Leftovers are Food Too!
Leftovers get a bad rap. I keep seeing/hearing people bashing leftovers, e.g. "Our family has been battling colds, so we've been eating a lot of leftovers." My first question is, what else would you do with them, throw them in the garbage or feed them to the dog? The second thing I wonder is, how do all these people have the time and energy to make a new dinner every night?
Leftovers in my house are the majority of what we eat. Here, we just call them "food."
I love food. I really enjoy all kinds of foods from different cultures, prepared in interesting ways. I even enjoy cooking. What I don't appreciate is coming to the end of a long day and having to think of something to cook, using what I have in my fridge and pantry, maybe find a recipe(s), and dirty many pots and pans to create these dishes, all while my oldest son comes in every three and a half minutes to tell me he's hungry. So I don't.
I know lots of folks find or create meal plans, where they shop for multiple meals at once, making sure they buy all the ingredients for the next few days' recipes, and they know what they're making each day. But that involves planning ahead. Not for me.
I prefer to keep it very simple. I subscribe to a CSA (Community Supported Agriculture), so every week I pick up a big box of local, seasonal fruits, vegetables, and herbs. Someone else does the work of choosing my produce! That, plus my weekly shopping trip to Sprouts, in which I pretty much always buy or re-stock the same things (very little thinking involved) supplies all our food.
Lots of the vegetables from the box are nicely suited to hearty soups. The broth I make from leftover roast chicken bones and leftover tops of onions, carrots, parsley and celery is also nicely suited to hearty soups. And hearty soups are very nicely suited for leftovers. They keep well and are easy to reheat. And they taste mighty good too, even if I do say so myself. They can (and do in my house) provide all your nutrients in one dish. I normally make some variation of beef and veggie chili, chicken tortilla veggie soup, American chicken veggie soup, or Italian ground beef and veg.
My boys have been raised on leftovers and lots of soup. My man was not, so he has less appreciation for them than the rest of us, although he is too polite to say so. On the days he's home for dinner, I usually make something new that's not soup. Often, it's salad, with leftover chicken. Another good all-in-one dish that uses up the CSA veggies that aren't as suited to soup (apples, avocado, lettuce, cucumber, lemon, dill/cilantro)
For lunch and dinner when he's not home, we eat... you guessed it, soup. Usually, leftover soup. When we take dinner over to the hubby's dad's house on Sunday evenings (sans the hubby), we bring leftover soup. When I take dinner to a family with a newborn, I make a huge pot of soup - dinner for them and us, and leftovers for tomorrow.
Save time, save food, save money. Eat leftovers!
Leftovers in my house are the majority of what we eat. Here, we just call them "food."
I love food. I really enjoy all kinds of foods from different cultures, prepared in interesting ways. I even enjoy cooking. What I don't appreciate is coming to the end of a long day and having to think of something to cook, using what I have in my fridge and pantry, maybe find a recipe(s), and dirty many pots and pans to create these dishes, all while my oldest son comes in every three and a half minutes to tell me he's hungry. So I don't.
I know lots of folks find or create meal plans, where they shop for multiple meals at once, making sure they buy all the ingredients for the next few days' recipes, and they know what they're making each day. But that involves planning ahead. Not for me.
I prefer to keep it very simple. I subscribe to a CSA (Community Supported Agriculture), so every week I pick up a big box of local, seasonal fruits, vegetables, and herbs. Someone else does the work of choosing my produce! That, plus my weekly shopping trip to Sprouts, in which I pretty much always buy or re-stock the same things (very little thinking involved) supplies all our food.
Lots of the vegetables from the box are nicely suited to hearty soups. The broth I make from leftover roast chicken bones and leftover tops of onions, carrots, parsley and celery is also nicely suited to hearty soups. And hearty soups are very nicely suited for leftovers. They keep well and are easy to reheat. And they taste mighty good too, even if I do say so myself. They can (and do in my house) provide all your nutrients in one dish. I normally make some variation of beef and veggie chili, chicken tortilla veggie soup, American chicken veggie soup, or Italian ground beef and veg.
My boys have been raised on leftovers and lots of soup. My man was not, so he has less appreciation for them than the rest of us, although he is too polite to say so. On the days he's home for dinner, I usually make something new that's not soup. Often, it's salad, with leftover chicken. Another good all-in-one dish that uses up the CSA veggies that aren't as suited to soup (apples, avocado, lettuce, cucumber, lemon, dill/cilantro)
For lunch and dinner when he's not home, we eat... you guessed it, soup. Usually, leftover soup. When we take dinner over to the hubby's dad's house on Sunday evenings (sans the hubby), we bring leftover soup. When I take dinner to a family with a newborn, I make a huge pot of soup - dinner for them and us, and leftovers for tomorrow.
Save time, save food, save money. Eat leftovers!
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