T O P I C R E V I E W |
prairie_princess |
Posted - Mar 02 2010 : 4:35:14 PM i'm a HUGE fan of leftovers! i purposely make enough dinner to last 2-3 days and then maybe more for DH's lunch. I enjoy the days when i don't have to cook, but know i have a healthy, fast, homemade meal ready for me to heat up.
But I know many who hate leftovers, including my in-laws. so i was just curious... leftovers or no leftovers, that is the question. why or why not?
"Only two things that money can't buy, that's true love and homegrown tomatoes." - Guy Clark
"The man who has planted a garden feels he has done something for the good of the world." - Charles Dudley Warner |
25 L A T E S T R E P L I E S (Newest First) |
knittingmom |
Posted - Apr 14 2010 : 8:08:27 PM I like left overs for the next day's lunch and if there's enough I just create another dish. DH has an issue with leftovers though for some reason.
"There is no foot so small that it cannot leave an imprint on this world" |
sw80689 |
Posted - Apr 11 2010 : 1:24:06 PM Love leftovers! I cook in large quantities so we have left overs during the week when it is harder for me to cook dishes that take a while. I struggle to keep my grocery bill down so left overs helps me stretch the meals. Some dishes taste better the second time anyway! My mother would have a fit if she saw any of us wasting food, she grew up in the depression and always taught us to be very frugal with food and cooking. Blessings,
Sharon
*We are all angels with one wing, the only way to fly, therefore is to embrace one another* |
Rea231 |
Posted - Apr 08 2010 : 08:35:04 AM I take leftovers almost everyday to work...I save on an average of 4 to 7 dollars a day because I dont order out for lunch!
The art of teaching is the art of assisting discovery. |
natesgirl |
Posted - Apr 07 2010 : 04:35:44 AM I LIVE FOR LEFTOVERS!!!! I keep two large bowls in the freezer for them. One for that spoon or two of veggies and one for the 'bone pickins' my DH calls them. If we have broth or drippins from any meat it goes in a ziplock bag and gets put in the freezer as well. Gravy freezes nicely as well. Once a month I pull out all the broths, veggies, meat pieces and any brown gravy, throw them in a big pot and instant soup! My kids love fridays cause it's empty the fridge day. Everybody gets the non-soupable leftovers that had to go in the fridge. I also mix up three times what a recipe calls for and waxed paper line two pans to fill and freeze. You can pop the frozen uncooked meal out the next day and put it in a ziplock bag or wrap tightly and keep for weeks. My girls get to cook once a week out of the freezer and love it. You can also re-do most leftovers with a can of cream of mushroom soup and some shredded cheese into a whole new cassarole type dish. Try frying day old spaghetti that's soaked overnight in its sauce. Yummy!
God - Gardening - Family - Is anything else important? |
Annab |
Posted - Apr 07 2010 : 03:25:32 AM Leftovers for sure!
I don't but pre made meals so a huge portion or pan will last a week so I don't have to cook....especially in the summer when we'd all rather be outside.
And whenever we go out to eat, I always take home the uneaten. It's indeed a waste to not and always tastes better the day after. Also too, portion sizes are huge and I just can't eat like a teenager anymore. It's not worth the overstuffed/half sick feeling afterward. |
graciegreeneyes |
Posted - Apr 05 2010 : 08:06:11 AM The leftover ingredients part is where I run into trouble, and I hate wasting food. Now that we have chickens I can feed them the produce and bread products, and then we get eggs so that works out nicely. Otherwise I try my hardest to find recipes that use up things - I have a hard time with celery too. Amy Grace
Farmgirl #224 "use it up, wear it out, make it do, or do without"
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vintagejenta |
Posted - Apr 04 2010 : 1:15:15 PM I read somewhere that if you store celery wrapped in tinfoil in the crisper it lasts for a much longer time than if just in plastic.
I always like to throw celery in stir frys and cold soba noodle salad (with sesame oil, peanuts, green onions, and mandarin oranges - yum!), not to mention tuna or chicken salad.
I agree, though. It's hard to use up all that celery! Here are a couple links about using celery in other ways:
http://www.seriouseats.com/2007/04/celery-more-than-just-diet-far.html
http://recipes.chef2chef.net/recipe-archive/32/176192.shtml - for roasted celery
It just occured to me, but I guess there is such a thing as leftover ingredients, too! :)
--------- http://citygirlcountryfood.wordpress.com |
Nigella |
Posted - Mar 19 2010 : 11:20:48 AM I adore leftovers for luch or even breakfast the next day, but I tend to get burned out on them after that. My hubby hates them though! I've learned put enough in the fridge for me for the next day's luch and stash the rest in the freezer. A month later pull it out, reheat in the oven, serve, and hubby is none the wiser! ;)
"Opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work." ~Thomas Edison~ Sister #1213 |
beadbabe |
Posted - Mar 18 2010 : 07:58:38 AM Growing up in a family of 6, we rarely ever had leftovers. I learned to cook for 6, so when I struck out on my own, I had a hard time cooking just for me. I would have friends over a lot, and that helped, but I rarely threw food out. When I married, we were saving money to buy a house and leftovers became a necessity. For some reason, our daughter doesn't like them, I have tried calling them 'planned overs', but a rose by any other name, well,... you know! I have a freezer, and when I cook larger batches, they get frozen in single serve containers so my husband has a good home cooked meal for lunch.
