Kitchen Tips Tuesday: Leftover spaghetti and sauce

Whenever I make spaghetti I make a ton of it. I love to freeze the leftover noodles and sauce so that the next time we want spaghetti it is ready in an instant in the microwave. I also leave a little bit in the refrigerator for my kids to help themselves for a quick snack.

Here's what I do:

1. I don't toss the sauce and spaghetti together when I make it. Doing this cause the noodles to swell and go limp when you freeze them.

2. I drain the noodles thoroughly and blot them with a paper towel. I then coat a freezer bag with a little olive oil and slide the noodles in there. I put this in the frig for a day or two.

3. I pour the sauce back into the original container and put it in the frig for leftovers for the next day or two.

4. The kids can them throw some noodles in a bowl, pour the sauce straight from the container and heat in the microwave.

5. After 2 days, I put the same freezer bag and sauce container into the freezer for our next spaghetti meal. If there's not a whole lot left I just add the frozen leftovers to the new, freshly made spaghetti noodles and sauce.

I've been doing this for years and I never waste spaghetti noodles or sauce!

How to Freeze Cheese

Freezing Cheese is a great way to take advantage of cheap cheese purchased on sale with coupons. Hard cheeses such as cheddar and colby and soft cheese like mozzarella can be frozen for up to 3 months.

For bags of individually wrapped cheese sticks I throw the whole bag into the freezer. For sliced cheese packs I put the entire pack into a freezer bag and then into the freezer. Cheese cubes in bags are a little more work. I take them out of the original bag, lay them in layers on top of plastic wrap, wrap them tightly, then put them back into the original bag if it zips up.

I've never had any problem with frozen cheese. Just don't freeze cream cheese. It doesn't work. I found that out after buying a bunch philly cream cheeses once for $.15 each. They almost all ended up in the garbage.