Easily save the rest of the can when your recipe only uses a bit of tomato paste

You know how every recipe ever that uses tomato paste only calls for 2 tablespoons? Maybe 4 if you're lucky? And those pesky cans come in the 6 ounce variety...which is 12 tablespoons, by the way. Not terribly handy. My personal favorite is the pizza sauce one that calls for 8 ounces. Grr.

So here's the easy way to keep the paste on hand, pre-measured and ready to use:

just freeze it. But don't just chuck the can in there like Martha says, that means you will have to try and saw a frozen lump apart, or even worse, try to pry a frozen lump out of a frozen can.

Take your handy dandy tablespoon measuring spoon, and make some glops on wax paper. 2 tablespoons is one ounce of paste, so make sure you have room in your freezer to lay a decent sized sheet out for a good minute. Ok, an hour, but who's counting? I, being very organized, forgot, and did the packaging part a day later. Or two. Close enough. Once they're frozen through (or once you remember that you're doing stuff and get back to it) pry them off the wax paper (it's easy don't worry) and either pack them two by two with a foodsaver, or wrap in wax paper and put them all in a ziploc. (Wrapping is essential if you aren't vacuum sealing as they'll stick together far too easily).

Label, pop them in the freezer, and use one or more as needed. They thaw in just moments since the paste has a very low water content and they never get that hard frozen state going.

I'm getting brave...

Well, either it's bravery, or insanity, I'm not sure!

I have a coupon binder. I've got my ads in full sized clear sleeves in with my coupons, so I can sort it all out. Right now, I just have a stack that needs sorted & a budget to stick to!

I'm not out of much, so do I stock up & push the budget so that later it's available when the budget is tight? Or do I only get what I need & miss out on a good deal for something I don't need NOW, but WILL need.

I'm not intending to become one of those extreme coupon ladies with stashes & stashes of stuff. Mainly because my local stores won't allow coupon stacking. I can only combine deals & sales, so it means if I miss out, I miss out.

But I do have the space to stock pile a little bit of each. Joys of a pantry & full basement! Decisions, decisions, any opinions?

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since amii can't comment on our own blog....
stock up only on one thing at a time, this way your budget doesn't get strained, and you can slowly work out the storage. Especially if you can use the seasonal lists of what goes down to the lowest prices of the year when such as here: What's on sale?

Also, don't do what I did and lose half your TP stash when a drain decides to back up by storing it (even if it's in the wrappers, they're not fully sealed) on the floor- mine is now up by the ceiling in the laundry room.

Some things store better than others- like dry pasta and beans- and with all the concerns over BPA, storing tomato anything for a longer period is generally a bad idea, so watch out for things in commercial metal cans. You're fortunate to have someone that cans green beans handy, as that is one of the worst veggies for absorbing BPA out of the lining of metal cans.