Shannon is hosting her weekly Works For Me Wednesday blog carnival of tips and tricks. This week, however, is Backwards Edition. That means that instead of posting my favorite trick, I get to ask for tips on whatever issue is currently looming over our family... Fortunately we aren't in the middle of any crisis right now, but there is one ongoing issue that drives me crazy...
What do you do with leftovers for a family who won't eat the same meal twice?
It drives me crazy! I make a meal and (with the exception of spaghetti) I'm the only one who will eat leftovers. Then I end up having to throw food away!
So what do you do to recycle leftovers, especially cuts of meat, into another meal? Any ideas or recipes that you have to send my way would be greatly appreciated!
11 comments:
I'll often shred leftover meat and mix it with bbq sauce for sandwiches. You can make soup from a lot of leftovers, too, especially if it's chicken and veggies. Fried rice. Make your dh take it to work for his lunch the next day. Mix ground beef with some refried beans and make burritos. That's all I can think off the top of my head. My dh actually LOVES to have leftovers for lunch!
I have to be creative as well because my husband won't eat anything re-heated (that he knows about). If I have chicken leftover I saute some onions and bell peppers and slice the chicken and warm it all together to make fajitas. Or I always have beans cooked in the freezer. I make refried beans and crisp a flour tortilla or corn tortilla and spread beans on bottom with chicken pieces on top, top with cheese and you have a tostada. With meat, I also mix with bbq sauce. Or make a baked potato and layer some meat inside. We have a lot of hamburger meat that I make. Of course mexican food is always something we eat here. You can't go wrong with adding extra spices to your food (leftover)
I've started either halving my recipes so I don't make as much or taking half and freezing it so I can eat it another time. Not only does it save you from leftovers but you also have a meal ready for a week or two later when they are ready to eat that same meal again.
I end up eating most of our leftovers for lunch, but I've made noodle- and rice-based casseroles and also fancy baked potatoes by sifting through what's in the fridge.
I also freeze my leftovers to re-use as another meal. I also get creative and can turn just about any leftover into a soup (it's a requirement for living in Alaska). Beef goes into taco soup, baked pototoes into potato soup, bits of pasta and veggies into minestrone, etc. Now if you don't have soup eaters, you might just try to convince your family to think of all the money saved by eating leftovers.
Check out the websites for Family Circle and Womens Day Mags. They always have a calendar for meals for a month and each week has a meal with a "planned over" second meal.
My kids will eat leftovers only because I don't give them a choice. :-) (That's not to say they don't protest.) Sometimes we have enough leftovers in the fridge--usually from a few different meals--to make a meal for the whole family.
If I've made something that there is just too much of to reasonably expect us to get through before it expires, I freeze it. Really comes in handy to have a meal at-the-ready, even if it's just enough for lunch for the kids one day.
Yes, what's up with the refusal to eat leftovers? My husband is the same way. I just try to remember to take it into lunch for myself.
I have the same problem, so what do I do? I freeze leftovers into smaller portions and I eat them for lunch. Helps me out in the long run.
A long time ago I heard that the majority of the nutrients in canned veggies was in the broth, which gets thrown away. They said to freeze it for when you make soup. I combined this with my mom's longstanding tradition of "Leftover Soup". Here's what I do.
I keep a big plastic tub in the freezer, like a sherbet tub. Whenever I drain a can, I drain it in there. And whenever I have any kind of leftover - the last bit of canned corn, leftover tacos, some rice from ordering Chinese, last bit of spaghetti, anything, I dump it in that tub. When the tub is full, I set it out overnight to thaw and the next day I make soup. I add whatever sounds good and is in my pantry, canned tomatoes always, green beans, black beans, whatever, and season it. I usually go either an Italian or Mexican route. It makes the BEST SOUP. Different every time, but always good.
My mom used more leftovers than I do (I tend to eat them up) and we called her's Memory Soup. We would eat it and say "Oh, I remember those enchilada! And I remember that steak!"
:)
I do not like to eat the same meal 2 or 3 times in a row. I freeze my leftovers. I have found that most of my recipes can be frozen and reheated. On days when we are eating from the freezer, dinner prep usually takes about 15 - 20 minutes.
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