Leftovers
Posted by Richard | Filed under Richard
“What am I going to write about?” I ask Jane.
“How about dinner?”
“What? What’s interesting about dinner?”
“We’re having leftovers. That’s kind of interesting.”
Actually, Jane and I have different philosophies about leftovers.
Leftovers are a reality of home-cooking. It doesn’t all always get eaten. So, if you are to be virtuously-frugal (or frugally-virtuous, for those who can’t stand them) you need to find a way to re-eat the food: leftovers it is.
Now, Jane’s aware of this theory, but doesn’t like leftovers. A picky eater to begin with, the idea of having something she wasn’t too keen on for a second time, but now cold, apparently doesn’t work for Jane.
I grew up without a microwave, until I was 15, I think. And even then it was on top of the fridge, so difficult to remember to use. Re-heating anything required an oven or a stove-top. So, as a teenager, I developed a taste for cold food. So for me: warm food is special, cold food is normal.
Jane likes hot food: she will microwave previously cooked meat just to get it warm again (blech… microwaved meat, with the exception of bacon, is just awful.) She tells me her mother takes freshly delivered pizza and pops it in the oven to heat it up again. It’s amazing what behaviours can be imprinted on us as “normal.”
So, when it’s my turn to plan the meals and I say “fridge is still full: leftovers it is” I think it’s an easy meal: cold food all around, different samples from different days’ tupperware, and away we go: dinner is served. But this doesn’t do for Jane, and she’s quite distressed to see me twiddling my thumbs waiting at the table as she tries to figure out what on her plate needs to be microwaved for how long.
So the other approach is it needs to be disguised. It needs to look like a brand new meal. For my family, this is what one did with leftover-leftovers. Portions so small they couldn’t easily be shared. Traditionally they all got blended together with a sauce, served with a starch, and that was the new meal (and, it too could become leftovers.) So there was chili, or curry, or frittata, or the meal I called “tortillas” (which I’ve since learned is the just the bread the meal got served on) or… the final-result of many a meal in my parent’s house: home-made-everything-soup. A one-pot meal is the solution for all left-overs.
Jane’s not particularly thrilled with this strategy. She’s not too keen on spicy food, and the one-pot reinvention strategy heavily relies on “this sauce tastes so strong you don’t recognize the food.” But since Jane foots the food bill, she’s beginning to appreciate its strengths in general… just not always in specific.
Tonight I shared with Jane a traditional family recipe from my mother’s family: Tatty Bree. Which the almighty google tells me is a North Ireland staple. Very odd, since I thought my grandmother’s family background was from Lancashire and France.
Simple, simple, simple: so simple you can tweet it. Knead old mashed potato, melted butter and flour into a dough. Roll flat. Cook on hot griddle until browned on both sides.
I like it about as thick as a loonie. Jane was more partial to pieces closer to half a centimeter thick. Jane wasn’t sure what to think of tatty brie. It was bland enough she was wondering what could go on it. (Anything, but I’m partial to butter, or soft-fried eggs.) She settled for maple syrup. The good news is we can have it again, cause we both like it.
Anyway, let me hand the court over to you readers. What’s a recipe for leftovers so simple you can tweet it? (140 characters or less)
Thirty and married, Richard and his wife, Jane, don’t have kids yet, but are hopeful. Currently renters, Richard and Jane are saving for a place of their own. Richard recently lost his job. “This was a hard blow to take.” He’s since found a new job. Yeah Richard.
April 10, 2012 at 7:42 am
I usually make curry with leftovers (of which I almost always have some), but fried rice is also good: fry an onion, garlic, plus whatever (celery, mushrooms, carrots sliced thin, leftover meat, etc.), add the leftover rice, and perhaps some hoisin or soy sauce, until everything is hot and preferably slightly crunchy too.
Quiche is also a very good way to use up leftover vegetables, especially roasted root vegetables, I find. I make super-simple pate brisee (150g flour, 50 ml oil — mix together with a fork — add 50 ml water — knead a little till combined. Roll out. Makes a nice thin slightly nubbly crust perfect for quiche) and then mix a couple eggs with milk or yoghurt and cheese, plus herbs, pour over vegetables, bake for 45 min or so at 350.
April 10, 2012 at 8:05 am
I’m like Jane. Cold anything (other than pizza, actually) is gagworthy. Cold potatoes? ick. I don’t even like potato or pasta salad!
As for leftovers, I tend to break things up individually into containers, usually cooking extra for a reason. For example, last night we had rice with pork chops. The pork was portioned out for us already (I portion things when we bring them home so we don’t end up trying to eat extra food when we don’t really need to). The rice got packaged and stuck in the fridge for another night’s meal, cutting down on prep time. That will be consumed on Thursday or Friday. Tonight we are having tacos. If there is leftover ground meat, it will be put in a dish and used for pasta sauce, otherwise no meat will get added to pasta sauce. Or it might get thrown into an omellette, frittatta, or quiche.
