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Kitchen Gadgets
You may have one tucked away deep into your kitchen cabinet right now but using a crock pot and other kitchen appliances can really put a dent in your grocery bill.
The crock pot, food processor and dehydrator. Each appliance has countless uses and countless ways to save you money.
"When we talk about the crock pot, I think a lot of people forget about which was created in the early 70's and was our mother's very favorite thing to use, creating those pot roasts and stews so it kinda took on the feeling of the old fashioned comfort food," says Molly.
Molly Fowler says right off the bat, slow cookers use less energy than traditional ovens and stoves. You can also save money by using inexpensive and tough cuts of meat -- that become tender and flavorful after slow cooking all day.
"We are going to start out today with little beef short ribs," says Molly, "These are readily available in your market."
After grilling the ribs -- Molly puts them in a single layer in the crock pot and then adds the ingredients for the liquid. Click here for the recipe for slow cooker Asian short ribs.
"The nice thing is once it's done the crock pot will switch to warm and will keep it warm until I get home," says Molly. After a day in the slow cooker -- the meat on our ribs is literally falling of the bone.
"Oh, this is fabulous, this is going to make a delicious dinner!" says Molly.
Here's one appliance you might not think could save you money -- the food processor.
"When we are going to the market and shopping I know it is convenient to buy the little bags of the pre-grated cheese. But number one it spoils so quickly when its grated it has a much shorter shelf life and it costs you more per ounce than by buying the block of cheese," says Molly.
Molly uses the food processor to grate up a block of cheese, slice up cucumbers and chop carrots.
"When you are buying the pre chopped or shredded carrots at the grocery store you are paying a premium for someone else doing that chopping and shredding for you," says Molly.
"For me I think of the biggest money saving advantages to the food processor is making your own salad dressing," says Molly.
In just minutes, molly whipped up a homemade raspberry vinaigrette dressing. Click here for the recipe.
"Here we go a beautiful salad dressing, drizzle this over the top of our salad and we have a great salad courtesy of the food processor," says Molly.
Now for the dehydrator -- an appliance that allows you to buy in bulk.
"It is wonderful to use when you can get out to the markets buy fruits and vegetables at their peak of freshness at their lowest cost and you can stock up, dehydrate them and have them in your freezer or in your pantry for further use down the line," says Molly.
With a dehydrator you can dry out meat, spices, fruits and vegetables.
"Today, we are going to take tomatoes, I'm using roma tomatoes or plum tomatoes as they are called," says Molly.
Molly cuts the tomatoes in half, scoops out the seeds, adds salt and places them cut side down on the dehydrator. Click here for the recipe for sun dried tomatoes.
"One thing that you want to be certain is that you stagger the placement of the pieces of fruits or vegetables so that you have allowed for adequate room for the air to circulate and dry evenly," says Molly.
The item you are drying out determines how long it needs to stay in the dehydrator. The tomatoes stayed in for nine hours.
"They are beautiful, they are dry but not hard and crisp, which is perfect," says Molly. "You can put them in a ziplock bag or if you like you can put them in a little container with olive oil and they are perfect -- just like the sundried tomatoes you get in the store."
Items dried in the dehydrator stay fresh for months.
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