Please settle an argument....Do most families

[Pea-n-Me]

That's definitely an issue here. We just have the upper compartment of a standard size fridge as our freezer. We live in a 90 year old house and really have nowhere for a second fridge or a deep freeze. It makes a difference. Some weeks when I go grocery shopping I feel like I'm playing a big game of Jenga when I get home and try to put it all away.

Yes!

You won't be sorry about that when they're grown. Mine began to seriously learn how to make things probably in middle school and by high school age I would assign them to make dinner some nights during the summer breaks. When they took off for college and moved into off campus living cooking wasn't a learning curve they had to face.

Absolutely!
I keep telling my older one that he should be taking over one meal a week. Even if it's hot dogs and KD or tacos I think it would be beneficial to have teens participate in meal prep.

DD always loved to cook and could prepare a meal at a fairly young age. She's a good cook today.

I tried to teach DS, too, but he had little interest. He might've started off watching or helping, but he'd disappear before you knew it, lol. Fast forward to today, he cooks basic things for himself in the house he shares, but his girlfriend really likes to cook so now they are often preparing "real" meals together. They've made things like chicken broccoli and ziti, chicken parmigiana, full breakfasts, etc. I think she thinks I never taught him, but I did try! Some kids just aren't into it when they're young, but I guess there's hope for later in some (? many) cases!

 

[cabanafrau]

I honestly never noticed a taste when they are grilled together. We do fill the grill and usually do chicken, burgers, sausage and either ribs or pork chops at the same time. But not necessarily for leftovers just because all the kids and their families and a few extras are at the house.

If its just me and dh, we tend to do steaks or ribs but not both.

I do love leftover BBQ (because we don't usually grill food and not use a sauce) so its ok with me if we have some leftover.

IMO the chicken, sausage and pork chops would really give off strong smells/more smokiness that would affect the flavor of the other foods. My husband does ribs in his smoker, not on the grill -- and now I'll probably be thinking about how yummy they sound for a few days with no prospect of weather to cook them in for a while!

 

[Pea-n-Me]

imagine what my cart looks like- with the exception of random dairy/produce/a great stock up sale on a particular item-i only shop once a month (and hit at least the grocery store/trader joes/costco in the same run-so the car is stuffed). people think i'm feeding a small army (their jaws drop when they ask how many kids i have and i reply-just the one living at home now ). but it works for us.



i like that! when i visit my dd and she goes to pull something out of her overly stuffed small fridge freezer i'm always thinking 'oh man, is this going to be a 'kerplunk' moment'-and sometimes it is).

Oh, we definitely have a lot of kerplunks in our house. Usually it's the freakin blueberries! (All over the kitchen floor!) Or the butter! DH calls them the things teetering!

 

[cabanafrau]

Yes!




DD always loved to cook and could prepare a meal at a fairly young age. She's a good cook today.

I tried to teach DS, too, but he had little interest. He might've started off watching or helping, but he'd disappear before you knew it, lol. Fast forward to today, he cooks basic things for himself in the house he shares, but his girlfriend really likes to cook so now they are often preparing "real" meals together. They've made things like chicken broccoli and ziti, chicken parmigiana, full breakfasts, etc. I think she thinks I never taught him, but I did try! Some kids just aren't into it when they're young, but I guess there's hope for later in some (? many) cases!

And that's absolutely great too. The only point I was making about not facing the learning curve was when they head off to college is because it's already quite a change with lots to learn. Some struggle even to the additional responsibilities on their shoulders with just dorm life -- laundry, cleaning a bathroom, etc. A lot of them face a real struggle when they make the move to off campus life and take on a lot of tasks for themselves for the first time -- and have to juggle them with academics, jobs, extracurriculars. Both of my daughters watched peers struggle with learning basic lifeskills and wrestling with time management, especially during peak times of school stress. My youngest stayed home initially at community college and when she moved away to university moved into her own apartment from the start. It was a big adjustment for her. Having to learn how to cook for herself would have made it much more challenging.

 

[PollyannaMom]

Wow - maybe we do eat too much after all. There's next to nothing left of an average-sized deli counter roast chicken around here when I serve one for dinner (3 of us; 2 adult men and me). I do throw the carcass away without boiling it for soup though so maybe that's wasteful.

I hate taking apart the leftover chicken! If DH has time, he'll take the meat off for me while I'm doing dishes, in which case it will get used for things like quesadillas in the next few days. But soup is not in the cards here either. If I put the whole carcass in the fridge, I end up throwing it out because I can't stand when it "gels up".

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 sandwiches and there are 4 breasts in the package and we only need three, I might go ahead and grill the fourth and refrigerate 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.

We do this too - especially in summer grilling season!

If we are grilling and I know that I can use the grilled meat later for a different recipe, we'll occasionally grill extra. For instance, grilled chicken on Monday with extra chicken to make something that requires pre-cooked chicken on Wednesday (quesadillas, chicken noodle soup, salad with cold chicken, etc). I consider that "meal prep," not necessarily leftovers.

Exactly!!

 

[soccerdad72]

I wonder if any of this settled anything for the OP?

