I have a couple of hamburgers, a little of this, part of a calzone, and some lettuce. There is not enough of one thing for all of us to have the same thing, but there is plenty of good food and I do not want it to go to waste! The bonus is I don't have to cook. Also, I'm saving money by using what we got and moving turkey tacos to a night later this week.
leftovers some time in August 2014
Here are a few discoveries I've made when it comes to enjoying leftovers:
Heat them up properly. Often, microwaves do not do food any favors. Take the extra time and heat the food up in the toaster oven or on top of the stove in a skillet.
Boil a pot of pasta and throw leftover meat and vegetables on top. Pasta will give any dish a second life and will help you stretch a meal. Top with fresh Parmesan cheese to make it feel really special. The same thing could be said for lettuce. