What to do with those plastic Folgers cans and other Timesaving Tips

While making my cheeseburger soup, it occurred to me that I practice a few time-saving techniques that might benefit others. I love to read blogs that teach me something, so I have decided to share them with you. There may be someone out there who will benefit from these little time savers.

Whether you work at home or outside of it, there are certainly days when you don't want to spend time cooking.

I love to cook, but NOT on work days, so I usually spend a few hours of each weekend preparing for time off during the week.

I needed to fry a pound of burger for my soup -- when I fry burger it makes a mess of the stove--way too much of a mess to cook just one pound. So I cooked 5 lbs. of hamburger with onions and celery.

I took out what I needed and put the rest in zip lock gallon bags to freeze. It can be a pain to fill the bags without dropping burger all over the counter. I have found a solution for that:
An empty Folgers coffee plastic can.
Just put the ziplock bag into the can and fold the top over the can edge (it's a perfect fit)

Then just fill it up. I put about 1# in each since there are only two of us. I then remove the bag, ziplock it, and fold it into a log shape (freezes & thaws more quickly).

Now when I need a little burger for spaghetti sauce, etc., all I have to do is thaw the meat and dump it in the sauce. I save time chopping onions & celery, cooking it, and most of all, cleaning up the greasy stove!

Once I had the burger cooked, I continued making my soup (in the same pan--no need to wash it out or anything).

Is there anything more beautiful than carrots, celery and onion? That common cooking combination is called mirepoix(pronounced something like mirror a paw)...just a bit of trivia thrown in for you :) It's such a fun word to say...just say it out loud. Don't you love it? LOL (thanks to Kathy and Sabine, I have corrected the french term. I had it saved with an incorrect spelling. I must have spelled it the way I heard Emeril say it--I watched him for two years trying to figure out what he was talking about when he spoke the term!)
As long as you are doing the work for a pot of homemade soup, you may as well double the batch. Then let it cool while you get your Folgers can ready. Yes, those Folgers cans are quite valuable. Put your trusty ziplock bag in the can and fill it with cooled soup. I only put about 4 cups in each bag, because that is all DH and I need for one meal. Lock the bag top carefully squeezing out all the air.