Please settle an argument....Do most families

[wgeo]

I menu plan every week and plan in leftover nights if I know the meal will have some - like casseroles. I don't cook extra just to have leftovers, but I would say at least one menu every week is leftovers. I just simply can't let food go to waste, if I buy an ingredient to make a certain dish and I won't use all of it I make sure to find another recipe to use up that ingredient. I feel really bad throwing away food and try very hard to avoid doing so.

 

[slpeters]

So for those who refuse to eat leftovers do you not do any batch cooking ever?
Like freezing soup, lasagna, tomato sauce?
Or do you cook from scratch nightly?

Also if you have leftovers from a holiday turkey dinner do you toss it without making soup, sandwiches, etc?

So with an occasional exception--I make an incredible lasagna that we will eat a couple times--we don't do left overs. But by that I mean reheating the same meal. We will regularly reuse an ingredient. If we have roast chicken one night, we might very well make chicken salad for lunch the next day and maybe chicken enchiladas another time that week. What we wouldn't do is reheat roast chicken and serve it up again in the same form. I've tried freezing premade dishes so that it wouldn't be consecutive and it just doesn't work for me, doesn't taste right.

Yes, one of us cooks each night.

 

[gotomu212]

So for those who refuse to eat leftovers do you not do any batch cooking ever?
Like freezing soup, lasagna, tomato sauce?
Or do you cook from scratch nightly?

Also if you have leftovers from a holiday turkey dinner do you toss it without making soup, sandwiches, etc?

No I’ve never batched cook and we also don’t have a big meal from scratch every night. Several nights during the week we make a salad, sandwich, cereal. The other nights we cook from scratch, but honestly everything on our favorites list from scratch is only taking 15-30 minutes so it’s not a huge time savings anyway.

We also don’t cook turkeys, we have a small ham that lasts for the main meal and that’s it.

I don’t get how this becomes a value issue. Some people like fish some don’t; some people like leftovers some don’t. Leftover people aren’t better or worse they just feed themselves differently.

 

[jiminyC_fan]

We eat leftovers and if there isn't enough of a few meals, I heat them up and have "buffet" night. I could never waste food like some we know that don't eat leftovers plus it saves me actually preparing a meal or two a week.

 

[tzolkin]

Honestly, seeing what many home cooked meals look like the first time around, I guess I can see why some don’t want to eat leftovers. Our food is very flavorful and usually just as good the next day.

The only exceptions I can think of would be a full piece of meat (like a steak or something), but that’s a more rare meal in our home. When I do have those types of leftovers they are repurposed into another meal and not eaten microwaved (because yes, that would’ve a yucky texture).

I don't really do this but it's a fine idea. I wouldn't consider it leftovers to take something out of the freezer and having it again weeks or months since the last time. Neither would DH.

Having different definitions of leftovers may change the responses then. To me, prepping ahead or cooking extra meals would definitely fall under the leftovers category.

Maybe this is why I don’t understand the mentality of never eating leftovers. I definitely agree with you that eating the same thing day after day would get old/gross.

But, on the other hand, I have always done a bunch of baking to have breakfasts and snacks for the kids in the freezer. That way they can have something homemade without me having to get up and cook every morning. To me, this would technically be leftovers even though I froze it immediately after cooking with the intention that it would be consumed later.

Hated leftovers as a kid. Food storage in our house growing up was not appealing. Aluminum foil on top of bowls that food was served from. Butter containers for leftovers that you had to search through-blech. Just grossed me out.

I actually can understand this. I’ve been to people’s homes where food is piled up unwrapped or in reused containers and it did gross me out.

We portion our leftovers out into appetizing looking individual meals that DH usually takes to work for lunches.

 

[jormom1030]

I cringe when we are at a Hibachi restaurant and the other family at our table leaves half their meal on their plates. Hibachi leftovers are awesome. We add an extra side of rice so we can have leftovers for the next days lunch.
I like most things as leftovers.

 

[CdnCarrie]

We eat leftovers and if there isn't enough of a few meals, I heat them up and have "buffet" night. I could never waste food like some we know that don't eat leftovers plus it saves me actually preparing a meal or two a week.

We sometimes do the buffet thing too.

No I’ve never batched cook and we also don’t have a big meal from scratch every night. Several nights during the week we make a salad, sandwich, cereal. The other nights we cook from scratch, but honestly everything on our favorites list from scratch is only taking 15-30 minutes so it’s not a huge time savings anyway.

We also don’t cook turkeys, we have a small ham that lasts for the main meal and that’s it.

I don’t get how this becomes a value issue. Some people like fish some don’t; some people like leftovers some don’t. Leftover people aren’t better or worse they just feed themselves differently.

I’ve never served my family cereal for supper. Neither did my mom.
Have done sandwiches but hot ones like grilled cheese or hot roast beef.
For quick meals we may have a can of soup with leftovers or hot dogs. Or throw potatoes in the microwave for baked with leftover meat. Stuff like that
I wouldn’t like cereal for supper. Kids take sandwiches in their lunch bag so wouldn’t want that for supper unless it was Subway!

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

I’ve never served my family cereal for supper. Neither did my mom.

I wouldn’t like cereal for supper.

I think it can depend on how hungry a person is but cereal for dinner is the same thing to me as having other things typically considered breakfast items for dinner; if you wouldn't eat breakfast for dinner that's totally understandable.

There's def. been times where I've craved some cereal and the time of day just doesn't matter then lol.

 

[runwad]

Yes! Purposefully! I cook Sunday, Tues, and Thurs. Saturdays are usually fend for yourself day.

Mon, Wed, Fri are Mustgo's night, everything Must Go! Who wants to cook every night? I know most people go out to eat, we don't, we eat at home and only go out occasionally.

