Leftovers (food)?

[ExFlyBoy5]

This thread started to go off topic and I thought it was an interesting discussion point.

So, leftovers. Do you love 'em? Hate 'em? Don't do 'em?

For us, we eat just about all of them. Often a night's meal will also serve as the next day's lunch. We also will cook up some large quantities (such as chicken and dumplings) that we will eat on for a few days as well as have quite a bit frozen. We also use an Insta-Pot to cook up some meals that also serve great leftovers. Thankfully, both DW and enjoy them, so there is very little wasted food in our home.

 

[aja8888]

Today, spaghetti and meatballs @ day three.

Two weeks ago I made Texas chili (8 quarts). Still have two quarts left. That's next on the menu (currently frozen).

Yep, I do the cooking as DW is handicapped and has trouble managing the kitchen. And I am not fond of cooking, hence the menu includes dishes that have staying and repeating power.

Saturday nights are generally Mexican at a local spot with DD and her husband. We take home what is not eaten and it's generally reheated on Sunday or Monday.

I have no qualms about our thrifty lifestyle as we both were poor at one time.

 

[ExFlyBoy5]

Chili is another GREAT leftover food. We haven't made a big batch in a while but there is plenty of freezer space so might need to get on that!

 

[Montecfo]

Love them. allows us to cook larger meals and then not cook every day.

It is very costly if you are not eating them.

 

[euro]

Just like others, we tend to cook larger amounts and then do leftovers for several days and/or freeze parts of it. Much easier that way - I don't mind leftovers at all. We very rarely toss out any food.

 

[Pellice]

Love Leftovers! Just made some breaded turkey cutlets that I'll serve over egg noodles with spinach - should last the next 3 days. Gently reheated in my toaster oven in what I consider an absolute staple of leftover cooking - a 1 qt. covered pyrex glass baking dish. Will hold and reheat a complete meal for a single!

But leftovers are a necessity because of how I cook. I make my own lunches, dinners, and desserts. I can't keep that up every day, so, when I can, I'm staggering the cooking so that different tasks fall on different days. I made the turkey today, just as I finished up the last of a cream of asparagus soup I previously made for lunch (tossing in about 2 oz. of leftover chicken when I heated it up). I had even before that made a crumb coffeecake which I'll be eating for dessert for the next week or so. Tomorrow I have to make something else for lunch, and it's probably going to be butternut squash soup. That'll last probably until Sunday.

I do know other single cooks who refuse to eat leftovers. Their strategy is quick-cooking things like shrimp, chops, omelettes, chicken breasts, interspersed with a good deal of takeout

I own the ancient "Twice is Nice" cookbook. She actually cooked for a family, and one of her suggestions was to give fake geographic names to dishes - like Pork Macedoine, lol! Her Bombay turkey is another staple of mine.

 

[disneysteve]

I think there's a difference between "leftovers" and stuff cooked in bulk and frozen in small portions.


We make a few things in bulk on purpose like soup, meatballs, and chili. You can't just make 2 servings of chili very easily or 6 meatballs or 2 bowls of soup. You need to make a pot full.


Leftovers are exactly that, stuff left over after you've finished a meal, but not necessarily on purpose. We always have a couple of slices left over when we make our own pizza as I typically eat 4 slices and DW eats 2, leaving 2 extras which I'll have for lunch a day or two later. When we make pancakes or French toast, the batch always makes a few extra pieces that go in the freezer.


We almost always have leftovers from restaurant meals since portion sizes are ridiculously large. One entree easily makes 2-3 meals.


There are a few things that just don't reheat all that well but we'll try our best to use everything. Sometimes the best way is to repurpose the food. For example, if I get a chicken cheese steak and eat half when I get it, I'll take the meat off the roll from the other half and put that in the fridge. I'll then use that meat later as a pizza topping or with pasta or something.

 

[easysurfer]

Love them. Pair the leftover with a good vacuum sealer and they are like a healthier TV dinner. Easy to prepare yet not full of preservatives.

 

[statsman]

Chili is another GREAT leftover food. We haven't made a big batch in a while but there is plenty of freezer space so might need to get on that!

We love chili, but we have always failed to make a decent batch. The spicing just doesn't come out right.

 

[W2R]

We eat out at restaurants a lot, or else get restaurant food to go. The reason for this is that after 23 years of marriage to my late ex-husband, and cooking for the family every day, I don't like cooking anymore. Well, I have no problem with making sandwiches or canned soup but for me, cooking anything more complex than that is excruciatingly boring. YMMV and I know it does for almost everyone on this forum.

On most days we have delicious leftovers from our restaurant lunch.

We almost always have leftovers from restaurant meals since portion sizes are ridiculously large.

As disneysteve pointed out, serving sizes are way too big at restaurants. We eat the leftovers for dinner, or sometimes as a late night snack, and/or the next day's lunch, and we love them.

If there are no leftovers, then we resort to soup or sandwiches for supper. But the older we get, the more leftovers we have since we just don't eat as much as we did when younger.

 

[mpeirce]

I love leftovers for lunch.

Pot roast works well for this, also most cuts of meat (usually sliced cold).

When I smoke brisket or pork butt I usually have plenty of leftovers for both dinner and lunch. Double win.

 

[Qs Laptop]

I think there's a difference between "leftovers" and stuff cooked in bulk and frozen in small portions.

