These tricks led me to see the light and become BFFs with leftovers
If thinking about leftovers cues up scary music, you're not alone.
My wife and I used to play “leftover chicken” — that fun game where we let leftovers stay in the refrigerator until one of us suggests that the other consume it before it spoils.
All this ended up doing is making us despise leftovers more. It wasn't doing us favors to toss food out.
Leftovers help you sleep better at night.
Wait, what?!
There's a lot going on in the world today. Maybe you're embracing the chaos perfectly, and I salute you.
For me, I've caught myself checking out the news more these days, and rarely does it make things calmer.
That being said, what's happening in the world is largely out my control, and it does little good to worry about it. (I do anyway, but that's a work in progress.)
What is in our control, though, is how we manage our personal finances. A chunky part of that is food costs.
Leftovers are a cost-conscious way to maximize the good money we shell out for food. And I sleep a bit better knowing that I'm taking action to be frugal and not blow through an inordinate portion of my paycheck on meals.
Six tricks I've used to make leftovers my friend
Here are six ways that we've employed to not only stomach, but actually enjoy our leftovers:
1. Portion the leftovers right after dinner
Usually we have one or two meals' worth of leftovers after we cook.
Things go much easier if we portion out the leftovers as we clean up. We'll throw some rice and chicken into a small container so it's ready to go next day for lunch.
2. Make a game out of it
This is one I came up recently: “How many containers can I kill with this meal?”
Each package of opened consumables I demise leaves room for fresh. Bonus points if we accidentally had opened two of the same item (yeah it happens) and we finally get rid of one of them to erase our errant ways. Last night a duplicate salad dressing container went the way of the recycling bin.
3. Have fillers at the ready to create meals
I tend to latch onto particular meals and will eat them several times a week for years. My latest obsession is MTR pouches with Indian meal bases. They all have a good level of spice and I haven't yet found one that I don't like.
I'll cook about 8 servings of rice in our Aroma rice cooker at a time and have it in the refrigerator. In the morning I'll scoop about a half-cup into a reusable food container and take it and the MTR into work with me.
Having rice (and cubes of cheese, pasta, ground beef, cooked beans, hard-boiled eggs, etc.) at the ready makes tossing a leftover meal together a snap.
4. Make the packaging easy
One of the smarter moves I've made is getting rid of our myriad unicorn plastic containers and replacing them with all the same brand. (We chose Rubbermaid Easy Find Lids containers and love them.) No more frustrated hunting for the right lid that actually seals the container shut.
Pretty much anything you can do to simplify meal preparation will make it more likely that you'll actually do it.
5. Think of them as free lunches
Yeah I know, no such thing, but a leftover lunch doesn't need to be bought again, or cooked again. It may need to be heated up again, but sometimes not!
If that's too far of a stretch, think of them as half-price meals: Half for dinner, half for lunch the next day.
6. Cook things leftover-worthy
I'll end with square one.
To have leftovers that you want to eat, they need to be something you'll enjoy eating in the first place! That means exploring foods that taste great, sit well, and perform well the next day in the microwave.
What you end up having is of course up to you, but it will be something you enjoy!
Thanks for reading!
Hi, I'm John and I encourage people to work for themselves, and on themselves, every day to sleep better at night.
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header photo by Matthew Moloney on Unsplash
