Every now and then I hear of someone who says their family does not like or eat leftovers. So? I never quite understand what they are saying. What happens to the leftovers? I always assumed they were simply saying their family doesn't like leftovers but they eat them anyways. I thought that was the way of the world, but something recently made me think they're saying their family doesn't like leftovers so they throw them away. I can't quite wrap my brain around that one. Are there really people who throw their leftovers away??? I'm being serious here, do people really throw away their leftovers? Do they do this routinely? Please enlighten me.

Horrible thought isn't it? But yes, many do, I know my best friend tends to let any additional food from dinner just sit in the pans, when she gets around to it she either throws it our or gives it to her barn cats and dogs. Now mind you occasionally I do give bits and pieces to the barn cats and dogs, but it's mainly old bread crusts and bits of fat, gristle, etc.

I also know my brother and his wife are horrible about excessive waste, they throw away anything left from dinner, blows my mind :mad:

kj

:shake: I can't understand this either. My husband doesn't really like leftovers, so I just try to make enough for us ..and a bit more incase he is really hungry. I almost always have a 1/2 c. or 1 c. serving of leftovers..........so this is my breakfast mixed with veggies. How can people waste food? I save everything, I made to many buscuits for dinner..so into the freezer they go...for sunday morning.

I always put whatever is left over from supper into the fridge to eat later. However, there are times when it doesn't get eaten and we throw it away...I have no remorse :D

My brother-in-law throws away leftovers. I remember when I went down to visit my sister and her husband for a week her made some delicious steak on the grill and they had about three steaks left and he was going to throw it away. I told him are you nuts. So, I had him put the steak up and for the next three days for lunch I had steak sandwiches. I never throw away any leftovers. Whatever leftovers we have left I take them for lunch the next day. I always joke with my brother-in-law that I wished I lived next store to them. I would never have to buy grocerys since he throws away leftovers.

It's sad. I always save leftovers and steak or pork gets turned into stroganoff or other things & sometimes leftovers are just the same but 2 days later. It's a rare thing indeed when something goes bad in the house and has to be thrown away. Don't people know there are starving people in the world? Everything you eat doesn't have to be your fav every time dinner rolls around. Glad I have food to eat. And if you get creative with your leftovers, believe me nobody is suffering.

I save most everything. Now, rarely something will get thrown away, probably something that wasn't that good to begin with! :toothy:

One thing I seem to always toss is the leftover pork chop, it just doesn't leftover well for me.

Well hubby and I will surely eat leftovers but the kids, especially the older son will only eat leftover spaghetti or chicken... they complain rice is too hard (even those its in a closed container).

I try my best to NOT throw away leftovers but I do sometimes, hate to admit it.

I am still adjust to cooking for 2. I had been cooking for 5 for years. I sometimes cook too much so I have lots of leftovers:toothy: I use up most of the leftovers, but if something looks or smell a little funky I toss it. I always have potaotes left, it's a good thing we like potato soup:D

Originally posted by Pepper
I always put whatever is left over from supper into the fridge to eat later. However, there are times when it doesn't get eaten and we throw it away...I have no remorse :D

Same here.

Seldom do we have leftovers though. We 3 adults and 2 teens, there is hardly anything leftover at a meal.

My husband HATES left-overs but I try to change my left-overs into something different and I don't mention the chicken pot-pie is from a left-over chicken the day before. I don't mention the home-made chicken broth is also a left-over. I don't mention the chinese stir fried rice and ham is a left-over. Then he'll eat it!

I was one of the leftover-thrower-outers.
I remember balking at BIL when he insisted the leftovers get saved and eaten.
Funny, I was just talking to dh yesterday about our food bill last year (prior to smartening up), and it was over $10,000!!

He remember lots of wasted food being thrown away in the trash, garbage disposal and compost bin- before and after dinner.
Not anymore! I eat leftovers for lunch the next day. We get 100% use of the food.

I don't have leftovers often, because I am cooking for one, and pretty much know how much I want! But I have been guilty of having something leftover and saving it in the fridge, only to forget it is in there! If I don't eat the leftovers within 24 hours, my knowledge of their existence seems to go into some part of my brain that is reserved for unretrievable information!

My mother tosses leftovers...Dh and I cringe when we see it.