^^ This ^^

Unless we're making a batch of chili, pulled pork, or soup, DW and I try to cook only what we will eat at each meal. We will not pack food into ourselves just to avoid leftovers. If there are leftovers, which to me means a couple spoonfuls of mashed potatoes or perhaps an ounce of meat, or a couple spoonfuls of vegetables, it gets tossed. I'm not going to eat it; she's not going to eat it.

She does have a habit of saving leftover pieces of frozen pizza and then not eating it. It's like a game for us. We use a frozen pizza as a base and add more pepperoni, more cheeses, more spices, etc. so it is palatable. We'll make an enhanced frozen pizza and there will be one piece leftover. She puts it in the fridge. Two days later I throw it away. It's a ritual.

 

[MichaelB]

Leftovers area a mainstay for us. DW doesn’t deliberately cook larger than needed portions, but many (most?) proteins are sold in amounts that are just more than we can eat at one setting. Leftovers probably provide 3/4 of our lunches and at least one full dinner per fortnight. We also enjoy a variety of dishes for a typical dinner, and this too leads to leftovers.

Some food tastes better the next day, spices are more pronounced and flavor stronger. Indian food, chili, and surprisingly, a beef tenderloin.

 

[Out-to-Lunch]

I cook dinner essentially every day. I use the leftovers for lunches. I generally serve a dish for lunch two days after we had it for dinner, so, say, Monday's dinner will make up the lion's share of Wednesday's lunch.

 

[njhowie]

Love 'em.

I do all the cooking and grocery shopping. My motto is "Waste not, want not". Leftovers get recycled into other meals. Either simply heated, or as ingredients to other meals.

Over time, as the price of groceries has escalated, it just makes even more sense. Why throw away good food? If it's not rotten, then it's still edible. Why throw away money?

 

[aja8888]

We love chili, but we have always failed to make a decent batch. The spicing just doesn't come out right.

After 30 years in Texas, I have gotten pretty good at making the stuff. I can post my recipe if you want. It's got a lot of ingredients and has a good following. Apparently, it's won a few contests, but not by me.

 

[CardsFan]

We have a dog. What are these things you call leftovers?

Seriously, I agree there is a difference between cooking in bulk (chili, soup, sugu, etc.) and true left overs where standard cooking proportions are more than the 2 of us want to eat at a sitting. Or you have cooked a large meal for a group

For the leftovers for 2, we save them for lunch or for a dog treat.

For the groups left overs, there is often plenty for several dinners for 2. One of my pet peeves is watching people throw this food away. For example, we went to Superbowl party. 2 deep fried turkeys among a lot of other good stuff. When the night was over, the turkey carcasses, along with the legs, wings and small pieces no one ate were tossed in the trash. That would have made 2-3 gallons of meaty soup.

 

[street]

Love em!!

 

[REWahoo]

We love chili, but we have always failed to make a decent batch. The spicing just doesn't come out right.

Give this chili mix a try: https://www.texasfood.com/Cin-Chili-Chili-Mix.html

By far the best tasting chili we've made at home but it's a bit too spicy for our taste so we only use about 2/3 packet at a time.

 

[statsman]

Give this chili mix a try: https://www.texasfood.com/Cin-Chili-Chili-Mix.html

By far the best tasting chili we've made at home but it's a bit too spicy for our taste so we only use about 2/3 packet at a time.

That looks good for a quick and easy chili. Right up our alley. Thanks.

 

[Aerides]

Leftover rice for fried rice (really just a stir fry style of rice, some shrimp or chicken, egg, veggies, a little soy sauce, a little sesame oil).

Never want to use fresh cooked rice for it, leftover day old rice is far better.

 

[ExFlyBoy5]

Never want to use fresh cooked rice for it, leftover day old rice is far better.

Oddly enough, I always thought that leftover pizza is better (or as good) than when it's fresh. Not sure why, though. We also make a Mexican dish that is pretty spicy, but the next day....the spicy is...WOW...but so good!

 

[daylatedollarshort]

I always try to make enough for leftovers so I don't have to cook so often. Every few days I'll make a big batch of soup, a large salad and a homemade dressing, plus some extras like steamed chicken, millet pilaf, steamed mixed veggies and watermelon slices.

Lunch today was leftover soup and a salad, plus salmon salad on rice cakes, sliced papaya and steamed vegetables.

 

[ElizabethT]

Yes, count on them as a break from cooking dinner on a nightly basis. I do oftentimes halve recipes as well, if I don't think the recipe will make for appealing leftovers.

My preferred approach is to reheat by oven, not microwave, which brings the food back very close to it's original, i.e., crispy or crunchy origins. Then a fresh salad or freshly prepared vegetables.

And I also freeze in small dinner-sized servings as appropriate.

I'm more willing to make gourmet-like, fancy meals if I know I only have to do so two - three times a week.

 

[Sue J]

I enjoy our leftovers. Often I'll have a nice assortment after cooking full meals for a few days. Then we have a leftover night and I may add a little something to make it more interesting. Sometimes that just generates more leftovers.

For some meals I make extra, like a batch of rice that gets used for a fried rice dish on another day. Or that last serving of pasta gets stretched into another something.

I also have a vacuum sealer so if there is a large amount left I pack it up for another meal down the road.

DH does the shopping and I've noticed that we aren't packing the refrigerator full anymore. He shops differently than me and it's a nice change.