The Right Time for Some Left Overs

Leftovers- the dreaded answer to the “what’s for dinner?” whine. Leftovers just make sense- they’re quick, easy and save money. Leftovers don’t have to be just the reheated remnants of last night’s burgers. There are many things that you can do with leftovers, without sacrificing taste or originality. The first step is to not think of leftovers as nuked scraps from a previous meal. Think of this food as being repurposed. You are saving money and the environment by not ditching perfectly good food. One of the most important thing about having delicious and useable leftovers is that you need to think ahead a little. When cooking the original meal think of where you may be able to use the leftovers later. For example if you’re making a stir fry and realize you bought one too many green peppers, chop it up anyway so that you can throw a handful into your egg white omelet in the morning. The same principle of thinking ahead can also be used when you are buying the staples at the store. Be sure that you have the dry goods (like canned beans) and the freezer fixings (like frozen spinach) to bulk up and round out a meal of leftovers.

One of the best leftover catch-alls are soups and stews. All you need is a low-sodium broth base and that leftover ham can be diced and thrown in, that one cup of brown rice that is a little too dry to be eaten alone can be thrown in and that frozen bag of vegetable medley you wisely picked up last week “just in case” can be thrown in. Without much time money or effort you have a delicious and hearty soup you know everyone will love.

If you don’t use your refrigerated leftovers in 1-2 days the best bet is to throw it into the freezer, but be sure to aliquot it first. This means to break up large portions into smaller more usable portions. This will prevent food waste later on. For example, of you cooked a large turkey and threw half of it in the freezer as-is, you would have to thaw the whole thing and eat it all within two days. However if you froze small portions of the turkey in different containers, you could merely thaw the amount you want to use that night and preserve the rest for later.