Whenever I hear people say they don't like leftovers, I wonder just how much food they throw out. It's a rare meal around here that doesn't result in leftovers. Sometimes there's enough for lunch and dinner the next day, and sometimes there's just a bite or two left over. In neither case will the leftovers go to waste.
Our budget wouldn't permit such extravagance and I wouldn't permit such a waste of resources. That food took time, energy, and resources to grow, harvest, and ship. It took me time, energy, and resources to pick it up, bring it home, and store it in the refrigerator or the pantry. It took me more time, energy, and resources to prepare it for a meal. And you want me to throw out what I didn't eat? That's insanity!
If you simply can't bear to eat the same food two meals or two days in a row, you have some choices:
- Get over it! The same food won't kill you. It won't kill your kids. Toughen up and eat it.
- Freeze your leftovers in meal-size portions. Pull them out on the day you got home from work late and really don't feel like cooking dinner.
- Make something new with the leftovers. There are cookbooks that specialize in how to create new dishes from leftovers or you could *gasp* use your imagination.
Yeah, I'm kinda mean. Get over it.
Today has been a leftovers kind of day. For breakfast, I had leftover jasmine rice topped with leftover pineapple salsa. For lunch, I grilled eggplant and onion slices, steamed spinach, cut some roasted red peppers (and garlic clove from the jar), and removed the pit from some of my home-cured olives to eat with leftover whole wheat rolls I got two weeks ago and tossed in the freezer.
I was already planning to make frugal soup (aka Stone soup) tonight. After cooking the rice last night, we put clean water in the rice cooker to soak. There is always rice stuck on the bottom; it can be easily removed after soaking and added to soup. We looked at the leftovers from lunch and decided we didn't want to have that for dinner. So, I chopped everything up and put it in with the watery rice bits. To this, I also added the water used to steam the spinach. I've already got a tasty mini-soup started...
I cut up the rest of the rolls, tossed them with a tiny bit of olive oil (scraped from the top of the cured olives after it hardened in the refrigerator) and spices. Those are outside right now toasting in the Tulsi solar oven. I also saved the crumbs from slicing the rolls to use for another recipe. Bread crumbs can be stored in the freezer until enough are saved up for a recipe. If you don't like the heels from your bread, let them dry and crumble them up for bread crumb recipes, too.
If we don't finish off the soup tonight, and don't want soup tomorrow, I may throw it in the blender or food processor. Pureed soup makes a nice base for a sauce. It can be added to a casserole or pasta dish...both of which would be great with toasted bread crumbs on top.
Food waste is a huge problem so there really is no excuse for throwing out leftovers. Want to read more about how to avoid wasting food? Check out what I've written (especially this post), check out Crunchy Chicken's new challenge, and check out Jonathon's blog on the subject.
We don't waste much around here. Any leftover veggies get tossed into soup but I've gotten much better about overbuying at the farmers market. It took awhile though.
ReplyDeleteI agree totally.
ReplyDeleteI may not be quite as creative as you are with the uses for our "leftovers" (thanks for the ideas, by the way), there is very little that I allow to be wasted where food is concerned. I am a great one for freezing stuff and then using it in soups or casseroles later on. Some of our stuff ends up with wild combinations, but it always tastes good!
We're all on the same wave length it seems. I posted yesterday about how to use up food. I'll need to try your ways too because I'm going to do Crunchy's challenge.
ReplyDeleteI LOVE leftovers. We conciously make leftovers with every meal, and make a BIG pot of food for leftovers all week. It saves energy to make more than one meal at once, too, as it doesn't takemuch more energy to cook twice or three times as much!
ReplyDeleteWe do it primarily because we are LAZY, though... I like not having to cook. I also like eating GOOD, fresh, flavorful food, so leftovers and cooking large pots of good things is the perfect mix!
I do have several meals frozen in the freezer... they never get eaten, though. I've learned to just eat everything up right away.
We are definitely NOT creative with our leftovers... but we don't mind eating the same thing for days or a week.
Leftovers Rock!! :) I can't believe how much food gets thrown away, because it certainly doesn't here. I don't eat breakfast, so if the kids don't eat all their food I might eat it, or the chickens get a nice morning treat. Leftover lunch becomes afternoon/after nap snacks. Leftover dinner becomes next day's lunch. If there is a lot leftover, like you said, it gets frozen for another night's meal.
ReplyDeleteWhen we do have to toss stuff, it goes to the chickens (maybe guinea pigs, depending on what it is being tossed) .. which winds up being fertilizer for our garden!!
I'm guilty. I have a serious mental block when it comes to leftovers, so if we have any, I'm usually going to give it to my husband for lunch, because he'll eat it. He'll eat leftover pizza that's been sitting out for a couple days, though.