Elizabeth, you bring up an interesing problem with certain foods that can be hard to use up. I have often used a recipe that calls for two stalks of celery. So what to do with the rest? No one here really likes eating it raw. I have begun to dehydrate any veggies that I know I won't be using before they spoil. I used to just put them in the compost, thinking that at least I wasn't 'really' throwing it out! But dehydrated foods can be stored in glass jars, or if you have a vacuum sealer for long term storage, and used later in soups.
Therese Farmgirl Sister #1217
If you ask me what I came into this world to do, I will tell you: I came to live out loud. ~Emile Zola |
prairie_princess |
Posted - Mar 16 2010 : 5:27:33 PM do you gals have certain foods you have trouble using all of? Celery has always been my food i have a hard time with... it gets to the point where i'll eat it, even though i'm not crazy about it, just so it gets used! but i try to come up with creative ways to eat it, like "ants on a log" (with peanut butter and raisins" or with cream cheese....
"Only two things that money can't buy, that's true love and homegrown tomatoes." - Guy Clark
"The man who has planted a garden feels he has done something for the good of the world." - Charles Dudley Warner |
phonelady |
Posted - Mar 16 2010 : 12:28:26 PM I understand exactly what you're saying Elizabeth, As a young person who lived on the edge of starving for a few years there, I don't take food for granted. And if I can't use it for another meal I don't cook it. We waste sooo much food here in the U.S. [I included when I started to be able to afford food]. Now I make an active choice to make sure food gets used. The next thing is to get my Dad to stop making gallons of some strange experimental food because he's sure I will take it home at the end of the evening. %*( Yuck! Carla
It's not just Life- It's an Adventure! |
vintagejenta |
Posted - Mar 14 2010 : 12:15:37 PM My boyfriend and I both work and I love to cook, but not always every single night of the week! So leftovers are great, especially since we both take our lunches to work! :)
This past winter I made a TON of soups, including stock with leftovers. But I agree that I can only deal with a day or two of leftovers (our tiny apartment fridge doesn't have a big enough freezer to freeze leftovers) is all I can handle! More than 3 days is too much!
--------- http://citygirlcountryfood.wordpress.com |
maggie14 |
Posted - Mar 11 2010 : 2:57:03 PM We love left overs in our house! Nothing ever goes to waste. :) Hugs, Channah
Farmgirl sister #1219
Friendship is not something that can be bought, it is earned. |
prairie_princess |
Posted - Mar 11 2010 : 11:00:18 AM wow, cari, thanks for sharing that information... very interesting! personally, i just don't understand wasting especially food... maybe it goes back to the "starving kids in China" thing. though my parents never used that line on me, it makes sense to me. i figure if the food is there and it's cooked, why waste it? food is a special commodity to me.... i figure there are plenty of people in the world who don't have it, so i should be so appreciative of every ounce of it i'm able to have... and that means leftovers.
"Only two things that money can't buy, that's true love and homegrown tomatoes." - Guy Clark
"The man who has planted a garden feels he has done something for the good of the world." - Charles Dudley Warner |
mrsamy |
Posted - Mar 11 2010 : 07:24:22 AM My family (because of my DH's leading) doesn't care for leftovers and I hate the ensuing battle. So...MY leftovers go in the freezer, not the fridge. When they come back a week or two later they're not leftover anymore, they're new to you! I'm with Belle, lots of my meals are ABC, Already Been Cooked (I love that term and am going to adopt it for sure!).
Amy
Prayer costs nothing, but is worth the most. |
Lainey |
Posted - Mar 11 2010 : 07:16:26 AM Some foods we will have leftovers such as roast, chili, or soups. I actually think chili and soups taste better the second or third day. As for other food usually we just make enough for the one meal. My mother didn't like leftovers so as a child growing up we never had leftovers, she usually just made enough for one meal. With the exception being roast for soup and such.
