I rarely pay full price for bananas since they go on clearance quite often. Although they are usually browning a bit, these bananas are great for freezing or using right away.
- Slice up and flash freeze individually and then place in a gallon bag. These are great for smoothies, to use in baked goods later on, or even for banana foster (a new favorite in my house!)
- Peel and freeze whole. I've frozen then in the peel before--some were easy to get the peel off, while others were not. Peeling them before hand eliminates this hassle.
- Use right away in banana bread/muffins, cakes, smoothies, banana foster :), oatmeal, etc.
A recent stop into my local grocery store yielded me a great score of clearanced bananas and apples! I was so excited at my find since it is rare that I find apples this cheap-- .29¢/pound!! I brought home all that they had, which was almost 4 pounds. I was dreaming of all the different things I could do with all those apples.
- Made lots of fresh apple juice with my new juicer. Boy, oh boy am I addicted to that thing! Fresh juiced juice does not even compare to commercial juice.
- Sliced, cored, and peeled a big batch for the freezer. I added some cinnamon and sugar and froze to use later on in apple pie.
- Ate fresh.
- Smoothies.
- If I had gotten more I would have loved to make some apple butter or apple sauce. Mmmmm!
Clearanced fruit saves money--as long as you use it up before it goes bad. Saving money with clearanced fruit definitely works for me!
Have you ever gotten any good deals on clearanced fruit? What is your favorite use for it?
11 comments:
I rarely buy fruits full price. Our market usually has a pretty good selection of clearenced fruist and veggies. If I don't buy the fruits from the clearence table I buy them on sale only.
Bananas I use for baking and smoothies. We don't eat them once they start browning. We like them more unripe.
Apples I buy when I can get one of those brown bags with handles (resemble banana bags) for 99 cents. I use that for apple crisp, applesauce and apple pie. The crisp ones we eat fresh.
Grapes we eat fresh.
Strawberries I use for shortcake and I freeze for smoothies as well as eat fresh.
Oranges are eaten fresh and made into muffins.
Mangos are frozen for smoothies.
Pears are eaten fresh.
I often find potatoes very cheap. They keep a long time. Onions and peppers are chopped and frozen. Sometimes I roast the peppers too. Other than that, most veggies are eaten right away.
Gerky
I have been making strawberry jam. I'm determined to make all our jam and jelly for this next year. I'll have to see if I can find some apples for apple jelly and apple butter...my boys will be so happy!
Oooh you just reminded me to go transfer my flash freeze tray of bananas to the bag!
over 3 kilos (a kilo is 2.2 English pounds), for just 31pence, which is roughly $0.20.
Could have bought more but wasn't sure how much space was in the freezer.
I can't remember the last time I saw clearance fruit. Here, clearance meat is easy to find, but not so much with fruit.
I do find clearanced veggies once in a while - mushrooms are great if used within a day, lettuce too. Clearanced potatoes last maybe a week, but I've only found that once.
Where do you find these clearanced deals? I'd love to grab more fruits, but they're so darned expensive!
When I've come across clearance produce at our grocery store, it is usually in really rough shape. So I don't often buy fruit on clearance.
But we do freeze bananas often, and I've also found that it's really best to peel them first.
And if I ever have fruit that's a bit past its prime or just isn't very sweet, it usually goes into a smoothie!
I actually bought a big bag of banana's for .99 today I am going to make some smoothies and banana nut muffins
Oh I wish I could find clearance apples and bananas! I can't believe you got 4 lbs of apples for just over a dollar! That is fabulous!
I can usually find clearance vegetables, spinach, bagged salad, sliced veggies, and prepared salsa and guacamole mostly.
I really enjoyed your banana ideas. I have never moved past using them for smoothies, the other ideas were great!
You said you slice your apples for the freezer. Do you blanch them or put them in citrus juice to keep from turning brown?
Just curious. I didn't realize you could freeze raw apples. I have canned some delicious apple pie filling though.
You are always so inspiring!
Thanks.
I love your post. I had just read about Banana fosters in a book last night (the friday night knitting club) so i was delighted when i saw them mentioned as your new fave. desert.
When I see bananas marked down I grab as much as I can! The past two weeks strawberries have been on sale at .99 per pound so I have been buying a lot and freezing them for smoothies. I love to hit the clearanced racks at the grocery store. I recently learned with marked down meat though that you must either cook or freeze right away. Blech! I'll spare the details of that frugal flop!
I posted on this at: www.kitchenstewardship.com/2009/03/20/a-reduced-produce-primer/
Great ideas!
Post a Comment