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Welcome to One Simply Terrific Thing, our ongoing series highlighting the small tools and kitchen goods that make life better.
Try as I might, I’ve never been a very good meal prepper. I know all the benefits of having meals ready so my family doesn’t eat takeout every night, but I just never landed on a routine that worked for our family. At least that was the case until I fell in love with Souper Cubes silicone trays.
You may have heard of these trays from Shark Tank fame! These portioned and lidded containers are part of my weekly routine to reduce food waste in our kitchen. I find them ideal for keeping leftovers out of the trash and having easy meals in the freezer in a pinch. Now my weekly routine is to pull leftovers we haven’t eaten out of the fridge and move them to one of my Souper Cube trays.
I have all the sizes of the Ultimate Gift Set and two cookie trays, so it is easy to portion soups into 1-cup cubes or the pot of beans I made for dinner one night into 2-cup portions for other family meals. The half-cup trays get filled with the pasta sauce or pesto that didn’t get eaten up or I can empty the can of tomato paste I opened a week ago in the 2 tablespoon trays. Admittedly I don’t use the cookie trays as much as I should, especially since I believe a dessert is essential to weekly meal planning or prep.
While I’m in the freezer anyway, I’ll take the meals I froze the previous week out of their Souper Cube Tray and move them to a zip-top bag for longer-term storage. You can keep food stored in the trays—they come with well-fitting lids—but this cycle helps me keep my favorite meal-salvaging tools ready for filling.
I love Souper Cubes’ flexible silicone material, it makes everything from broth to lasagna a breeze to remove. Plus you can bake directly in the trays thanks to their material! The lids also keep saucier leftovers, like soups and sauces, from spilling out in the freezer—a real bonus if you’ve got family members who might get into the freezer for ice cream and accidentally knock over the trays before they’re fully frozen.
The real benefit of this routine and having Souper Cubes in my life is that on the nights when I really just cannot muster up the mojo for cooking I can pull out a cube of soup for myself, a portion of pasta for my kids, and we’re eating home cooked food that might have sat in the fridge too long and gone to waste otherwise.
BUY IT NOW: Souper Cubes silicone trays