It is just 2 of us now since Grandaddy passed, and its hard to cook just enough for the two of us, but I usually cook just 1 meal a day, as SO works from 330pm to 200 am, and i eat in the evening and he eats heated up when he gets home, then we usually eat it the next day too. We rarely throw anything out, although last week I made enchilladas and put oo much sauce, and after 2 days it the fridge the last enchallada was soggy and nasty, unsalvageable, so I admit I thre the enchallada away.

:bang:

But other than the occassional once in a moon thing, we eat what we have.

~~Megan~~

I can't imagine throwing left overs away all the time. There are times when I do. Since I live alone, I try to make one dish that will last me several days and just eat off that until it's gone. However I do have a limit if it's not eaten in a week then out it goes.

That doesn't happen very often though. It really helps keep the grocery bill low.

I always consider which leftovers will be eatin right away and which ones I need to freeze to make something else. I will even save a small 1/2 c. portion of mushroom soup to be added to my creative leftover challenges. I will also keep track of how those bargain veggies a doing in the fridge, and if I think something will not be used before it goes bad...into the freezer it goes for soup.
One problem I do have, is never writing done the things added to my leftover meals...and finding my husband loved it, and would like me to make that again...............sometimes I just start tossing them in.
My sister in law is really bad about constintly fixing things for the kids, and of course they won't eat it and into the garbage it goes.

Originally posted by Shell
My husband HATES left-overs but I try to change my left-overs into something different and I don't mention the chicken pot-pie is from a left-over chicken the day before. I don't mention the home-made chicken broth is also a left-over. I don't mention the chinese stir fried rice and ham is a left-over. Then he'll eat it!

WTG Shell :D

I have thrown away refrigerator leftovers many times. I am getting better especially with vegtables. I grind them up and throw them into just about everything these days. Not only soups but meatloaf, muffins, and casseroles. This is one way for me to get my family to eat them, without them ever knowing that they are.

I have thrown leftovers away that got lost in the fridge before. But last year I went to the $$ store and bought some single serve plastic containers for $1 each. If there is anything left after dinner it goes into a container then into the freezer. Dh will take them for lunch sometimes. When all 10 of the containers are full then we schedule an empty the freezer dinner night and everyone gets to pick the dinner they like the best.

I love leftovers! Always have. So many things taste better the next day after the flavors have mingled. My kids ate leftovers with no problems...and dh will eat anything you put in front of him :toothy: I can eat the same thing day after day and it doesn't bother me at all. That's usually what I do when he travels a lot. The thing that usually gets tossed here is salad.

I have been known to tell my family that there is whatever leftover in the fridge - "if you don't want it eat a PB&J sandwich but I won't cook again until the leftovers are gone". Usually they all eat the leftovers for dinner.

But I have been guilty of throwing out food. Especially if it is not enough for a meal for at least one person.

Dh and I were raised to eat leftovers so it's not a problem here. Even though chicken is not his favorite he will eat it. Sometimes though I'll leave something in the frig past it's prime and have to throw it out but what ever is left from Friday night is usually eaten for Sunday dinner so I don't have to cook. I also cook for us, my sister and my mom at least once a week so I don't have tons of leftovers those days. Whatever is left I eat the next day or it goes in the freezer.

One other thing my mom, sis and I do is eat each other's leftovers. It works out great.

Not only do I use up every last bit of leftovers (usually by taking it for lunch the next day), I have found that since I reduced our grocery budget to $120.00 ( 2 adults and 3 little ones) a month I am using up everything, and I mean everything in our cupboards.

Most things were bought with good intentions of cooking from scratch (like dry beans and rice) that I just never got around to using. Lipton Rice was easier. Even that can of Armour Treet was used the other night for hot sandwiches.

I has been interesting.....but very rewarding. Amy D. has a good article about this in the TWG - can't remember quite what the title is - but it's good!

Also - could someone who said they had no remorse about throwing away leftovers explain why? You don't have to explain yourself to me, I'm just afraid I'm missing something.;)

I am guilty of not liking leftovers. Will I eat em' yes, do I like em' nope. I usually eat a lot less on leftovers night though; keeps me skinnier I suppose !

If it sits longer than 24 hours in her fridge, she tosses it. Many times I have taken the leftovers home from a meal at her house. She also throws away bananas when they start to get brown spots on them...I mean just little tiny spots. I have taken those home with me too. She knows she is fussy, so we give her a hard time about it. Luckily she has a good sense of humor!

