Wednesday, December 16, 2009

Repost: The Cure For Common Leftovers

While I'm spending all my energy trying to not freak out about the fact that Christmas is in 9 days and I'm more unprepared then I've ever been, I thought I'd pull out an old post. There might be some new readers out there who haven't dug deep into the GCC archives yet. So over the next few days you'll be reading some oldies but goodies. We'll still have the recipe swap on Friday so have those recipes ready!

I don’t know about you, but after cooking 21 meals each week (breakfast, lunch and dinner) I wind up with a big stack of leftovers in my fridge. They are usually one serving of each different leftover, clearly not enough for a whole meal for all six of us. So my answer to not wasting all that food is to have a buffet night once a week.

I line up all the leftover casseroles, soups, breads, and meats on my kitchen counter and then we dish up our own plates with our weekly favorites. My kids just think this is the coolest. I have no idea why. But it not only cleans out my fridge and keeps us from wasting perfectly good food, but It’s one night a week I don’t have to cook.

What do you do with your leftovers?

11 comments:

Holly C. said...

I love your blog, Gayle. But speaking of archives-I can't find yours. Am I missing them? If I am can you point me to them.

Have a great Christmas!☺

mom2priceboys said...

I don't make too many leftovers. I make to serve 5 since there are usually 4 of us and then there is enough for my always hungry "Mom, I'm starving" tweenage boys to have a portion of seconds. I don't really have the storage for leftovers or freezer meals. I wish I did.

Sandy(a.k.a.Grannie) said...

I think that this is absolutely fantastic: Reduce, Reuse (whoops reserve), Recyle, and we will pass on the reclaim -- except maybe refrigerator space. LOL

Holly said...

My hubby takes them for lunches. and I try to make one or two more meals that week with the leftovers. Check out my ideas. We are family of 7 soon to be 8, and we don't have an over abundance of food leftover.
http://www.victoriouslyorganizedwoman.com/routines-and-planning.php
scroll down to meal planning made easy. those are just a few of my ideas for leftovers.

Laura Anderson said...

That is genius! So glad you posted this again, as I currently have 5-6 different tupperware containers of 1 serving leftovers. Guess I don't have to cook tonight after all!

Gayle said...

You'll find the archives in the right sidebar under Posts By Topic.

sbinzel said...

We've tried leftover soup. Take the leftovers and add them to 1-2 cups chicken broth...heat up and eat! If they like it, great...but you can never make the exact same soup again. If they don't like this week's soup...same answer: it won't be the same ever again!

Adminswife said...

My husband takes leftovers for his lunch. Or, my grandmother taught me to throw all leftovers in a soup pot and make "garbage soup." It is different every week because of the different leftovers. It is always good though, even if it doesn't sound like it would be.

Lisa said...

One of our favorite leftovers growing up was something we called "Fiesta". We would take leftover chili from the night before, reheat it and spoon it over cooked rice, then add shredded cheese, sour cream, and any other toppings we wanted. It gave the chili a Mexican flair and was a good way to "recycle" the leftovers without making them seem like leftovers.

Nicole said...

I never know how long leftovers last in the fridge...

CRB said...

I have always been a huge fan of leftovers. There are many meals that I prepare extra just so that I have lunch taken care for the next few days.