DH works from home and eats leftovers for lunch. If we have leftovers for dinner I usually make something new out of the leftovers, an example if I roast a chicken I turn the leftovers into chicken pot pie or fried rice. I usually make something new every night.
I'm pretty good at gauging how much to cook for the 2 us because neither of us is the biggest fan of leftovers with a couple of exceptions. When there is a little bit left over I will usually eat it for lunch the next day. When I buy a london broil for example I usually cut it in thirds and freeze 2. When I buy a pack of chicken I cut it how we need to use it for different recipes and freeze in the amounts I know work for us. So we rarely have much leftover. When I used to cook bigger quantities the leftovers would often just hang out in the fridge and rarely got eaten so we would end up throwing things out. For us it makes sense to just cook the amount we will eat.
So, I don't eat leftovers at all (never have, even as a child) and my husband will only take leftovers the next day only for lunch if he is working. However, I do batch cook certain meals - such as meatballs and sauce, mac and cheese, stuffed shells or alfredo rollups, and many sides - garlic bread(I make my own bread each week and we use it throughout the week), twice baked potatoes, etc. When I have those on my menu plan, I make my standard recipe and halve it to freeze for another busy weeknight. I generally know how much we will eat, depending on the meal and I stop the preparation at the appropriate point in my batch cooking process. For example, this weekend I made chicken alfredo lasagna roll ups - I stopped at the point where there were prepared and rolled, but did not top them with the alfredo sauce because it is cream based and doesn't freeze well. So when I am ready to make that meal again, I just defrost it and finish it with fresh alfredo sauce, mozzarella and bake it. The other pan, I completely prepared and baked - making enough for dinner for three of us (our son is especially picky and doesn't always eat the same thing as us) and a serving extra for my husband's lunch the next day. As teachers, with conferences and meetings after school, this method of batch cooking has been a huge time saver over the years, as well as really minimizing wasted food. I do cook something different every night, and a few times a week I also make a separate meal for our son if he is not eating what we are having. I also really enjoy cooking and baking so I don't mind at all - it's my relaxation after a full day of teaching 5th graders!
I'm not sure you read my post. I'm not freezing something I've cooked. Quite the opposite. I freeze raw meat in the amounts we use. We've established from previous posts you have weird throwing out rules regarding food. Which is fine....your house your rules. I use things within 6-9 months from frozen usually and have no problems. My bread lasts at least 2 weeks in the fridge and I never have to freeze it. I don't freeze cooked food either just because I make what we eat with maybe a bit left over that gets used for lunch the next day as I explained. I do freeze the components to make meals. So for example, I buy 3 lbs of onions at aldi and cook them that day until browned. Then I separate into single servings (DH eats them, I don't) and freeze. When he's having a burger or brats or sausage and peppers he pops one bag into the skillet to heat through. I'm really not trying to be rude but you have some very strange ideas around food storage so it's not really going to be helpful for me to make suggestions. I made a london broil yesterday for my DH and my parents that I froze 3 months ago. It was perfectly fine. No one can convince you of this.
I truly didn't mean it in an attacking way. I just know you have your thoughts which is fine. But I saute a bulk amount of onions and peppers (separately) all the time and freeze in single servings because like your wife I don't really eat many fruits or veggies. It works great. No worries about tagging my post. We shop once a week at well but spend about $60-70.
Most of our leftovers are eaten for lunch. A lot of times I cook two things at the same time and stick one in the fridge or the freezer for another night, so I cook one night for two (or even three) different meals. Like many of the other posters, I try to cook only what we are likely to eat for that meal, and I've learned how to prep meals to the point that they will hold well in the fridge/freezer, then finish with a few steps (adding the fresh veggies, sauces etc. the night I'm serving).
I regularly eat or re-incorporate leftovers so that by Monday or Tuesday it’s time to clean the mostly empty fridge. I also cook a lot of make ahead meals so they can be portioned and frozen. This is particularly good as basically I’m a solo house resident now.
When I make extra we have the leftovers the next day for lunch or dinner.