I have a vaccum sealer, so I usually seal up the leftovers either in bulk (like lazagne) or in individual "TV dinner" size packages. I save those for nights when we are in a hurry or I don't feel like cooking.

I can't say I have never thrown away leftover food, but if I do it's usually something that got pushed to the back of the fridge and I forgot about it.

I agree about starving people in the world and even our own starving people in this country!It is maddening to see food go to waste. If we eat out, I always bring home leftovers for the next day. I find if I get tired of leftovers I freeze it for another time because I hate to see food thrown out.

Thank goodness my DH loves leftovers. The kids are ok -depends on what kind of leftovers. I will make something up for them but I will eat leftovers.

Think also about the time and money you put into cooking and then you throw it all out! I grew up where my mother used up everything. Nothing goes to waste. I try and do the same and find recipes to go with whatever I have left in the fridge and cupboards -the "use it all up" mentality is what I try and live by.

A hint about hard leftover rice-you can add water to it and microwave it and it comes out soft.

We save a ton of money and time by eating leftovers. We too have a night of eating up what is left in the fridge usually on the weekends.

I do and I don't.

I toss em if the family hated a new recipe, as there is no point in leaving it and seeing if reheating it will make it taste better. It won't.

I am not the family garbage disposal so if I create a meal that nobody including me wants to eat, I refuse to be a FAT MARTYR!!!:toothy:

I am fat, but not a martyr!!! There is a big difference ROFL!!!!!:toothy:

So then I toss it.

BUT if it's in the realm of ordinary leftovers from family dinner, then dh and I usually fight over it for lunches tomorrow as did the kids when they lived here.:D

I'm thinking you might have taken my comment "I have no remorse" the wrong way. The left overs that get thrown out are the ones that are forgotten about and are no longer good. ;)

Originally posted by Persimmon Lace
Dh and I were raised to eat leftovers so it's not a problem here. Even though chicken is not his favorite he will eat it. Sometimes though I'll leave something in the frig past it's prime and have to throw it out but what ever is left from Friday night is usually eaten for Sunday dinner so I don't have to cook. I also cook for us, my sister and my mom at least once a week so I don't have tons of leftovers those days. Whatever is left I eat the next day or it goes in the freezer.

One other thing my mom, sis and I do is eat each other's leftovers. It works out great.

A leftover co-op. What a good idea. I wish I had someone to trade leftovers with. That's neat!

"When " we have leftovers they go one of 3 ways.
1. Eaten by someone as after school snack.
2. Eaten by family members on "Mustgo Night"
3. Gets frozen in the " soup making tupperware".

A bit of explanation:
There are many kids in my neighborhood who live in single parent homes. Unfortunatly these particular single parents have never darkend the inside of a grocery store and only know how to go throught the nearest drive thru. Therefore there are NO leftovers or any other type of foodstuffs in these homes. I know as I have seen the inside of the refrigs. These kids know we have an open door policy about food. If your hungry you come here and we WILL feed you. This has gone on for the last 15 years. I usually
offer up leftovers when a kid says "I straving and don't care what you give me."
"Mustgo" night is usually right before shopping day. I go throught both refrig and freezer and cook up those items that "Must go". This can be a really intresting meal. :D
Soup tupperware is a hangover from my mom. In my freezer there is a large tupperware which gathers, leftover veggies or overflow from the garden, leftover meat chunked up, leftover rices, potatoes, noodles, etc. When tup is full it becomes a type of veggie soup. Extra gravies, broths and tomato juices also end up here.

Laurie in Bradenton

oh, one other point. I have met the "we don't eat leftover types."
I always help them clean up after dinner and make no bones about asking for the leftover if they are going to throw them out.
This past Thanksgiving we were invited to my son's new inlaws for dinner. When grandma walked towards the trashcan with the turkey carcass I stopped her dead with I'll take that home. She asked why as all female inlaws in the kitchen got queit and looked at us. I'll make soup. Was my reply. Sons' new mother in law said "You know how to do that?" God love Dear son, he piped up from the other room with "Yeah and its Great! New daughter in law got a soup making lesson the next day! So the cycle lives on!