ReplyDeleteI am trying to be better about not wasting food by making only as much as we need to eat rather than overdoing it. But yeah, I'm really bad about leftovers.
Leftovers almost always go to work with my husband or daughter for their lunch. Both have access to a fridge and microwave at work, and they get pretty tired of sandwiches all the time. They actually fight over who gets what!
ReplyDeleteAnd you're right about just sucking it up and eating it. It won't kill you to eat something that isn't quite "gourmet".
Lazy me loves leftovers. Seriously. I do have to say that 3 days in a row gets a little old though. But I still eat it, even if I have to add 3 mini meals together to make one meal.
ReplyDeleteWe use everything but the squeak around here on food. Boiled chicken bones feed the crows even. If it doesn't feed us, the dogs get bits and anything leftover that's truly inedible gets thrown on either the compost pile or the pest pile. Once we get chickens we'll feed them stuff we can't eat.
ReplyDeleteWe love casseroles and soups!
About the only thing I don't compost is banana peels and citrus peels. I could candy the citrus peels but I don't need that much sugar and did you know they found banana peels in a midden from the 1600's??!!!
Heather - soup's so handy, isn't it?! Talk about overbuying... Silly me so a note for someone's CSA share for this week for sale since they were going to be gone. I bought it (at a discount). I've got to make a lot of salads and a lot of dishes with greens now. LOL!
ReplyDeleteBarefoot Gardener - freezing's great if you can keep the freezer organized. That's my problem. Nothing gets tossed out but I hate having to dig through a bunch of bags to see what's in there or try to find something I know is in there somewhere.
Green Bean - there are many ways to deal with leftovers. I know I've seen a cookbook specifically devoted to leftovers. It'd be a good one to review on the Bookworm.
Jennifer - good point about cooking less often. With the CSA, I can't do once a month cooking, but that's another good way to reduce waste. Making leftovers is not "lazy", it's efficient. :)
Carrie & Justin - they sure do rock. I'd rather get the most use out of the food before delegating it to the next level (chickens, dog, compost), but that's better than tossing them in the garbage. When I was sending my dried pomegranate seed remains from making liqueur to the compost, I thought about how much fun chickens would have getting drunk off them.
BetweenBabies - nothing's set in stone. Just because you've been bad about leftovers in the past doesn't mean you can't learn some new tricks... Your hubby must have an iron stomach if he can eat several day old unrefrigerated pizza. Yikes!
Joyce - leftover food fight! Too funny. And whaddayamean not gourmet? Of course the leftovers are gourmet here.
Hausfrau - we do the minimeals thing too. It doesn't work really well with different ethnic seasoning, though. Mexican and Japanese just don't go together...
Anna M - Back when I cooked chickens for my dogs, I'd bone it all and then pressure-cook the bones until they were soft. I'd mash them so there were no splinters and give it to them in small quantities. Never read anywhere whether that was okay or not, though.
I've successfully composted banana and citrus peels, and in large quantities. I used to do Aid Stations for some of the bike races and would bring home the peels and the leftover fruit. We're talkin' a garbage bag full of peels. They disappeared.
You could make extract and/or liqueurs with the citrus peels. Stick them in a jar of sugar to flavor it. And supposedly you can use banana peels to shine your shoes.
I'm getting really good at using up leftovers. The other day, I made potato pancakes using leftover potato soup. They were good with a little bit of applesauce ;).
ReplyDeleteChile, I await your review of the book with much anticipation. :)
ReplyDeleteCan I come over for dinner? Yum. I love it when we make enough to eat for lunch the next morning. Interestingly, though, I live with someone who can't have leftovers in the fridge or it gets eaten before bedtime. So generally we make only what we'll eat in a meal. But I have a much healthier husband that way, so it's all good. ; )
ReplyDeleteWhat is that grill looking thing? Does it save energy? Looks great!
Anna M - I've been drying my citus peels for potpourri. You can also zest them and dry the zest and then store it for use later in recipes that call for zest.
ReplyDeleteI like leftovers. Its more difficult to cook just one portion that it is to cook for a whole family. I can't get the spices right for just one portion!
Wendy - good one!
ReplyDeleteGreen Bean - oh, come on. I clean the place up, and now you want me to do the reviews, too? Sheesh, girl, what are you gonna do? Sit around and eat bonbons? ;-P
Melinda - of course you can come for dinner. You live with a snacker, huh? I know what that's like...
The grill-looking thing is a George Foreman grill with 5 interchangeable plates. Here's another pic of it. Can't say whether it save energy. I suppose so because otherwise cooking the vegs might require turning on the oven to roast them? The main reason I like it is I can grill anything without using any oil at all, whereas roasting in the oven generally comes out better when the vegs are tossed with at least a little oil.
