Smart & Practical Uses for your Vaccum Sealer (FoodSaver)!

The following post is brought to you by fellow reader “Couponing Mary”. Thank you so much Mary for contributing this article. If you would like to contribute an article, please email me at couponkatarina(at)gmail(dot)com.

Let me begin by saying I absolutely love my FoodSaver! My husband gave me one about five (5) years ago. He was afraid that it would be like a lot of our other small kitchen appliances. You know. Used a couple of times and put in the pantry and forgotten about. Nope! Not this one. We use it several times a day, every day. I tried clearing my kitchen counters of small appliances for a cleaner appearance. But my Food Saver is always brought back out and used before the end of the day. I gave up and it has a permanent spot on the counter. It is actually used more than our microwave.

Besides using my FoodSaver for vacuum sealing portions of large packages of meat. Here are some of the things that I have used it for:

Sealing opened large bags of chips. For two of us we have had a large package of chips has lasted us two weeks with no staleness. We just use the seal part (no vacuum) of the appliance and hold down for a count of six (6) and the bag is sealed and ready to be reopened. It is a lot cheaper for me to buy a large bag of chips than several of the individual sizes. We have used it for resealing cereal and crackers. We just take the waxy bag out of the box and hold the bag for sealing to a count of three (3) and place the bag back into the box. No staleness or bugs for my cereal and crackers. This may not be recommended by the manufacturer but my warranty is up and it works for me. I recommend if you have a food vacuum sealer of any make or model that you check your owners manual.

Lunchmeats and cheese. I divide and conquer when I purchase the larger packages of lunchmeat and cheese. I divide the lunchmeat into weekly portions of what my family will use, vacuum seal and freeze them. When I purchase 32-ounce bars of cheese, I cut them into 8-ounces bars and vacuum seal each one. I mark them with the “use by” date on the original package and store them in the refrigerator. I hate mold on my cheese but it is hard to pass up a great deal, especially a great coupon deal, on chunk or bar cheese. By vacuum sealing smaller portions of a large bar of cheese we never have mold on our cheese and never have to throw out any.

Freezing soups. I always make extra when I make Pasta Fagioli. I divide the leftover into square plastic food containers, cool and freeze them with the lids on. When they are frozen, I place the bottom of the food container in some warm water and twist. The frozen Pasta Fagioli pops out. I then place the frozen Fagioli in a Food Saver bag, vacuum seal, mark the bag with contents and the date and then I stack them in the freezer. I use a larger plastic container for larger portions. When I want some defrosted I just open the bag and slide the frozen Fagioli back into a plastic container and place it in the refrigerator to defrost. We do this with leftover soups, stews, chilis and roasts. It is easier to vacuum seal these types of foods if they are already frozen. No air gets trapped in the bags and nothing gets sucked up into the appliance. We have even taken leftover burrito meat and beans and mixed it together and packaged it in the same manner. There is nothing like having dinner already in the freezer. It is like having self-packaged TV dinners without the added preservatives.

Ice bags. Because we live in the desert I also make my own ice packs for my small travel cooler. I just put water in a plastic food container, freeze it, and pop out the ice and vacuum seal it. It can be used, refrozen and used again. I just check the bags for small holes before refreezing. These are great when I am out on my shopping trips or we are traveling by car. I always have a couple of cold water bottles and one of my homemade ice packs in my small travel cooler with me.

Sealing packaged food. I always vacuum seal and date all bags of sugar and flour before placing them in my pantry. Have you ever just moved a bag of sugar or flour and found some on your pantry shelf? Have you ever found a trail of ants going to your sugar? If you live where the humidity level is through the roof have you found your sugar hard as a brick? This is all why I vacuum seal this type of pantry staples.

Sealing documents. My daughter had a pair of Jet Ski’s and we sealed her documents that she had to have in it when they were on the water. When you have a watercraft, you are supposed to carry the registration in the craft. As most watercraft owners know, especially Jet Ski owners, the registration can get wet. By vacuum sealing the registration (laying open and flat so you can read it) it cannot get wet. I just wish I had a Food Saver when I owned my jet ski. I had to use several zip bags inside of zip bags and my registration still got moisture to it. I have even vacuum sealed some of my recipe cards that I use often. I found that it was hard to note changes that I wanted to make if I laminated them.

Protecting baby clothes. I have used my Food Saver for vacuum sealing and protecting baby clothes. I would be so excited if they would just make one for blankets and full size clothes!

Dog food. I used to have to buy a really large bag of dog food and vacuum seal it into smaller portions to keep it until my Chihuahua needed it. This is because she, my dog, has food allergies and we did not have a store in town that carried a specific dog food. I had to purchase it when I went out of town and buy enough of it to last until the next time I went out of town. Once a large bag was opened we did not want it to turn rancid so vacuum sealing the food was the only way to keep it stored. Now we have a store that carries the brand of dog food and I have been buying the smaller bags. However, if I would run across a good deal on a large bag, I would not hesitate to buy it knowing I can safely store it.

I am sure I have forgotten something else that I have used my Food Saver for. Yes, I do love it. When this one gives out I want to purchase one of the FoodSaver GameSavers that comes with the five (5) gallon bags. Boy! What I could do with that!

I would like to add that when I am out of FoodSaver bags and coupons for them I purchase the Kenmore bags at Kmart. They work the same and I get two (2) more bags per box for almost $2.00 less than the Food Saver bags at Walmart.