Sunday, August 2, 2009

Saving Guacamole

Can you ever have too much of a good thing? Well, if you're talking about grocery shopping for a family of two at Costco, then my answer is yes. The super-bulk vendor turns out some great deals on wonderful products, including frozen foods, fresh produce, breads, and canned items. The Best Husband Ever and I save money and score high quality groceries every visit, and manage to nab some sweet samples while we're at it.

The only problem is, sometimes we can't eat all of our bulk purchases. Take spinach, for example. You can buy a humongous bag for dirt cheap, but then I too often have to throw some of its contents away because they spoil before I can eat them. Milk is another good one. We've never even tried to buy milk there because, as thrifty as it is, we know that we'd never get through half of it.

Sad! So what's a girl to do? I discovered the answer after buying a bulk package of Wholly Guacamole at Costco not too long ago -- but longer than you'd might expect, given guacamole's shelf life. If you've never heard of this brand of guacamole, it's the only true guac that I've been able to find in Montana. Everything else is just "avocado dip" and tastes quite revolting to me. I love me some good guacamole, though, and thankfully this particular brand is just about perfect. Unfortunately, it's quite spendy at the grocery store. So when I discovered a bulk package of it as Costco (three 16 oz. containers for less than $9.00!!), of course I had to take one home.

Now, as much as I love guacamole and avocado, there's no way I could go through 48 oz. of the stuff before it spoiled. I figured, though, that I could freeze two containers while dipping into the third. That plan worked fine -- until I realized that I couldn't even eat one container before it went bad. I felt terrible wasting so much delicious guacamole, so I put my thinking cap on.

My solution, while not as sustainable as I would like, was to divide the contents of the containers into rough serving sizes of two tablespoons. I heaped said individual servings into zip lock bags and froze the lot. So far, my plan is working out pretty well! It's a bit hard to remove the guacamole from the baggies, but I don't mind getting a little messy. I did save one serving in a Tupperware container, and that worked out the best. This method was less messy, and I could defrost it in the microwave if I decided I wanted some guac at the last minute instead of having to set it out to defrost hours in advance. This solution would be perfected by the use of tiny tupperwares instead of baggies.

How do you prolong the existence of foods that are doomed to a short shelf life?

5 comments:

  1. Thanks for the tip! I've always wondered how to save my guac!

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  2. Great tip! I buy 2 oz Wholly Snack Packs-- and always use the $1 off e-coupon I get from WhollyGuac.com each month... but to know that CostCo has it for that price! WOW FYI, if you take the guac and press the plastic into it ( to eliminate the air)--it stays green longer once opened.

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  3. Thanks for your suggestions, Sylvia. I'll definitely try them...and go find that coupon!

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  4. I'm a freeze queen, but I've had the same dilemma as you. Whole Foods has the best guac in the world, but their containers is still too much for me since I'm the only one in the house that eats it. I'm wondering: I know that the snack sized baggies are not designed for freezing, but what if you put those bags inside a tupperware container? That way you can get the guac out easier, and the tupperware serves as a protecting type shield for the thinner baggies? What do you think? (I'm subbing to this post)...LOL~ the word verification for my comment is "messy"!~*~ Wendy ~*~"You might be a redneck IF ..."Tell Me Thursday- about Wordless WednesdayThoughts of a Tea Party Activist

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  5. oops, forgot to sub, doing it now :p

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