List of things I've grilled includes hashbrowns, corn kernels, onions, garlic, fennel, whole green onions, mushrooms, sweet potato slices, eggplant, carrot spears, zucchini, veggie burgers, asparagus, pineapple slices, and other things I can't remember right now. Oh yeah, quesadillas, toast, and burritos. I've also used the deeper baking plate to reheat french fries from a restaurant, leftover pancakes, and cookies.
No left overs here. Any spare gets used as lunch or another dinner etc. It was a cardinal sin to waste anything when I was young and the habit stuck.
ReplyDeleteI have a smaller version of your grill - its been very useful.
viv in nz
You're not mean. Some people just need a talkin' to! I eat leftovers all the time, and usually cook for leftovers. I live alone so making single meals is rather tough. I will admit I do waste some food though. Sometimes I just don't get around to eating something. That is poor planning on my part though, and something I am working on. I haven't been getting my organics box delivered lately, but I will start again once I use up some of the stuff I have.
ReplyDeleteI love leftovers too. I like the challenge of thinking of different ways to work with them. My most recent discovery was putting a spoonful of peanut butter in day number three lentil/split pea soup. It was good!
ReplyDeleteI looooooove when my mom makes big stews and has them around forever. On the third or fifth day she's always tired of them but I simply LOVE not having to make something new. Leftovers are the best. Time for me to learn to cook enough for leftovers!
ReplyDeleteWe eat all our leftovers, and if we don't get through them all in time, then the dog gets them. Nothing goes to waste.
ReplyDeleteI have a friend at work who refuses to eat anything the day after it's been opened/cooked. It's crazy.
I don't get that whole "can't eat day old food" thing. That's just nuts. My parents always cooked on the weekend, and then we used those meals throughout the week. They still do that now. Cook few different dishes on the weekend, and then eat them during the week. They think it's crazy to cook everything new each night after work. Who has the time and energy?
ReplyDeleteI also try to cook something that will last for few days, or can be used to create a different meal. I love taking leftovers to work for lunch. I would not be able to afford buying lunch at work, and my food's better anyway! :)
OMG! Food waste is one of my biggest pet peeves. I cringe/cry whenever I witness it. I've been meaning to post about it on my blog for awhile, but I feel so strongly about it, I don't think I'll be able to stop myself from some serious, hardcore finger wagging at evil, evil, food wasters!!
ReplyDelete;)
Okay, if you've eaten the same thing to use it up two or three times in a row and can't stand it anymore, Ican understand that.
ReplyDeleteBut not eating any leftovers at all, is beyond my comprehension.
Even restaurants give you leftovers to take home, which most people I know do when we eat out anymore.
I suspect there are a lot of soon to be leftover-eaters and their numbers will increase.
cheers to all,
Shamba
This blog is reading my mind today. I have a husband who hates leftovers with a passion. I grew up next to my father at a restaurant stove and cooking two portions only, not in my DNA. Most frugal meals require ingredients that benefit from a slow braise and make more than two portions. With this cold weather, soup, stew and casseroles are good eating.
ReplyDeleteI just started checking out frugal living blogs since I was downsized last week. Things are gonna change around here and spendthrift housemate is going to be kicking, screaming and going without his supper if he doesn't like the new frugal lifestyle. Yeah, I'm mean too. His habit of buying lunch is going to be a thing of the past too. Perfectly good French onion soup was sitting in individual portions in the frig and was not taken to work today. Not cool! I on the other hand had a delicious lunch.
It's less labor to cook a lot at once and do one big clean up. I am going to start with a variation of once a month cooking and do all my cooking for a week on the weekend and eat well off the largess for the rest of the week. Hopefully, I can plan some meals where I eat half/freeze half and get some frozen dividends and days off from the drudgery.
I loves me some leftovers! Especially casseroles. I always pack leftovers in my lunch. Leftovers rule!
ReplyDeleteOooh, I do think you're kinda mean.
ReplyDeleteI don't like leftovers ... but I don't hate all leftovers. If I didn't love the meal the first time ... well ... I am not motivated to keep getting it out of the fridge again and again to have some more. You all make it sound like that makes me a crazy-picky eater! But if it's something I like, I'll happily eat it for dinner the first time and for lunch all week. The only issue at our house is that my husband likes one kind of food (complicated multi-spicy stuff) and I like another (plainer food that I can doll up the way I like with spices, cheese or whatever). When he hasn't been eating leftovers like he usually does, we can get an overload of "his" food in the fridge because I'm really not into it. But in that case, we try to catch it and freeze it so he can eat it for lunch later when the overload subsides.
Viv - I started with a smaller grill, which I still have. I hear they're popular among college students, too.
