Eating or Not Eating Leftovers

[captainjen]

I was wondering about those of you who do not eat left overs. Since I am a doggy bagger and never throw away any food unless it has gone bad, I was wondering how you decide what to throw away. Do you only order very small amounts of take out or restaurant meals. Do you cook every day just enough for one small meal? If you have really great Chinese take out food but have some left over, would you not be dying to have it for lunch the next day? Do you throw out the food because you are afraid you may get sick or does the thought of reheating something just kill your appetite? No flaming here, just curious about how other people do things

 

[cjbcam]

I usually make only enough that I think my family will eat. If there is left overs it depends how much. My oldest kid or DH will take it for warm ups at school/work. Or the dog gets it. If there happens to be enough for the next night (which hardly ever happens because there is six of us) we will eat it the next night. That usually only happens when we order out. I am pretty good at guessing how much each person will eat so there is usually not much left.

 

[GaSleepingBeautyFan]

We don't have leftovers usually. My husband will eat and eat and eat until the food is all gone.

So now I cook in very moderate amounts. One time I got fajitas at Chili's and only ate half and expected to have the rest for my lunch the next day.
Nope - my husband ate it after I went to bed.

We don't order things like Chinese takeout - no place delivers Chinese where I live so I just learned to cook my own for the most part.
We do have a couple of pizza places who deliver but it's pretty expensive so I only order enough for the meal when we do it.

We did have leftovers after Thanksgiving but after a day of eating those no one wanted more so I threw it out. It wasn't too much - maybe one more meals worth.

Sometimes I wish I could cook for several days at a time like I saw on several cooking shows but that just wouldn't work at my house.

 

[Ephany]

I rarely eat leftovers, but I have a DH, a DD and 2 dogs who are more than willing to help. Both DH and DD are pretty good about making sure that it's fair game before digging in if it's leftovers from going out. DH does the majority of the cooking, so if it's something he likes, he makes plenty so he'll have lunch for the next day or two. If they're gone, I usually only make soup and sandwiches or simple meals that I can cook for one.

 

[crazelion]

I have two tweens 11 year olds and 8 year old. There is no leftovers at all. But we do eat leftovers if there some left.

I cook in the fall and winter all the time. The summer is a lot take and quick and easy meals.

 

[KKB]

We LOVE leftovers--if it is worth making or buying, it should be so good we are fighting over who gets the leftovers!!
I very very rarely toss any out. I make a point to let everyone know what needs to be eaten (if it has been there a couple days) & typically it is gone. After a week or so if one of us doesn't eat it I will toss.

 

[DVC California]

It depends what's leftover and if they actually are any good the next day. Certain foods like lasagna, stew, chili, etc, get better the next day.

Some foods aren't good when reheated in a microwave. I feel most most fried food gets soggy when nuked; losing a lot of the texture and taste. (I'll eat fried chicken cold rather than microwave).

We generally only cook enough for one meal, unless it's something that we really enjoy or you have to make a large quantity (again lasagna, stew, chili, etc).

My two cents, Steve

 

[Sadie22]

Our toaster oven does a good job of reheating takeout pizza, fries, chicken, and other items which need to be crispy.

I cook in batches and freeze in meal-size portions. If there are any leftovers after meals, they're eaten the next day.

Almost everyone has at a least a freezer compartment if not a separate freezer, and it's easy to wrap or package leftovers for the freezer if they cannot be consumed quickly.

 

[disykat]

We sometimes fight over the leftovers for our lunches at work the next day. I also like to make double meat to use in another meal to save cooking time.

I've even been known to save little dabs of things to make soup. Right now I have leftover chicken broth and about 1/2 cup of leftover green enchilada sauce in my freezer. I plan on using leftovers from chicken later this week and making tortilla soup. I may stick leftovers veggies from this week in there too.
I end up with lots of little containers of miscellaneous stuff, but can't seem to toss it out.

Amazingly, when I do that everyone raves about it and wants it again.

That said, I'm particular about how long I will allow things to be eaten out of the fridge and out of the freezer. I worry about food safety.

 

[Shelly F - Ohio]

I always make enough for leftovers. That way if I have a crazy day I know that dinner will be a breeze. I have beef stroganoff in the crockpot right now and I have made enough for two nights of leftovers.

 

[LuvOrlando]

I usualy make sure stuff is either eaten or used up within 3-5 days. Bones, meats & veggies end up in quiche, soup or mixed with cubed potato & onion soup mix, one of the McCormick packets or into a pasta dish (spaghetti pie is a catch all). For a very long time I had a separate entree every night but the leftovers would get ahead of me & then I felt wasteful. I found that there's a quiche or almost everything & if I leave it on the counter on a Saturday afternoon it will be gone by evening.

