Please settle an argument....Do most families

[soccerdad72]

Thank you. Assuming I can ever get my lazy behind motivated in the kitchen again I may give this a try. This sounds mostly like what I tried before, maybe leftover mashed is my answer. My daughter would be thrilled!

They can be made with potato flakes as well - my mom buys a box of instant mashed potatoes for only that reason, but when she's making a batch of gnocchi, it's a HUGE batch that takes her most of the day. She'll fill her freezer with 10-12 bags of them (and then her kids come to visit and steal them all )

 

[cabanafrau]

I eat leftovers but some things don't do well leftover. I made a great chicken dish last week. Chicken, cream, cheese and spinach. It was really good that night. The next day I took some for lunch, the microwave just seemed to change the texture. That night, there was still a little left and I heated it up in the oven. It was "ok" then but still not as good as it was.

If I'm doing the reheating at home there are a lot of things I put in one of my stoneware pieces to put in the oven and it's like serving them freshly made again. Leftover pizza gets kind of yucky IMO in the microwave. Pop it on a stone and warm it in the oven and it's pretty darned good.

 

[aprilgail]

Always, I am in the camp of some things taste better the next day.
I guess I don't get why people 'refuse' to eat leftovers. They should still taste as good as originally cooked. If not, why not if prepared well?
I also don't mind eating the same things a few days in a row.
No bad intent, just asking.

I would eat limited things of leftovers but not a whole meal- never ever leftover chicken or turkey- they always taste "gamey" to me when they are reheated in any way and gross. I would eat leftover asparagus, corn and mashed potato and a few other veggies and leftover spaghetti which gets fried up the next day- we don't eat any other type of meat or fish ever so never any of that is cooked in my house. Other than that I can't think of a leftover I would really want to eat. Even when we buy turkey/chicken cold cuts we only use them that day and the next-after that I don't like how they taste/feel. When we go to The Melting Pot restaurant my daughter always brings home her leftovers which are an entire meal for her and she will have that the next day, but never leftovers from anyplace else.

 

[Wishing on a star]

Yes, we do leftovers!
I am not sure how or why the would such an aversion to leftovers?

it depends on what the food is... some things are just as good later, and some are not.

 

[cabanafrau]

They can be made with potato flakes as well - my mom buys a box of instant mashed potatoes for only that reason, but when she's making a batch of gnocchi, it's a HUGE batch that takes her most of the day. She'll fill her freezer with 10-12 bags of them (and then her kids come to visit and steal them all )

My daughters got in the habit of raiding my freezer when they would come home from college. I started making some stuff for their freezers and next thing I knew they were home and rooting around in there for some of the larger portions I had for family meals so they could have friends over too.

We just had a Super Bowl party with a kind of unusual Polish centric menu that was initially requested by a couple friends because they were wanting stuffed cabbage that ended up turning into a bunch of people who came up with the idea of taking some home for their freezers. Turned into an exhausting Friday night, Saturday and Sunday of cooking with ovens at 3 houses going & 2 portable roaster ovens to cook it all. I lost track after 25-ish pounds of meat. It was fun because so many of us did all the prepping together, but exhausting being involved in every day of the cooking -- and being a fly by the seat of my pants cook at best, yet being the one kind of directing the who process.

 

[disneychrista]

With the exception of soup and lasagna I try to only make enough for that meal. Not always easy when cooking for one. Most food imo doesn’t do well reheated (microwave).

 

[firefly_ris]

Toaster oven FTW.

 

[AndreaDM]

Leftover mashed potatoes mixed with green onion and shaped into patties and pan fried, yum! Was my favourite as a child and I always begged my mom to make extra mashed potatoes so I could make these patties for breakfast the next day. Served with ketchup of course.

Me too, minus the ketchup! We kids LOVED fried potato cakes, haven't had them in many years.

 

[John VN]

We do. I actually enjoy most leftovers, although there are a few things that I will not eat reheated, like mashed potatoes.

Sounds fabulous. I tried gnocchi once years ago (not with leftover mashed) and it was a flop. I'd appreciate any tips you might have. Gnocchi is a favorite of one of my daughters and I could look like a hero if I could pull that off.

Gnocchi is too much work ---

I would also heat some butter in a pan, add left over mashed potatoes and flatten out, heat to crispy and before flipping over add a little butter to top side, flip and crisp, break up with spatula as it finishes heating. Salt/pepper if desired, some cold ketchup, or not. Maybe 2 or 3 minutes cooking time. If gravy was left from a roast or turkey, I might warm and pour over.

The crisp makes the leftover great.

 

[dotfurio]

We usually don't have leftovers. Most of our recipes feed 4 and there's 4 of us. If it's something only DH and I will eat we either cut the recipe in half or intentionally plan for half the recipe to be used as leftovers the next day for lunch or dinner.

The only time we seem to have a lot of leftover food is after big holiday meals.

