Fall In Love With Leftovers

This week has been a busy one for me. I was prepping for a webinar that I presented on Wednesday evening.  And we all know that when preparing for a presentation, you are constantly practicing and tweaking what it is that you’re going to say.  Even how you’re going to say it!

Basically I was focused on that event and nothing else leading up to the evening of the event.

This meant that when it came to meal planning I need quick and easy.

One thing I always stress with the majority of my recipes is: Go Big, or Go Home.

This is my way of saying, make a lot because you’ll want to have leftovers.

Leftovers are like a Food Insurance Policy.

By having leftovers ready to go either the next day or tucked away in your freezer, you are making sure that on those nights when you’re working late, or the kids basketball game ran over, or you are super tired, you’ve got something to turn to that isn’t fast food or take out.

You’ve got a homemade meal ready to go and all you have to do is heat it up.

Sometimes we can just heat up something as is, and sometimes we can tweak those leftovers to jazz them up.

By taking the time to plan a head just a bit, we can make sure that we feed ourselves wholesome foods even when we’re at our most busy or at our most tired.

This week, I turned to leftovers and simple dishes a lot.

  • Sunday I pulled out some chili from the freezer.
  • Monday I made a HUGE pot of haluski (recipe soon!) that would feed us through Tuesday as well.
  • Wednesday, it was breakfast for dinner with scrambled eggs and black beans.

Having leftovers accesible made sure that even on this super busy start to the week, we had homemade hot meals ready to go at dinner time.

Now it’s on to planning my next webinar series and making lots of meals to stock my freezer back up with leftovers!

Leftover Ideas:

Potato and Green Bean Hash

Fish Po’ Boys

Veggie Stuffing Bowls

Tell me about your relationship with leftovers! Love or hate them?

10 thoughts on “Fall In Love With Leftovers

  1. I used to loathe leftovers. I’m not sure why. I think it was because it never quite tasted the same. As I’ve changed to cooking with higher quality ingredients though, leftovers are a staple. Ingredients make all the difference. It’s such a great way to make cooking your own food achievable as well. Make it ahead when you have time and enjoy it later. Love all your ideas!

    • Lori, I used to loath them as well until I was the one responsible for making dinner. Ha! Then I started playing around with them and realized they can be made into different things.

  2. I never understood those people who hated leftovers. What’s so wrong with them? Granted, most meals I have no desire to eat night after night after night, but I don’t think many people want that. Most leftovers are more delicious than the original meal anyway, since the flavors get to meld (especially with things like meatballs and sauce, stews, and soups).

    I do have to get better about making meals in advance. I’ll have to check out some of your recipes!

  3. I technically eat leftovers every day. :) I make 4 servings for every dinner so we have lunch the next day. But it’s even more awesome when it’s a stew/soup or something like that where you end up with 6-8 servings and have a bonus meal for a busy night or lazy weekend lunch. :)

    • Charise, Yes! That’s exactly why I make huge batches of soups and stews. It tastes better the next day and then there’s plenty left to stick in the freezer.

  4. It kinda depends. Some foods just don’t work well as a leftovers, but cooking for one has generally meant that those sorts of recipes don’t even find their way into the kitchen here. I tend to like soup and stews but also things that can be re-purposed so I’ll roast a whole chicken and use the leftovers in chicken salad or quesadillas and such.

Leave a Reply to Andrea Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published.

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.