Farmgirl Sister #25
http://countrygirldreams.blogspot.com/
An Angel says, 'Never borrow from the future. If you worry about what may happen tomorrow and it doesn't happen, you have worried in vain. Even if it does happen, you have to worry twice.' |
Singing Tree Farm |
Posted - Mar 11 2010 : 06:26:03 AM I think leftovers are great, too. Because my husband is on third shift, his eating habits are all messed up. He has breakfast at about 6:00 in the evening, and leaves for work by 9. If I don't send him leftovers all he would ever eat would be breakfast and a sandwich. Because I homeschool, it's great to have leftovers for lunch. Having said that, my DS 13 is eating like a horse and there aren't too many leftovers.![](icons/icon_smile.gif)
Also, Countryside Mag did a book review of JD Belanger's The Complete Idiot's Guide to Self-Sufficient Living, he say's "If we all quit discarding food that we could eat, the impact on atmospheric CO2 would be the same as taking one of every five cars off the road." That's huge.
All of creation sings Your praise! |
AliciaNak |
Posted - Mar 10 2010 : 10:41:18 AM I love leftovers. Hubby takes it for lunch. Paul (my youngest) and I eat it at home for lunch. I love the nights I don't have to think and defrost stuff for dinner, just reheat from the fridge. With three growing boys I don't imagine I'll have much leftovers in a few years. I'm having to get used to making big meals, my 8 year old is already eating like a teen! Some things are just better after a day or two in the fridge. Chili, Western Mac, Roni (one of my grammie's recipes). The flavors get a better chance to blend. We have a few friends that send us home with the leftovers when we have dinner with em. They know it will get eaten here, whereas they are more likely to throw it out.
Alicia
Do not follow where the path may lead. Go instead where there is no path and leave a trail.~Ralph Waldo Emmerson
www.blondenak.blogspot.com www.artfire.com/users/BlondeNakCreations |
delicia |
Posted - Mar 07 2010 : 3:01:41 PM Not a fan of the leftover. Not sure why. We never really had them as a kid and I usually do not have them now. My husband on the other hand will eat or at least store in the fridge food but, I end up throwing most of it away. D |
JoyIowa |
Posted - Mar 07 2010 : 2:35:48 PM Ditto for me! I have even gotten the rep of being the stock lady! (A name one of my friend's kids calls me.) If the host is a good friend and I know we are having turkey or chicken, I bring along the "stuff" to add to the carcass to make good stock. Then I suggest we put on the pot of stock to simmer while we play games or just sit and visit. If not, I just take it home and invite them over for soup some night made from "their" carcass! Faces are surprised!
Joy
If it's not illegal, unsafe, or immoral, why not try anything once? Who knows? You may come back for a second helping! |
mellaisbella |
Posted - Mar 06 2010 : 3:36:56 PM I'm all for leftovers...with in a certain amount. i wouldn't want to be eating the same thing four days in a row LOL!!
"we must be the change we wish to see in the world" farmgal #150 |
Bellepepper |
Posted - Mar 06 2010 : 2:23:25 PM I don't call cooking ahead as being left overs. I call them PLO's. "Planned Left overs". Roast beef especially. Big Roast = Hash, beef stew, beef salad sandwiches, beef and noodles. Having beef and noodles for supper tonight. I save all juices and or gravy for the PLO's. Mashed potatoes = potato cakes, potato salad, shepherd pie. I never cook less than 2 pounds of hamburger, goulosh, pizza, lots of different soup.
My menu schelule has every 10 days, ABC food. Already Been Cooked. The meal is planned around something from the freezer or fridge that has "already been cooked".
Belle |
LakeOntarioFarmgirl |
Posted - Mar 06 2010 : 04:11:19 AM I love leftovers too!!! Although if it is a meal I made specifically for husband or daughter and something I don't care for I won't eat them. Husband will usually eat all the leftovers I give him. If not, my 2 year old, Golden Retriever, Bear, who is still too skinny in my opinion, will eat anything I give him!! :)Well, there are a few things that I won't give him, but for the most part, he gets it rather than the garbage can!
Brenda FarmGirl # 711
Nothing we achieve in this world is achieved alone. It is always achieved with others teaching us along the way. Lee J. Colan
http://theviewfromhere-brenda.blogspot.com/ |
schoolmama |
Posted - Mar 05 2010 : 9:34:36 PM I love leftovers, because I have a large family (and homeschool my kids) and I can easily reheat them for lunch the next day.
But truthfully, unless I triple a recipe, I rarely have leftovers. Dh takes two "meals' to work with him since he works 12 hour shifts. And now that I have two teens,and a 10 yr. old that eats like a teen- we usually don't have enough left. |
flfycookie |
Posted - Mar 05 2010 : 5:06:06 PM Love leftovers, mother in law lives with us and she said she hates leftovers, always had them when she and my father in law lived alone, never through anything away, now its a different story, she doesn't buy the food, nor cook it, so she eats whatever I put on the table, leftover turkey becomes several things, pot pie, soup, casserole, creamed turkey on toast, pork into stir fry, beef into pot pie, soup, bbq, anything, just use imagination. Love to cook and have leftovers especially grilled meats and veggies. Saves a lot of time as I work full time for Whole Foods Market. |
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