GRRRR - I Am SO SICK of Leftovers!!! Anyone Else?

1) Make less food, then there won't be any leftovers.
2) Send leftovers with hubby (especially if he has to pay to eat in the caf)
3) Make foods that have separate items that you can use to make a completely different meal (example: tacos one night, use the meat to make spaghetti sauce the next night).
4) Have Friday night leftover night, so all of the leftovers from the week are what's for dinner. One less night to cook!
5) Take it to the little old lady next door (if you have one).

That's all I can think of for now!

If I eat another sandwich I will kick a puppy. I swear it. The thought of another sandwich makes me feel like a woman on the ledge.

Leftovers I don't mind as much because we try not to eat the same thing too often, so I don't mind having it twice because I won't eat it again for 3 or 4 weeks. That's the key. Variety in dinner means variety in leftovers.

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I only cook Mon, Tues and Wed. I make enough at each of those meals to have a little left over which is what we eat for dinner on Thurs. Friday is always pizza and salad for family fun night. We have the kids every other weekend so the weekends we have them I make easy meals like corn/hot dogs, burgers, pasta, etc. On the weekends we don't have the kids, hubby and I usually eat out. So maybe you are making TOO much and have too many leftovers so just cut back on the amount you make and that might help. Good luck!

Put them in freezer bags right away, label & date it and toss it in the freezer. Make one night a week leftover night and everyone gets to pick what they're going to have. I freeze pasta separate so it doesn't get mushy.

In our house I try to make a double meal so leftovers are a whole family dinner for another night and it goes into a large ziploc bag. If you lay it flat in the freezer it will freeze "thin" instead of chunky and odd shaped. But the individual meals do happen and they're good for nights that my husband is working late and one of the kids is at practice or youth group, etc. My husband's a police sergeant and I have a daughter in high school who often has dinner activities. My son and I will have a freezer buffet - he can have mac & cheese and a hot dog while I have beef burgandy or chili. ;o)

I try not to make too much food, this way it cuts down on the leftovers. There are something’s that I make extra so my daughter can bring it to school for lunch.
I can't stand throwing food out, it is usually me that will eat the leftovers for lunch the next day.

YES! Im a SAHM also and we always have leftovers. I pretty much make sure we eat left overs in our house though and everyone pitches in. I just HATE throwing away food. I see dollars bills in the trash every time that has happened. One week I over bought on dinners and forgot we had leftovers. At the end of the week I had all these bowls of uneaten food. Sometimes depending on what we have left we will make a whole new meal. Omelets are a great way to just throw in leftovers. I make a Cheddar & Ham Casserole and its great to put it into an omelet in the morning.

But yeah sometimes you just want something different instead of what you had the night before. I think in this day and age is helps and is a necessity to be frugal though!

I'm the opposite. I LOVE leftovers. That means my hubby or I don't have to figure out something to cook in the 30 minutes we have between getting home and having extra hungry cranky kids.

What I'm less fond of are the casseroles my mom used to make out of the leftovers. But I don't do that.

I'm very italian in my cooking. Because I like leftovers once. Not 6 times. Even twice I have issues with.

What does italian cooking have to do with it? Take the leftovers from one meal, and turn them into something *completely different* for another meal.

Take a normal, old, boring, GREAT on the first night and first day's sammies, shoot me on day 2 roast.

Okay. Meal #2 = NOT LEFTOVERS per se, but

- slice strips and marinate in garlic salt and lime and cillantro, and make (quesadillas, fajitas, soft tacos, taco salad)
- slice thin bits and grill peppers and onions for philly cheese steak
- chop, add bacon, onion, etc for chili
- chop, add to soup, cook down thick, make pot pies or shepard pie. FREEZE the extra pot pies for a few weeks later
- slice for lunch meat, and freeze for when you haven't had red meat for awhile

I typically repurpose and then *freeze* my leftovers for NEXT week. If I actually use leftovers AND repurpose, I freeze for next MONTH. Keeps me from getting sick of them AND I have to tell you... that $80 for a deep freeze was some of the best money ever spent.

I've managed to figure out cooking so that we eat dinner and have 2 servings of leftovers (lunch for me & hubby to take to work the next day). I do still throw away some leftovers, but I've also been known to chunk some into ziplock bags and freeze them for another day...
I say, feed the leftovers to hubby. Or, make meals that the kids can take for lunch (and eat cold--if they don't have access to a microwave)--salad, pizza, etc.
I like the idea of sharing with a neighbor (do a "leftover swap" once a week)!

Yes! We made green chile stew ( which we love, love love) on monday. It was so good, and it was still good tuesday for lunch and wednesday at dinner, but by last night I was like is this stuff breeding in the fridge?! I am sooooo tired of it. I am so not eating any tonight, we are going to have PB&J I think....

REMAKE, don't reheat!

I don't care for reheated roast, but I always make a big one because I DO like BBQ pizza, BBQ sandwiches, beef and noodles, home made soup, or using shredded beef in tacos or burritos or quesadillas.....

