Please settle an argument....Do most families

[jiminyC_fan]

"Scraping little bits of leftover meals and serving them again" is quite the description but I'm pretty sure no one does that. Eating leftovers has never led to obesity in generations of my family either. Great comments for dramatics though.

 

[katie01]

I purposely make enough each time I cook to get two meals out of it. I have a family of huge eaters (all my kids are thin but eat like a team of football players), as well as a DH with multiple food allergies, so almost everything has to be very hearty, made from scratch, and with multiple courses (it is not uncommon for my 11 year old to eat two dinners per night—such as a fast food meal before a game and my homemade dinner after— also in addition to large breakfasts, lunch, and snacks). It is time consuming for me to be making and cleaning up after these mass quantities of meals, plus the kids usually have sports or other evening activities about five nights a week, so doing the leftover thing is so helpful in saving time.

I am jealous of those who are able to get away with serving cereal or sandiches now and then! I’d love to have an easy meal night. I can’t even get away with “just” making something like a beef vegetable soup, it has to be served with a salad, muffins, fruit, dessert, and they are usually still hungry after all that an hour later. And I’m exhausted by the time I get done cooking it all. My hats are off to those who can cook like this every single night, still get to activities, and not ever repeat a meal.

Luckily my family actually likes leftovers and acts excited to eat something twice in a row lol

 

[CdnCarrie]

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.

What’s wrong with hot turkey sandwiches the day after a turkey dinner?
Or a turkey sandwich?

 

[Cubbiecakes]

What’s wrong with hot turkey sandwiches the day after a turkey dinner?
Or a turkey sandwich?

Well, if you're like me and think that turkey is disgusting...

 

[Planogirl]

My son likes leftovers so I can count on him. I like leftover cold pizza and heated rice.

 

[NHdisneylover]

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 never do batch cooking. The freezer in our side by side fridge is used motly for ice and iced cream and frozen pizza (both DH and DS will add some toppings and eat one of those if home alone). If plans time after I have bought groceries, I might pop a package of meat in there to thaw later for use, but that's about it.
Food just tastes so muc better fresh, IMO, and honestly any of the three adults in our house can pull together at least a dzen meals in 20ish minutes on a busy night-----I don'T think thawing and reheating a batch made item would be much faster (maybe less so, wouldn't you have to be home and plan ahead and take it out of the freezer to thaw several hours in advance?)

We eat out most holidays (generally travel for Christmas).
I make a small turkey breast every 2-3 weeks in winter months. It'S DS's favourite and he never leaves any meat. If he did, yes, I would out uneaten meat in the fridge and use it in pot pies or something in the next day or 2, but it never happens. In any event, I would not consider a plain meat as "leftover" more as a base ingredient in something new. Just like we might use some of a package of carrots when making roasted vegetables on Monday and then a couple more in dumplings on wednesday and maybe have carrot sticks to munch on Friday. I would not consider myself to be eating leftover carrots on wednesday and Friday----maybe you would? Perhaps this is more a semantics issues and we do not define leftovers the same?

 

[NHdisneylover]

I WILL occasionally cook extra plain meat to use as a base ingredient in something else later in the week (for example, if I am grilling chicken for sandwhiches and there ae 4 breasts in the package and we only need three, I might go ahead and grill the fourth and refridgerate it 1-2 days before chopping it and mixing it with veggies and eggs, etc for filling for chinese dumplings. That is the closest thing to batch cooking that i can think of that we do.

 

[NHdisneylover]

We're a faimly who do not eat cereal (for breakfast or dinner, well DS eats it dry as a snack someitmes), nor leftovers----lol and DH will not do cold sandwhiches. Though, in warmer months, he'll happily munch on summer sausages, cheese and raw veggies, which takes basically zero time to prepare (I do the same minus the summer sausage and DS usually adds some peanuts). AND DS and I love to do popcorn, apples and peanut butter while watching a movie---so those are a couple of super easy and fast items if needed/wanted. Those are probably our cereal equivelants.

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.

.

Or some people can cook well and still do not like the way refridgerating and reheating affects their food. Geeze.
I have no issues with those who love leftovers, but I find it rude to judge those who do not like them as poor cooks.

 

[CdnCarrie]

NO, I never do batch cooking. The freezer in our side by side fridge is used motly for ice and iced cream and frozen pizza (both DH and DS will add some toppings and eat one of those if home alone). If plans time after I have bought groceries, I might pop a package of meat in there to thaw later for use, but that's about it.
Food just tastes so muc better fresh, IMO, and honestly any of the three adults in our house can pull together at least a dzen meals in 20ish minutes on a busy night-----I don'T think thawing and reheating a batch made item would be much faster (maybe less so, wouldn't you have to be home and plan ahead and take it out of the freezer to thaw several hours in advance?)

We eat out most holidays (generally travel for Christmas).
I make a small turkey breast every 2-3 weeks in winter months. It'S DS's favourite and he never leaves any meat. If he did, yes, I would out uneaten meat in the fridge and use it in pot pies or something in the next day or 2, but it never happens. In any event, I would not consider a plain meat as "leftover" more as a base ingredient in something new. Just like we might use some of a package of carrots when making roasted vegetables on Monday and then a couple more in dumplings on wednesday and maybe have carrot sticks to munch on Friday. I would not consider myself to be eating leftover carrots on wednesday and Friday----maybe you would? Perhaps this is more a semantics issues and we do not define leftovers the same?