ETA when we first married DH refused to eat leftovers. I finally got him on board and then we turned into a family of 4 eating meals lol

 

[slpeters]

We have a few things we make that we will have multiple times. When I make lasagna I make a full 9X13 pan despite the fact that there are only two of us. Very occasionally we'll make a big pot of soup or chowder. But most of the time we cook for two and there aren't left overs. Sometimes if there are we don't even store them because we know we won't eat it. Occasionally we will make more of a meal component to use in something else--if we make tacos we'll make extra meat and use it for nachos another night, but I don't really consider it leftovers if you fashion a different meal out of it. Generally we're not a leftover household.

 

[marcyleecorgan]

Yes. It's called meal prep. There's always something going on...

 

[BLAZEY]

Yes and I freeze them in single serve containers to take for lunches as I have a full kitchen at work. I LOVE leftovers. some thing taste even better the next day! I use extra veggies/mashed potatoes to make Shepard's pie. DD9 has 2 thermos's that she takes hot lunch in nearly everyday. Sandwiches are not a family favourite and she can't take peanut butter ones which she will eat.

 

[usnuzuloose]

I have left overs. I love them. They have more time to merry together and taste even better. Right now I have rice, potatoes, chicken, hamburger so I can make a bunch of stuff. I think most people do have left overs.

 

[DLgal]

I don't purposely make too much food, but it happens sometimes, especially when I make soup or a batch of tomato sauce. I usually freeze those leftovers, though.

I also have a rule that leftovers need to be eaten by the next day, or else they get thrown out. Some people keep leftovers WAY too long, when in reality, cooked food should be consumed within 48 hours, especially pasta dishes and anything with meat.

 

[marthachick]

We do eat leftovers. Sometimes I plan them or a recipe makes more than we will eat at once (when I actually use a recipe). We also bring home leftovers from restaurants. We will either eat the leftovers for lunch or even dinner. We usually don’t eat the leftovers the next night but will skip a night. Sometimes I will freeze leftovers (if I know they freeze well) for nights when I’m too tired to cook. And in spite of all of this, we still throw out more food than I would like.

ETA: I also have a friend at work who is single and very rarely cooks. Sometimes I bring her some of whatever I’ve cooked and she is very appreciative.

 

[ronandannette]

On Sunday night we purposely cook extra so that my wife has a lunch to take M-F. She preps all her lunches Sunday so they are ready to grab in the morning.

Otherwise we try to cook the correct portion size so we are not tempted to eat too much.

We do occasionally bring left overs home from restaurants that usually get eaten at some point.

This is also a legit consideration, especially when eating out.

Leftover mashed potatoes mixed with green onion and shaped into patties and pan fried, yum! Was my favourite as a child and I always begged my mom to make extra mashed potatoes so I could make these patties for breakfast the next day. Served with ketchup of course.

I rarely have the chance to make a big breakfast but wow, those sound awesome!

Always, I am in the camp of some things taste better the next day.
I guess I don't get why people 'refuse' to eat leftovers. They should still taste as good as originally cooked. If not, why not if prepared well?
I also don't mind eating the same things a few days in a row.
No bad intent, just asking.

In our case it's because my DH was raised in scarcity, verging on going hungry at some points. His mother's way of coping with their limited resources was to purchase the largest quantities of the cheapest ingredients possible and cooking them up into giant batches of "whatever". She was not a good cook, God bless her, although she did try. The family would have no choice but to eat away at what was sometimes virtually "slop" for days at a time or go without.

It's worse than it sounds; I've wept at some of the accounts DH and his siblings have shared over the years. Because of that my husband purposed in his mind that as long as he had a choice (which he certainly does) he would never eat leftovers - never. It may sound absurd to some, but far be it from me to disrespect him on the issue. I'm happy to make meals he enjoys and have gotten very, very good at proper portioning.

 

[QueenIsabella]

The cooking method may make a big difference in the taste/texture of leftovers. I'm fond of my convection oven (small, countertop one--not an air fryer, but very similar). I tried to convince DS21 to try it--he typically eats food cold. He pointed out that, in the 10-minute preheating time, he would have eaten is food and left the kitchen already. So, no sale on the re-heating for him! The closest he'll come is microwaving frozen food, and that's only so he can bite through it. Weirdo.

 

[Skellingtonj]

Have leftovers? I say yes that people make extra food to have for lunches or another dinner during the week.

We do not. Both grew up on LEftovers and we are over it (pun intended) we make enough for the 2 of us. But I think it’s common

 

[North of Mouse]

Yes, we love leftovers. Actually, some things taste better the second day (gumbos come to mind). I don't necessarily intend for leftovers, but being just Dh & I home now, I tend to cook the same way as when our children were here. Dh doesn't mind at all.

Foods like steak, baked potatoes and similar are one meal only, but I can portion them that way. I don't like unnecessary waste.