no good if it is a soap you don’t/won’t use) buy an extra, or two, it will store just fine and you have saved a little on the price.
4. Multiple use items. Ok, to quote Alton Brown, “the only unitasker I want in my kitchen is the fire extinguisher” this is not limited to the kitchen. There are often things that can be used for multiple uses.. I have one of the over the door pocket shoe organizers in my daughter’s bedroom, it is used to store small toys, and other items, one pocket has  pencils, another has small notebooks, another has barbies.
5. Electric rates. Depending on where you are, and your local power companies, you may have several rate plans to choose from. Personally, I am in the southwest, and it is HOT. We have a choice of 3 electrical plans. The first is a standard plan, the electricty is the same rate all day long. From Nov-March it is a fairly low rate, but from April-Oct it is about 4 times as much. The second plan has a very high rate from 9am-9pm and about 1/4 of that rate from 9pm to 9am Monday-Friday, weekends are at the night time rate. The third rate plan has a high rate and a low rate, the high is a about the same as the second plan, but the low is a little higher than the second plan’s low rate,  however the times are much better, peak rates are noon-7pm and off peak are 7pm-noon and weekends, and 6 holidays a year. This is the rate we have, it allows me time to do laundry in the  mornings and evenings, as well as run the dishwasher, everyone to bathe, run the vacuum, etc. We use as little power as possible during peak hours.