Laurie in Bradenton

DH has had food poisioning several times growing up from the unsafe handling of his mom's leftovers. So he is paranoid about leftovers. he will NOT eat them. But the kids and I we do...but only the things I have cooked. We don't take leftovers from MIL's house.

We eat all leftovers here. A little trick I learned years ago was to dish the leftovers into individual dishes and cover with plastic wrap so they were ready to pop in the microwave. I would see my DH and 4 kids take those from the fridge and would comment, "Works every time." (meaning the individual servings.) That has become our little catch phrase before digging into those nice, hot leftovers, "Works every time."

Originally posted by canadian gardener
I do and I don't.

I toss em if the family hated a new recipe, as there is no point in leaving it and seeing if reheating it will make it taste better. It won't.

I am not the family garbage disposal so if I create a meal that nobody including me wants to eat, I refuse to be a FAT MARTYR!!!:toothy:

I am fat, but not a martyr!!! There is a big difference ROFL!!!!!:toothy:

So then I toss it.

BUT if it's in the realm of ordinary leftovers from family dinner, then dh and I usually fight over it for lunches tomorrow as did the kids when they lived here.:D


That's funny! I refuse to be a fat martyr too! That is when I will throw out a leftover also. One time I made some dirty rice and it lived up to it's name. Nobody would touch it with a ten foot pole so out it went. Usually though, any leftovers are lunch the next day. Not much wasted here.. :D

Originally posted by danni
I have thrown leftovers away that got lost in the fridge before. But last year I went to the $$ store and bought some single serve plastic containers for $1 each. If there is anything left after dinner it goes into a container then into the freezer. Dh will take them for lunch sometimes. When all 10 of the containers are full then we schedule an empty the freezer dinner night and everyone gets to pick the dinner they like the best.

This is a VERY cool idea! I live alone, but when I make soup or lasagne or such, I put it into single-serving containers. The problem is, then I feel compelled to eat that particular thing every day until it is gone! I like the idea of filling up my freezer with single-serve dinners and then have a "pick your dinner" night!

I am also very bad about not eating breakfast (unless you count coffee as breakfast ;) ), then skipping lunch as well. If I made up a bunch of single-serve meals, I do have a personal fridge at work that I could put two or three containers in each week.

Before kids, DH and I would cook every few days. And PURPOSELY make leftovers. Having leftovers meant not having to cook the next night or two. Three days is the max.


The kids however, do not like to eat the same thing two days in a row. So, DH now takes the extra portion to work the next day for lunch. Or I'll eat the extra-extra portion for lunch and the kids will have something else.

Oh, after my father died, and my mother was alone and I realized that she wasn't going to cook for herself and she was on a very limited budget and frozen dinners wasn't going to help that ...

I would cook food and freeze in individual ziplock bags. Ziplock bags lie flat and don't take up much storage space. I'd have about a month's worth in her freezer that she could eat for either lunch or dinner - or she could make a sandwich for lunch.
So she'd have meat loaf meals, chicken meals, spaghetti and meatballs, homemade mac and cheese etc.

I also realized that this way I was also "giving" my mother money without it being an issue.

Originally posted by ironmaiden
[
I also realized that this way I was also "giving" my mother money without it being an issue. [/B]

Yes, I've shown up at my mother's house with a box of groceries before. :) She is a better cook than I am, so I don't even bother taking her food (although she seems to like my chile). She is Korean, so I stop at the local Korean market, which I've been to with her on dozens of occasions, and buy the Korean equivalent of milk and butter for her!

She had a VERY bad experience about ten years ago, where she ended up losing her house and being put out on the street (long story involving another family member). She lived in an apt for two years (wouldn't come live with me because I was living "in sin" at the time, even though she loved my boyfriend), and somehow saved up enough to put a down-payment on a condo (which is now paid off - this woman could give lessons to The Tightwad Gazette). She lived for about six months on the kindness of friends and family. She would just visit all her friends every couple of days and, being Korean (or maybe it is all Asians, since her Japanese friends are the same way), they would put out a huge lunch and then give her a bunch of leftovers to take home. She would live on those, then make soup out of the scraps, then have rice with broth over it, until she used up every last drop of food. Then she'd pay another visit to her friends. :-) During that time, I made regular visits with her Korean staples (and a few of the more expensive goodies I knew she loved but would never buy for herself). She would always get all fussy and mad at me, and tell me how I bought the wrong brand of this or that, but she never told me to stop bringing it! ;)

My best friend's sister does not do leftovers. When the meal is finished, anything left is thrown away. She will not even buy meat and freeze it. She goes to the grocery store whenever she is cooking meat for supper and picks up a fresh pack. She makes lots of trips to the grocery store. She told me once that most of the workers in Publix call her by name. LOL!

