Leftovers

Meal planning is oft times challenging. Trying to come up with something for dinner for your family night after night can be a chore. I enjoy cooking but not necessarily every single day. I already fix breakfast for inn guests most mornings so a lot of times, by late afternoon, I’m not really interested in cooking again.

Some days I do meal planning and prep for the entire week. It involves making menus, making a shopping list, shopping, chopping, dicing, cooking, and freezing stuff, but the rest of the week is so much easier when I do this. It doesn’t happen as often as it should though. Especially when the inn is full and there are rooms to clean and laundry to stay on top of.

Some days I’ll cook a big meal and use the leftovers for other meals. I’m not a huge fan of leftovers; I prefer eating something different every day. Some people can eat a hamburger or pizza or peanut butter and jelly sandwich every single day. I am not one of those people. I do eat quite a few salads, but even those are switched up with different toppings and dressings and such.

But it seems like we end up with leftovers quite often. I usually cook dinner for three people, which isn’t always easy. Halving recipes is not as easy as one might think especially if the recipe calls for 1 egg or a ¼ teaspoon of something. I have to be creative or substitute something. Or just make the full batch and save the rest for leftovers.

Some things are super easy to serve again as leftovers. Like turkey. There are hundreds of things you can do with leftover turkey. Pulled pork from a smoked pork butt is another thing that can be used in a variety of recipes. Other things, like spaghetti or lasagna or meatloaf, not so much. While I do enjoy leftover pasta, usually, I’m not a fan of most leftovers. Chinese food is okay reheated, but not nearly as good as when it’s freshly cooked. Nachos? Not so much. The chips get all soggy and gross. I don’t even attempt to save uneaten nachos. Same with fruit. Fruit “bleeds,” so by the following day it’s sitting in juice and not crisp any more.

Finding the perfect balance between being prepared in advance and being creative with leftovers is my goal in life. Especially now that food is so expensive, I try really hard not to have any waste and to fix affordable meals that my family will eat and re-eat the next day. I’ve learned to eat leftovers even though I’m not a fan. I am a fan of not being wasteful. I’ve used a lot of leftovers as burrito filling. God bless flour tortillas. Got leftover Hamburger Helper? Throw in a can of pinto beans or corn, some chopped chilis and roll it all up inside flour tortillas. If you want to get real fancy, recook the meat (or veggies) with some taco seasoning. Voila! Burritos.

What say you lovely friends – are you lovers of leftovers? Have any good suggestions for using already cooked food a second day? What are your favorite foods to eat as leftovers? Any meal prep ideas to save time and money?

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Word of the Day: Manumit

Fun fact about me: I once used leftover meatloaf as the meat in my pasta sauce for spaghetti. It wasn’t half bad.

Original post by Jansen Schmidt, November 2022. Images by Google and giphy.com