GREEN THREAD; Reusing Bread Bags

[Thrifty Bee]

Just a couple uses I’ve found for bread bags since I first posted. Now when I say bread bags I’m also referring to hamburger bun bags because I actually have more of those, my DH prefers his sandwiches on buns instead of loaf bread.

For sandwiches:
The first week I cut a bun bag into two large sheets of plastic, wrapped DH’s sandwiches in them, and placed them inside light reusable plastic bowls. To answer the question of why didn’t I just put the sandwiches in bowls to start with without the plastic; DH likes to hold his sandwich with something other than his bare hands because they are not as scrubby clean as he would like when he eats. He complained about having a hard time opening the bowl in the car so I started just warping that sandwich in plastic. The bowl was just to keep the bun from drying out but one of the sandwiches is ate right away so it’s not necessary. The sheets of plastic were easy to clean, I simply wiped the sandwich side with a clean damp microfiber cloth.

This is the second week and this time I used a bread bag. I cut a smaller bag from the bottom of the bag up just far enough that I can close it with a twist tie. Then opened up the other end at a seam into a large sheet of plastic. I wrapped the sandwich that will be eaten right away like I did last week. The other sandwich I put in the end of the bag I cut off and closed with a twist tie. Because the bag if bigger and doesn’t have the zipper thing it should be a lot easier to clean than sandwich bags.

I don’t think DH hates the idea but I don’t think he likes it much either. Meijer had generic bags in their 10 for $10 get the 11th free sale this week and while we were shopping there Saturday he comes walking up to the cart with a whole arm load of them. I asked what he was doing with those and he says “aren’t we out?”. I said no, that we have a whole box at home. He’s like, I thought we were out because you’ve been wrapping my sandwiches in plastic and putting them in bowls. Maybe he’ll get used to it soon.

Freezer bag liners:
I’ve been using bowls for freezing most things for awhile but bags work better for some things. I make and flash freeze separately my own hamburger patties and a bag works much better because the bag size can collapse down as I remove burgers from it; while a big bowl is a waste of space when fewer burgers remain. I stacked two rows of ¼ pound patties in a bun bag, closed with a twist tie, and then set it inside a gallon zipper freezer bag. My burgers have the protection of a heavy duty freezer bag, but the meat never actually touches the freezer bag so I can reuse it with no worries.

Now while we’re sort of on the subject of freezing I was wondering if anyone flash freezes chicken pieces the way I do burgers. I’ve been just sorting the amount I need for one meal into a bowl and freezing them together. But I don’t always need the same amount of legs, because sometimes I will eat legs and sometimes I will have wings or something I fix for myself. It would be nice to freeze them separately and put them all in one bag, then take out only what I need like I do the burgers. I’m just curios if chicken is more prone to freezer burn than beef, or if it should work fine.

[clippyclippy]

I'm with those who use the bags as poop scoopers - no dogs here, but I scoop the cat litter box.
Bread bags and newspaper bags.

I have a very frugal dad - waste conscious as well. He has found a use for every wrapper you can imagine!
He reuses the cereal bags as well as boxes, cans, jars, you name it.

He'll use them to wrap homemade bread, leftovers, or whatever.

When my mom was living, she was right there with him - a paper towel was never used and tossed. It was rinsed and reused Oh my. The guilt trip I'd go through after spending time at their house. I would feel like a total resource hog.