Everything You Never Knew You Wanted to Know About the Benefits of Ice Cube Trays

We make our own ice cubes. Keep reading. I'm a high-taster. Danny is a low-taster. These things don't matter to him. But they matter to me. We have nasty, nasty water here in the frozen north. And it makes for even nastier ice cubes. So, we opted out of having the ice maker in our freezer connected directly to the pipes. I know you can get a filter on the water going to the ice maker, but it just wasn't worth it to us for the cost. I just use a refrigerator Brita filter pitcher to make ice cubes.

We invested in five Tupperware ice cube trays. The special feature we pay the big bucks for is the lids and Tupperware's fabulous lifetime guarantee. These ice cube trays have lids to keep out wandering freezer smells.

We also use these ice cube trays to make baby food. For example, when I make pumpkin muffins or pumpkin roll, there is always leftover canned pumpkin. I scoop it into the ice cube trays, put the lid on, and freeze. When they're frozen, I dump them into a labeled zippered freezer bag and wash the tray out for the next use. They are the perfect size to couple with some baby cereal or breastmilk.

My babies always love their veggies. It is the same price for a can of green beans as it is for the 6 oz. jar of baby food. So I buy the unsalted can of beans. I puree the whole can of green beans, fill up the ice cube tray, and freeze.

Ice cube trays are the perfect size for leftover tomato paste or chicken broth. I've had several recipes that call for just so many tablespoons of tomato paste or chicken broth. Why let the rest go to waste? Chicken broth cubes are especially handy for cooling "too-hot soup" for kids. As far as baby food goes, every fruit and veggie I can think of purees and freezes well.

For Christmas Eve we made (a couple days in advance) cranberry juice cubes to put into our fizzy grapefruit soda.

In the summertime we make milk cubes to put in the kids thermos cups in the van when we're going out for a long while. We fill the cup as full as possible with milk cubes, and then top off with milk. This is much cheaper and healthier than stopping for a fruit drink at a fast food establishment.

You could even just wrap your ice cube trays in plastic wrap (for the more solid-like ingredients) to keep out wandering freezer smells. Think about all the things ice cube trays could do for you.