I consider plain meat same as you do - base for something new.
Others here say its gross to eat it another day and toss it if they don't finish it in one setting.
I don't buy fresh meat daily. Sounds like you do. I pull it out of the freezer uncooked the night before and let it thaw in the fridge.

 

[ronandannette]

We sometimes do the buffet thing too.

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!

I'm snickering at this because I don't serve cereal for supper either. The point is I don't serve anything on those nights; we just fend for ourselves and eat whatever's easy and catches our fancy. Sometimes cereal appeals or there's always canned soup or cold cuts or maybe a frozen dinner, or cheese and crackers and fruit or whatever.

 

[fla4fun]

I often have leftovers because I was used to cooking for three when taking care of my parents, and now that it's just me, some of the recipes are hard to adjust. But I don't mind eating leftovers, so I just parcel out the food on plates, put them in the fridge, and pop one in the microwave when I get home. The hardest thing for me to get used to cooking for one is any kind of pasta dish, particularly spaghetti. No matter how little I cook, it always seems to be enough for two or three meals . . .

 

[clutter]

Wow, who knew leftovers would be such a heated topic?

I live alone. You can't buy small enough quantities of many things to not have leftovers, so thankfully I love them! I have found that it's best if I don't freeze uncooked meats - in fact, I try not to freeze anything except portions of soups (and ice cream!). But I do tend to cook things that are leftoverable - gives me lunch the next day.

 

[ronandannette]

Wow, who knew leftovers would be such a heated topic?

I live alone. You can't buy small enough quantities of many things to not have leftovers, so thankfully I love them! I have found that it's best if I don't freeze uncooked meats - in fact, I try not to freeze anything except portions of soups (and ice cream!). But I do tend to cook things that are leftoverable - gives me lunch the next day.

(Puts up hand) We've had threads like this on the CB before. Food evokes deep emotional responses in a lot of people, for a lot of reasons. And then there's always the old "if we do things differently one of us must be wrong..." sentiments that can turn almost any topic into a controversy. Personally I don't mind though - the boards have been slow lately!

 

[ahutton]

We do, will have them for lunch or the leftovers from last night become part of tonights dinner. So we will make a big pot of spaghetti and meatballs; then the leftovers will become meatball subs. Or the build our own burrito night ingredients become nachos or a layered taco casserole.

 

[VandVsmama]

Ok, look...none of anybody's opinions matter about leftovers. Everybody should just do what they want and what works best for their family in their unique situations. So what if somebody does or does not like to eat all leftovers, leftovers of a certain food, etc., etc. So what if somebody does or does not feed their kids breakfast food for dinner once in awhile? Some of the responses here are pretty funny. It's like some of y'all are taking personal offense because somebody does or does not eat something.

The peanut gallery is pretty funny this week.

 

[cabanafrau]

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.

Drawing a correlation between eating leftovers and forcing children into the clean plates club is a false equivalency.

 

[mom2rtk]

I'm snickering at this because I don't serve cereal for supper either. The point is I don't serve anything on those nights; we just fend for ourselves and eat whatever's easy and catches our fancy. Sometimes cereal appeals or there's always canned soup or cold cuts or maybe a frozen dinner, or cheese and crackers and fruit or whatever.

We call those "fend for yourself" nights.

 

[bdcp]

I don't see the big deal. I grew up eating leftovers and have served them to my family many times. So, anyone who doesn't do leftovers, do you just throw any extras away? Isn't that wasteful? We eat leftover pizza, pasta, chili, soups, etc. I turn leftover roasts into bbq. My kids (oh the horror) were fed cereal occasionally for dinner growing up. We also enjoy having breakfast for dinner. Almost everyone I know eats leftovers. Except my MIL. She can't say why she won't, but she refuses. Leftover chili and soups have a lot more flavor than when first served. We can easily afford to eat out every meal if we wanted and make individual meals (which btw are more expensive), but what a friggin waste of money. We also eat meals that aren't leftovers. It just depends on what I make. Steak, no because there's really no good way to reuse it except maybe on a salad. My DH and I are empty nesters and we eat leftovers a couple of times a week. Other times, especially if we've had a lunch out, will just do whatever for dinner and that includes sandwiches and cereal. Perfectly fine and it won't hurt anyone to eat leftovers or a non-traditional dinner.

 

[CdnCarrie]

I'm snickering at this because I don't serve cereal for supper either. The point is I don't serve anything on those nights; we just fend for ourselves and eat whatever's easy and catches our fancy. Sometimes cereal appeals or there's always canned soup or cold cuts or maybe a frozen dinner, or cheese and crackers and fruit or whatever.

We call those "fend for yourself" nights.

Honestly my Mom was an amazing cook and very much a traditional meat and potatoes cook.
I don't recall her ever doing fend for yourself nights. Sometimes she would open a can of soup or beans to make the leftovers go further. Or do frozen fish and chips or frozen pizza if she was tired.
And when my siblings and I were teens we were told what to do and made to make the meal or start it before she got home - peel potatoes, brown the meat, preheat the oven. She just used the free teen labour rather than not cooking.
But no never made us forage for our own food. I realize other mothers maybe did that. My mother never ever.

Now my kids are just now the age they could fend for themselves but we really don't do that. A few times I heated up leftovers for couple of us and the kids opted to open a can or make a sandwich or a hot dog. So I guess that is a bit like fend for yourself nights but I always get things out and discuss options with them. Offer to make it. That sort of thing.

 

[cinnaminny]

I eat leftovers. Usually as lunches. I do know someone who refuses to not only eat leftovers but refuses to have them in his fridge. He throws everything away after the first serving. Which I think is totally nutso.