That said, the only time there is leftover meat is when I intentionally put it aside before putting the taco items out on the table. They go quickly! I’m actually going to try my hand at tortillas tonight, so if they turn out well, then we’ll stop buying fresh corn tortillas from the shop in Kensington Market and trying to figure out what to do with the leftovers from there. 500 g of tortillas is still a lot, even if we’re only spending $2.00 on them!
Also, I’m not very adventurous with my foods, so I just reheat each container, divvy it on the plates, and then eat, or I put the meal into a portion size for lunch or dinner, stick that in a container and pop it in the freezer. Instant quick meal when it’s wanted.
April 10, 2012 at 8:41 am
Take leftover turkey, chop into small peices, add leftover gravy ( and cream of chicken soup), leftover veggies into a baking dish. Top with leftover mased potatoes and stuffing, bake at 350 until browned and bubbling.
April 10, 2012 at 8:43 am
I use left overs for lunch the next day. Tacos for dinner means nachos for lunch the next day. Leftover chicken can be diced and added to a salad. Sloppy joes one night can mean chili dogs for dinner later in the week. I like to make enough food to be sure we have leftovers, and then I freeze it and serve it again in a week or two. It doesn’t feel like leftovers when I do that. I just put it in the crockpot to warm, or heat it i the oven.
April 10, 2012 at 8:44 am
Almost everything I make for supper, I make enough to have leftovers at least once, why you ask? LUNCHES. Four out of five days a week we have leftovers in our lunches. Sandwiches for me aren’t filling enough and to be honest, I prefer a hot lunch. So I always cook extra just for that reason. We have been doing this for so long, I can’t even remember but when my daughter hit high school, and there were microwaves available, she also started taking leftovers. We almost never buy lunch out and when one of us does, it is a treat.
April 10, 2012 at 8:54 am
We usually have large roasts & Cuts of steak that have left overs unintentionally (Chicken & Yellow Rice is always made with yummy leftovers in mind). We found that getting an inexpensive meat slicer allowed us to take any uneaten roasts & steak slabs to carve them for sandwich meat for the rest of the week. Nothing tastes better than a nice London Broil Sandwich with A1 sauce!
April 10, 2012 at 8:54 am
Frittatta, soup/stew and pasta sauce are usually where left overs go around here. We purchase a CSA share in the summer. Some weeks we have surpluses that can’t be frozen well, the left over veggies make it into these dishes.
About four years ago we (me mosty) decided that my husband and our budget would be healthier if he brought his meals to work. I divide leftovers into portions and freeze. He prefers warm meals anyday to cold sandwiches. It has worked well for us and saves about $40/week.
If we still have leftovers or veggies/fruits that don’t make it, they go to the chickens outside. We have 8 banty hens that lay nice little eggs for us daily. Hence the frittata staple and breakfast for dinner happens weekly here too. Our compost bin sees only coffee grounds these days.
April 10, 2012 at 9:00 am
Leftovers are like feet; most of us have them. Leftovers are delicious reheated for lunch the next day. I laugh when we use leftovers. I remember the movie “Christmas Story” with the leftover turkey and the gazillion ways Ralphie’s mom re-used it; have a glass of wine and be creative. Fun article.
April 10, 2012 at 9:19 am
I agree with Jennifer. Make enough dinner so you have lunch the next day. Reheat on stove top or using microwave. It saves time, money and allows you to know what is in your food rather than eating processed food. We tend to freeze anything that goes really far and thaw/reheat later on or hubby eats it when I go out of town. Leftovers in general can suck but once you get over it and see the bottom line, they are not so bad.
April 10, 2012 at 10:22 am
I love leftovers! But then again, I get a high from making something out of “nothing”, I learned what to do best with leftovers from my aunt..in our home, we have “Left Over Scramble” almost anything left over, thrown into a bowl, whisked up with eggs and scrambled!! Especially good with left over turkey dinner!! The other one I do a lot of is “what’s in the fridge soup”, usually I use a can of campbells tomato as a start, then add whatever’s in the fridge, I buy a walmart veggie tray every week ( my 3 year old son GOES TO TOWN ON IT and gets his veggies) then whatevers not eaten by the end of the week…SOUP! YEAY LEFTOVERS!!!!!
April 10, 2012 at 11:46 pm
LOL! Ok, I think 132 letters?
Left over roast chicken and cooked veggies, can of crm of mushroom soup, add some milk, mix everything, heat up and serve over rice.
April 11, 2012 at 11:58 am
I use left over ham,chicken or turkey by putting it in alfredo sauce with some left over or fresh cooked broccoli,peas or corn. I then serve it over one of our favorite whole wheat or smart pastas topped off with a little fresh grated parm cheese.
April 11, 2012 at 5:28 pm
My DH doesn’t actually eat lunch, but he’s so sweet that now he actually makes extra dinner for me for my lunch the next day, because I hate mayonnaise and so sandwiches are out. Otherwise, we don’t tend to have leftovers, and I’m always disappointed when we eat out for dinner because it now means purchasing for scrounging for food in the fridge. Ah, the frugal life.