 

[NotUrsula]

All y'all who are talking about leftovers "sitting in the fridge" too long and not getting eaten are missing the big mistake you have been making: with very few exceptions (such as cakes, or certain salads), leftovers go into the FREEZER, not the fridge.

(Leftovers that give you food poisoning would naturally put you off eating them in future.)

 

[VandVsmama]

So for those who refuse to eat leftovers do you not do any batch cooking ever?
Like freezing soup, lasagna, tomato sauce?
Or do you cook from scratch nightly?

Also if you have leftovers from a holiday turkey dinner do you toss it without making soup, sandwiches, etc?

Nope. No batch cooking here. If we make soup, we make enough soup for that meal. Pasta sauce? I buy it canned...don't make it from scratch. Lasagne? Too much work and besides, DH & I are eating super low carb anyway, so we don't eat pasta anymore.

We don't cook from scratch nightly. Some evening, we do take out. But the rest of the dinners for the week? Yes, we cook from scratch. But it's simple meals. We're not slaving in the kitchen for hours on end.

Re: holiday turkey dinner leftovers...
Hate turkey soup, so we don't make soup out of the carcass.
We trim off the remaining meat from the bird and heat that up with gravy & stuffing for leftovers.
Nobody eats the leftover mashed potatoes, so I make just enough for the meal. Any extra potatoes go into the compost bin.
Leftover vegetables from a Thanksgiving dinner? Bleh. All of us hate leftover vegetables. So again, I only make enough for the meal. Any that are left over go in the compost bin.

 

[BLAZEY]

Home-made cream sauces and cheese sauces never re-heat well. (The cream sauces in commercial frozen meals are made with emulsifiers that preserve the texture.)

Properly made homemade cream and cheese sauces reheat just fine. We prefer home made sauces as we know what's in them, not filled with a bunch of crap to make the look pretty.

 

[ncc1701]

It is rare for us but it is only DH & I. Our leftovers are stuff we can freeze for later . Usually Mac& cheese, Meatloaf and Spaghetti sauce/gravy. I break them down to one meal portions and they go into the freezer that night or the next day. When I cook a small roast (not often) leftover get sliced up, put in beef broth and used for sandwiches.

 

[SantaDuffy]

We don’t do leftovers in most cases. We do eat leftover pizza but I honestly can’t imagine feeding my family butter and turkey sandwiches or “random buffet nights.” I can’t imagine scraping little bits of leftover meals up and serving them again. I have no problem cooking or running Instant Pot daily.

Whatever we don’t eat usually goes into the trash or disposal and I honestly do not care. I never force my kids to eat up every bite and I think doing so leads to obesity and a weird relationship with food.

 

[gotomu212]

I’ve never served my family cereal for supper. Neither did my mom.!

Okay?? I’m sure you serve your family things that my family would never like.. you asked if we all cooked from scratch every night, some of us replied no and explained what we do eat. I’m not sure why you responded that you and your mom would never serve that.

Maybe I’m misunderstanding your tone but you seem to think there are right and wrong ways to eat or that all people should be eating the same way. There’s no right or wrong answer for what people like to eat.

 

[low-key]

I keep my leftovers in the garbage can

 

[CdnCarrie]

Okay?? I’m sure you serve your family things that my family would never like.. you asked if we all cooked from scratch every night, some of us replied no and explained what we do eat. I’m not sure why you responded that you and your mom would never serve that.

Maybe I’m misunderstanding your tone but you seem to think there are right and wrong ways to eat or that all people should be eating the same way. There’s no right or wrong answer for what people like to eat.

Just like others don’t like leftovers for supper I would hate cereal for supper.

 

[lpereira]

Todays leftover pork roast gets diced and becomes pork hash later. Leftover spaghetti sauce gets food savered and dated. It goes in a bag in the freezer and when there is enough we have spaghetti again.
Tonight for dinner I repurposed some leftover shrimp mei fun. I removed the shrimp and vegetables added egg and leftover rice to make shrimp fried rice for dinner. The noodles will appear in tomorrows pineapple chicken.
Not one scrap of food goes in the trash

 

[luvsJack]

Properly made homemade cream and cheese sauces reheat just fine. We prefer home made sauces as we know what's in them, not filled with a bunch of crap to make the look pretty.

I made the cream sauce with the chicken and spinach that she was responding to. It was heating it in the microwave that was the problem. When I reheated another serving that night in the oven it was fine. But it was homemade.

 

[luvsJack]

We don’t do leftovers in most cases. We do eat leftover pizza but I honestly can’t imagine feeding my family butter and turkey sandwiches or “random buffet nights.” I can’t imagine scraping little bits of leftover meals up and serving them again. I have no problem cooking or running Instant Pot daily.

Whatever we don’t eat usually goes into the trash or disposal and I honestly do not care. I never force my kids to eat up every bite and I think doing so leads to obesity and a weird relationship with food.

Oh my! No turkey sandwiches? That’s the very best part of a turkey dinner! Leftover turkey is the one thing that definitely gets eaten! You definitely do not know what you are missing!

I don’t think anyone means they set out tablespoons of leftover food for the family to scrounge over. When my kids were at home, we had leftover night. And all of it would be heated and set out. So on a given week there may be a big bowl of stew, some pasta sauce with fresh made pasta, red beans with fresh made rice and some left over baked or grilled chicken. I always added fresh cooked veggies or a salad and maybe slaw. Always more than enough and no “little bits”.

I don’t mind cooking every night to a limit. Everyone needs a night off. And most everyone has nights it’s impossible. Get off at 5, ballgame at 6 and goes to 9, get home around 10. Hungry? There is xxxx in the fridge and leftovers it is.