3 Practical and Entertaining Uses for Ice Cubes

There are three essential stocking-up trips in any decent South African braai: the drinks run, wood or charcoal run and the ice run. Even in the cooler winter months, a drink without ice is just never the same. And in the hot summer months, it is bordering on crazy to not have a few filled ice trays waiting in the freezer.

Ice cubes have far more potential than their obvious use though, making them even handier in your kitchen or garage fridge.

3 Ways to Use Ice Cubes other than just Cooling your Drinks

That ice tray you keep in your freezer is more useful than you may have thought. Here are a few ways to use ice cubes that don’t involve making icy cold drinks.

Food– busy moms have long known the benefits of freezing pureed food to heat up for their babies, but that isn’t the only way to save time and fridge space. You can freeze gravy, soup, stock, spices and even herbs too. You can also add some flavour to drinks by freezing lemon or even mint.

Freezing ice cream mixture in ice trays is a fun way to create trendy individual desserts, while freezing coffee or cocoa will give a flavour boost when added to warmer desserts or chocolate mousse. The best part about this trick is that you can save money on flavouring too.

Décor – you don’t have to be a professional ice artist to create your very own frozen works of art. Get together some supplies such as trays, empty yoghurt cups and even plastic containers, glitter, flowers and other sparkly things, food colouring and salt, and find a cool space to get started.

You will also need an ice pick and plenty of water. Add salt and decorative items to the water, then once your cubes have frozen you can use them like LEGO to build weird and wonderful sculptures

Cleaning and Housework – having a few ice cubes around will help you with housework. Get rid of those annoying dents in the carpet when you move stuff around the lounge by placing an ice cube in the dent to absorb water into the carpet as it melts.

Remove chewing gum stuck in hair and on clothes by rubbing the cube over the gum until it hardens and dries. You can also use them for sprains and burns of course, but remember to wrap them in a cloth before applying to the skin.

So the next time you’re staying in dismay at the empty ice tray that you’ve forgotten to fill, remember just how useful these little frozen blocks can be and hopefully you will remember to keep the trays filled.