ReplyDeletecatseatsocks - sometimes cooking for two is a challenge, too. For instance, I always overcook at Thanksgiving. But, we manage to eat all the leftovers one way or another.
DGorr - yum, that does sound good!
Stephanie - we get tired after several days, too. That's when it goes in the freezer! We've saved a lot of money that way - instead of getting take-out after a long day out and about, we just pull leftovers out of the freezer.
Livingmyrichlife - our current dog doesn't really like people food. I've never encountered that before, but I can't persuade her to even clean up food I've dropped on the floor. ;-)
Scifichick - "my food's better". Yep, we feel the same way!
Amber - let the finger-wagging begin. LOL
Actually, I think some people just don't know what to do with leftovers, like changing them up or freezing them. The more ideas we can share to help people expand their options, the better.
Shamba - I think you're absolutely right. As the economy gets worse, options shrink and the unthinkable becomes necessary. I'm sure very little food was wasted during the last Depression.
Anonymous - it sounds like you have some good plans. I hope your husband will get on board quickly. Luckily mine is very flexible. If there are no leftovers handy, he just cooks rice before work and takes it with BBQ sauce on it. Oh darn! That just reminded me I need to bake some bread for him to take as his afternoon snack (so he doesn't buy the crappy bagels at work).
Rob - leftovers rule!
Cheap like me - it's challenging when a couple has different taste in food. In that case, each person needs to be responsible for their own leftovers. If he's not eating his and you really don't like his food, freeze it or try to get him to make less. One thing I started doing several years ago was packing my hubby's lunch for him. By doing this, I knew the leftovers would go with him and be eaten, and I knew he's be eating good, healthy food.
No such thing as leftovers, just food that was cooked in advance. I think of them as "planned aheads" instead. Sheesh, if it was good enough to eat the first time, it's worth having again! (and even again . . .)
ReplyDeleteGo Chile, Go! I am right there with you on the leftovers bandwagon. One additional option might be to compost - though that is kinda taking the easy way out instead of really eating and using the leftovers.
ReplyDeleteMy boyfriend and I fight a smidge on this because he refuses to eat leftovers!! :)
Anna - you touched on a good point: "if it was good enough to eat the first time..." I try to remember not to cook a huge amount when trying a new recipe I'm unsure about. It's no fun eating leftovers of something that was not very good the first time.
ReplyDeleteErikka - while compost is better than the trash, getting the nutrition out of the food is better. We try not to compost edible stuff.
And regarding not eating leftovers - well, let's just say my sweetie knows how to use the rice cooker. He can make his own food if he doesn't like leftovers of what I made. That or go to McDonald's. GAG! (But that's our running joke. "Don't like it? Go to McDonald's.")
Okay, I cleaned out my fridge today, and I got rid of a ton of food that couldn't be eaten, but from this point on, I'm striving to be a lot more careful! This post has really made me think about how much I'm wasting, especially since our grocery budget has gone down to about $250 a month (for 4 people). I truly feel bad about the stuff that had to go, but I will take your admonishment to heart and work on it!
ReplyDeleteAnd yes, my husband does have an iron stomach. He comes from a family that thinks it's okay to leave meat (cooked) sitting out and eat it the next day, though I forbid the habit in my home, of course.
Abby
I don't understand how a person even thinks about not liking leftovers.
ReplyDeleteI grew up eating them and it has never occurred to me to NOT eat them because my mom always cooked enough food that there would be leftovers so she didn't have to cook dinner or lunch every single day from scratch.
About fifty percent of the food I eat qualifies as leftovers and I'd say that a lot of dishes IMPROVE by the next day.
I've heard people say this before and I'm afraid I give them lots of shit about it.
I don't get it either; how can people drink the same beverage with every single meal but not be willing to eat the same food? But two of the people I occasionally cook for won't have even the same protein source or "nationality" of food on consecutive days!
ReplyDeleteI'm always tempted to offer them my grandmother's options for picky eaters: air pudding and wind pie.
DSF
http://bokashislope.blogspot.com
small-batch compost for apartment-folks
You know what? I think I've been poisoned by my husband's bad habits! My family used to eat the same meals every week, tuna casserole was a common dish in our house. Now, I like to experiment, and it's fun to try something new, but sometimes, I WANT to eat pasta every day, or have chicken with every meal, or whatever. But seriously, my husband would pitch a fit if I made the same thing three nights in a row--even if it was good. Something that I need to think about.
ReplyDeleteAbby
Angelina - you're right. Some dishes are better the next day. Unfortunately for my sweetie, some chile dishes are hotter. LOL
ReplyDeleteD.S.Foxx - interesting observation about the drinks versus food!
Abby - Sometimes you need to start with a good cleanout. To deal with the variety your hubby wants, it sounds like the freezer would be a useful tool.