Gallon Sized Ziplocs, my BFF!

Today I don't have a recipe for you, sorry :-/, however I am sharing with you one of my true kitchen loves. A product I could not SURVIVE in the kitchen without. An expensive knife? A $5000 blender? No, sir- my true kitchen BFF is the gallon sized ziploc bag. I am not kidding you, I use the gallon sized ziploc for EVERYTHING. Like, daily use, on the reg. We are pals, BFFs, soul-mates, the ziploc was made for me. And for you too. Are you really getting the most out of your plastic baggy friends? Here I share with you my top 5 all time favorite uses for the gallon sized ziploc bag.

There they are, just sitting in the pantry so unsuspecting. They don't even know how great they are!

1. Marinating Meats. I mentioned this yesterday in my spinach-mozzarella chicken post(spinach-mozzarella chicken), throw the meat in the bag, top with marinade, close the top (MAKE SURE IT'S CLOSED), shake, marinate, cook meat, toss bag. No cleanup. Done deal.

2. As a pastry bag. I showed you this technique the other day in the Lasagna Stuffed Shells post, also in the Hard boiled eggs... in the oven post, and the Strawberry- Lemonade cupcakes post. Clearly, I do this often. Don't buy expensive pastry bags, just put whatever filling you have in your ziploc, push to one corner, twist the top to push it down, cut the corner, and pipe out of the hole. 

3. To keep leftovers fresh. Open bag of chips, and no chip clip to be found? Transfer those babies to a ziploc. I do this weekly when I buy frozen fruit for my smoothies, open all the bags and dump the fruit into one communal ziploc that can be reused week in and out.

My communal bag of frozen fruits :)

4. As a freezer bag. This one is kindof obvious and a repeat of number 3, but I feel it needs to be stated anyhow. Freezing leftovers? Flash freeze on a cookie sheet, throw in a ziploc. Wham bam thank you ma'am. 
5. To keep your hands clean when crumbling food. Like mashing a banana for banana bread, peel & throw the bananas in the ziploc, close, mash with your hands, cut a hole in the corner and pipe out into mixture. Bacon? Throw cooked bacon into bag, crumble with fingers, dump into recipe, grease free hands! Nuts, chips, crackers, whatevs it all works here. 

Now make sure you're stocked up and start getting those ziplocs to work. :-) What are YOUR fave ziploc uses?! I'm always up to add more to my repertoire...