Home made Pizza is an AWESOME way to use up leftovers! BBQ pizza, taco pizza, and sloppy joe pizza are all yummy!

Then there are casseroles/shepherd pie type dishes. The bottom layer is diced or shredded leftover meat, leftover/frozen veggies, cream of something soup OR leftover gravy and whatever else sounds good. Then top with your choice of mashed potatoes, biscuit or crescent roll dough, corn bread batter, french fried onions, shredded cheese, cracker or bread crumbs, whatever floats your boat! Bake at 350 until golden brown and deliscious

when i was little, my great-grandma would make soup every friday (with homemade bread of course!) from the leftovers of the week before. she would put any leftovers that didnt get eaten into a big bowl in her freezer and on friday would throw it all in a pot and make soup. i used to help her hack it all up into bite sized pieces and pick out the seasonings to throw in. I started doing this when i realized how much food i was wasting. in the ten years i've been doing it, theres only been maybe two times that it tasted yucky. i used to have time to make bread from scratch, but now I just buy a loaf from the store or a bag of frozen wheat dough. i also only do it in the fall and winter, nobody here will eat soup if it's to warm outside!

Freeze them. Re heat them another time, or give your family some choices based on what is in the freezer.

Yup - I'm with you. We don't order out much either but I absolutely try at least a few nights to have left-overs I can turn into something else the next day. Chicken is easy - roasted one night, leftovers become fajitas the next. I also love turning leftovers into soups. Again, roasted chicken becomes chicken noodle soup or maybe a pasta/broccoli dish the next night. Leftover salmon (doesn't happen often) becomes salmon cakes the next night - I just break it up and add an egg, sauteed onions, peppers, some seasoning and then coat them with panko breadcrumbs & brown them. I'll make a tarter sauce to go with them too - getting hungry here. Leftover things like sausage can be served with eggs the next night too. Quiche or caseroles are also good for using up whatever veggies/meats/cheese you have on hand. I couldn't face the same food more than one night - it HAS to become something different the next.

Yes. I am with you on that one that's for sure. While it probably saves money it can get to be boring.And I want something starchy once in awhile with gooey cheese. We make several meats and then split them up. Well I decided to sneak out for something once in awhile at my lunch (which is only thirty minutes so that doesn't work too well) but occasionally I treat myself! The only thing I can't do is buy a pizza small enough that's already premade. My husband used to work at an Italian restaurant and apparently he ate so much pasta and lasagna and such that he doesn't want these things. So we have beans a lot! Ha!

Freezing half of what you make for another complete meal is a great idea. It is also great (although requires organization) to cook something that can make two meals and/or incorporate your leftovers into a new meal. For example - roast a chicken (or two) - served roast chicken with steamed broccoli day 1. Day 2 (or day 3) make chicken and dumplings (or chicken, rice and vegetable soup or Thai chicken salad, etc) with pureed broccoli (or make fancier broccoli timbales with an egg and some parmesan).

Make a pork roast and roasted potatoes/sweet potatoes. Day 3 - chop up the pork roast (like hash) and serve either hash (add the potatoes) or add green chilies and beans and make pork stew.

I add smaller amounts of cooked meat/chicken/shrimp and vegetables to risotto. Many leftovers can be incorporated into a pasta sauce or soup.

Can your husband take leftovers to work and it that instead of buying lunch at the cafeteria?

Most leftovers don't go over well in our house either. I just make enough food to feed everyone at that meal and make sure not to make too much. If, after a full plate of food, hubbie is still hungry, he's happy with a bowl of cereal after dinner, or ice cream later. Make less food at meal time would be my suggestion.

I don't really eat left overs. Unless it was something that was mouth watering. I have never really been big on eating left overs. So in our house I make less food. If we are still hungry after dinner we have a light snack (handful of cereal, light popcorn, yogurt, trail mix, etc...basically all things that don't require cooking and come in bigger portions so we can choose how much we want as a snack). Either that or my guy takes it to work to eat it. =)

Totally been there! But find ways to recycle them - I use leftover chicken & turkey in salads, soups, quesadillas / hot sandwiches & more. I don't eat hot lunch when I am by myself a lot - I keep it light with veggie, fruit & Greek yogurt. This helps manage my weight too. But everyone else in your family probably eats out for lunch at times - unless you are completely in a jam there is no reason you can't treat yourself a couple times a month. I find it much cheaper to go out to lunch at sit down for around $10 then dinner & will meet a friend about twice a month for my taste buds & sanity. I also buy California rolls at SAMs for $6 that I get severally lunches out of & eat with my std in lieu of yogurt.

Also you can cook for you - I have a friend who'll make herself a grain like cousous - maybe add leftover meat. If you are a frozen entree person - watch sales & buy when cheap.

Remember you work for your family - it is okay to "pay" yourself.

As for throwing out - I find this too - I try to make less of somethings & more of others - so I can freeze & "make" dinner on the fly some nights or lunch for me.