If for some reason I miss something, five days is usually the cut off but that rarely hsppens because i usually do a sweep on Wednesdsys & slide stuff I don't think I'll be using by Friday into the freezer to get a few more days to figure out a way to make it an ingredient to something else

 

[Jedana]

I was wondering about those of you who do not eat left overs. Since I am a doggy bagger and never throw away any food unless it has gone bad, I was wondering how you decide what to throw away. Do you only order very small amounts of take out or restaurant meals. Do you cook every day just enough for one small meal? If you have really great Chinese take out food but have some left over, would you not be dying to have it for lunch the next day? Do you throw out the food because you are afraid you may get sick or does the thought of reheating something just kill your appetite? No flaming here, just curious about how other people do things

As I am usually the one stuck eating the leftovers (for lunch), I am a bit picky about what I eat. I don't like leftover pasta without sauce, but reheating pasta is tricky---if it's mushy, it's not getting eaten---so it's a bit of a crap shoot. (Lasagna---I'll eat that cold if it's good!) I don't like leftover french fries (but I'll eat fried/baked/mashed potatoes).

And if it's something I don't like in general---like mushrooms---it won't even be looked at as a possible meal.

I love leftover Chinese food!
I like leftover white rice, heated with milk, sugar, cinnamon and nutmeg!

 

[hsmamato2]

We don't have leftovers usually. My husband will eat and eat and eat until the food is all gone.

my life.... and he is so thin!!! anyway.... one of my kids loves leftovers, eats them every day for breakfast. So whatever I cook, I make sure to have extras for the fridge. Anything that doesn't get touched over a few days, we have a 'buffet night' and I pull it all out and serve. Or even better, I recreate the food into a casserole with a bunch of cheese added, and my guys eat every bit. (I don't eat it,as I don't eat dairy or most of the stuff they eat) but I will usually keep a portion on the side for myself...what I'm saying is I hate wasting food, so yes, we eat leftovers from wherever,whenever.And if yummy restaurant stuff is left in the fridge, it's fair game,so best to eat it quickly!

 

[captainjen]

Love all of your replies. I think it is a riot that those who have pets like to treat their dogs to some of the left overs.

 

[kymom99]

My husband has gotten very good about eating left overs for lunch. he used to be a snob about it, but now he realizes it helps us save money. He will even sometimes buy 2 chinese entres just to have left overs for another day. I like to make extra baked potatoes to have for lunch or another dinner. If I am heating up the oven, may as well make a few extra. We are always happy when their are left overs and we don't have to eat canned soups, etc. i rarely buy them anymore.

 

[NeverlandClub23]

My husband will not eat leftovers. Usually, when my husband doesn't eat everything I cook for dinner, the next night he'll ask what's for dinner. I'll say, "I hadn't planned on making anything since we had a ton of leftovers". And then he suggests Chicfila. Our local Chicfila knows us by name... We go out to eat a lot now since I am over planning meals, buying the groceries, cooking them, and cleaning up after only to throw half of it away.

I don't mind eating leftovers for lunch the next day, but with just the two of us eating and if it's something my husband didn't love, I'm over eating it by day 2 and our freezer is not very big.

Our dogs, much to their dismay, do not get to partake in our thrown away leftovers.

 

[yoopermom]

I'm one of the guilty ones who really doesn't like leftovers.

DH is very good about eating them up for at least one day (maybe two).

Whatever's left on the weekend that's more than 3 days old gets split between the doggies (as long as it's not spicy). They deserve a treat, too!

Terri

 

[AquaDame]

I *need* leftovers for sanity in most cases, but there are times I don't want any. Some things just don't heat up well so I'll half a recipe, or when we go out to eat we'll make sure we only order enough food for it all to be eaten (or little enough left that its not worth bringing home). If we won't get through something quickly enough like the huge pot of chili my husband made last night I'll scoop enough for our lunches the next day and freeze the rest for later (recipes that don't freeze well we'll either suffer through the same thing 4 days in a row or half it/choose something else to make!)

We have two freezers - a full size stand up in the garage and the half freezer on our fridge... as long as we don't lose power for more than 48 hours at a time and fresh veggies don't count I think I have enough to feed us for half a year at this point, lol!

 

[worm761]

I cook with the intention of leftovers. We eat them for lunches. And I sometimes eat them for breakfast since I am not a huge fan of breakfast foods. There are some things that don't reheat well, like pork chops, that I only cook enough for the meal. I usually have leftovers in the fridge. I freeze lunch portions after 2 days. If it is still there on day 3 then that means everyone is tired of eating it.

 

[CAFarmerGirl]

I usually cook extra so we have lunch fo the next day or 2. We also wrap up the week with "fend for yourself Friday's", so leftovers will get eaten then, too.

Any other leftovers get fed to the pigs (when we have them) or to the chickens. The dogs get any extra meat product if it somehow gets lost in the fridge for more than a week.

This way, I don't feel guilty about tossing any leftover food.

I cannot imagine my lunches without leftovers on most days! However, I must disagree with Chinese takeout reheated the next day. Ew! Lol. Of course, I don't really like it to begin with, so that may be why the thought repulses me.