 

[VandVsmama]

12 pages about leftovers

 

[luvsJack]

IMO the chicken, sausage and pork chops would really give off strong smells/more smokiness that would affect the flavor of the other foods. My husband does ribs in his smoker, not on the grill -- and now I'll probably be thinking about how yummy they sound for a few days with no prospect of weather to cook them in for a while!

I knooooowww! LOL I was just sitting here thinking how good rib would be this weekend!

We don't have a smoker, yet, but are definitely in the market for one. DH has done baby back ribs in the oil-less turkey fryer. They were so good. On the grill we usually do the country style ribs. Next time we have a cook out, I will be considering if one food is affecting the taste of another! LOL. Its ok though because I love the taste of all of it.

 

[cabanafrau]

I wonder if any of this settled anything for the OP?

What was it we were we talking about again?

 

[GreatLakes]

I have no idea what "most families" do but we aren't consistent. Sometimes we plan to make more than needed so we have leftovers, sometimes our eyes are bigger than our stomachs and we just end up with them, and sometimes we are following a recipe that is hard to scale down so we end up with them. Then there are the times we eat all of our meal and there is nothing left.

 

[kirstenb1]

We're in the leftovers camp here. Part of it comes from I'd rather make too much food than too little, and I'm not very good at precision serving sizes. Also, with a rotisserie chicken, you've got that the first night. Then chicken and black bean burritos or tacos the second night, or soup or pasta. Most dinners I make can be repurposed differently the next night. Love restaurant leftovers too. This has always been an easy way to save money for our family.

 

[LSUmiss]

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?

We rarely cook that kind of food. If we do, we freeze it or have left overs. Last night was rotisserie chicken & green beans portioned for 2 1/2 ppl (DS young). Wasn’t anything significant left over. We usually eat some kind of meat & veggie so it’s different nightly, but I wouldn’t call it cooking from “scratch” every night. Don’t like big pots or stuff or casseroles.

 

[LSUmiss]

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

I’m sure you can appreciate that many ppl have a variety of different life circumstances. Not everyone has a large family to “serve”. I have one DS & a DH who often splits cooking with me during the week. So, we have more options.

 

[LSUmiss]

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

Except when it’s linked to the concept of “never wasting food” if kids feel pressured to not leave anything on their plate for fear of being accused of “wasting” it. DH has an aunt who does this to kids...guess what...their all overweight too.

 

[cabanafrau]

Except when it’s linked to the concept of “never wasting food” if kids feel pressured to not leave anything on their plate for fear of being accused of “wasting” it. DH has an aunt who does this to kids...guess what...their all overweight too.

Doesn't apply to leftovers that are refrigerated or frozen to be consumed another time. Entirely different message and concept from sit here and clean your plate AND everything else prepared for dinner today so it's not wasted.

 

[amberpi]

The kids just finished leftovers from last night (we had a bout of sickness so everyone is home) and they were excited; I was happy as the recipe made much more than I anticipated, so it's actually getting used. There are some things we don't like as leftovers (I'm never taking half of that burger I didn't eat home and heating it up, and I'm confused as to how to even make it work when a restaurant offers to box it up) and some we love - like soup. Other than soups and pastas though, at home dinners tend to be portioned pretty correctly.

I agree with a few others here though some soups and definitely chili are better the 2nd day!

 

[soccerdad72]

What was it we were we talking about again?

Leftov...





SQUIRREL!!!

 

[katie01]

I’m sure you can appreciate that many ppl have a variety of different life circumstances. Not everyone has a large family to “serve”. I have one DS & a DH who often splits cooking with me during the week. So, we have more options.

. Of course. What made you think I was saying anyone else’s way was not ok? Also, why is “serve” in quotes? We all work in my family and have different jobs we do, cooking is usually one of mine.

 

[Kitty 34]

I have had problems with my internet so have not been able to chime in. I will be honest, I'm NOT going to read all 12 pages. Just someone tell me why would a family get into an argument one way or another about leftovers????

 

[TheFloatingBear]

I usually plan for leftovers for one reason or another. For some reason, DH prefers to take leftovers to work for lunch than to make a sandwich or something. Some leftovers the kids will take to school for lunch (like tacos), but other times they won't and they'll make something else.

My kids are at an age when they have a lot of evening activities, so I try to plan some leftover nights for the more hectic nights, or a crockpot meal/soup that can be self-serve one night AND a leftover the next day! Sometimes, if it's a crockpot meal that my sister likes (she lives not far away), I pack her up some leftovers for lunch and put it on the porch in the morning for her to pick up on the way to work! Or conversely, if she makes meatballs she will leave a container for my DH - although usually he will share!

I don't usually freeze much, unless I end up with extra soup after a day. I don't have a ton of freezer space either. All the freezer talk is making me yearn for my old fridge/freezer that I had in the basement. It floated away in a flood back in 2015 and we never replaced it. Sigh...

My son prefers cereal for Second Dinner, after hockey practice.

I definitely prepared meals when I was a kid - my mom would prep stuff and leave instructions. I don't remember a lot of leftovers, although some things she made to have leftovers to decrease cooking nights, but meals definitely evolved into other meals. Like ham = pea soup. She and my dad were Depression era babies so they both like to get all they could out of resources.