My son's ex girlfriend throws away all leftovers...I'm not talking about a cup of something here or there either. My son told me she made a big meatloaf which they ate about 1/3 of it....she threw out the rest! I asked her why she didn't make spaghetti with it and she told me 'oh, you can do that?' DUH! But it figures, her mother does the same thing. We on the other hand are a bit more frugal...we have what we call garbage night. I know it doesn't sound that appealing but it's actually pretty good....I generally try to make a soup or stew of some kind...add some herbs and spices to change the taste a bit. Another example: one of my other sons works for KFC and the employees take home the leftovers...you can eat just so much fried chicken so I remove it from the bone, add noodles and a sauce of some kind and warm it in the oven as a casserole. You wouldn't know it was fried chicken leftovers unless you were told. My parents grew up during the Depression and I guess I learned from them...and tight budgets...lol

Jan

It depends for me, I don't like leftover and I don't eat them.
We never have enough for everyone (there are 6 of us) and we all eat the same thing (whatever I make) everynight. I awlays save leftover meat, my husband will eat that or I can mix it up and make something else but a lot of the time I get rid of the veggies and starches.
I am not big on casseroles and I don't like things mixed up and the kids don't really like soups and stews so I have gotten good at not having anything left over. Most nights it is all gone at dinner.

Eileen

I use to be bad about throwing away leftovers when I first got married. Dh believes in eating them...raised that way. I mean, I was raised that way too, but still would toss them. Im much better now and will eat them for up to 3 days and then if any is left, I toss it out to the outside cats.

We eat all of our leftovers or use them in something else. Sometimes DH eats a lot for dinner and there aren't leftovers. But I'm usually very happy for them because it's usually my lunch for the next day.

Leftovers? Leftovers are a free meal here!
Lunch is almost always leftovers for myself & dh. Luckily neither of us mind leftovers. The kids get kind of tired of them, but I try to make new stuff out of leftovers as often as possible. Leftover meatloaf into spaghetti, leftover chicken and vegetables into chicken pot pie, etc.

Leftovers also save me quite a bit of work in the kitchen (not to mention money). Without leftovers I would be making lunch from scratch (or convenience or *gasp* fast food) every day. I'd have to cook all the meals with new ingredients rather than reusing them in new & creative ways.

Leftovers are our friends :toothy:

I'm slowly getting dh used to eating leftovers. My problem is I cannot cook for two, I end up making way to much, and we get burned out of eating it.

It kind of depends...I use up as much of the left overs as possible in a soup, casserole or just for lunches. But sometimes after I make the soup, serve it for dinner and have it for lunch a few days, everyone is tired of it and it just sits. After a week or so, out it goes! I need to start sharing that big old pot of soup or stew with my sisters family since they love my soup. Little do they know it is always leftovers doctored up! We ARE bad about buying salad fixins and then not eating them. So we end up feeding them to the goats more often that I would like. I really need to reduce the amount of fresh produce and fruit that I buy. I get carried away and buy too much which is just a waste. Sorry for rambling on here...the short answer to the question is that after a leftover is recycled a couple of times, if it still does not get eaten, it gets trashed.

I seldom have leftovers, we eat until it is all gone....my FIL hates leftovers, but my MIL makes big batches of things, and when we come to Indiana for the weekend, once a month, we get a freezer full of leftovers....usually meat items, so I don't have to cook the meat items at home (I'm a vegetarian and cooking meat grosses me out now).

Two DSs who are big eaters + usually making about the right amount for dinner = very few leftovers. I plan for soups for two nights, but if Ihave leftovers, I freeze individual servings for my lunches.

I agree about some things being better the second night. Lasagna is yummy the second time around!

I often plan for leftovers. For example, when I make spaghetti, I will take out enough for my lunch the next day. I sometimes make a baked chicken for one meal and use the boned meat for a pasta dish the next day.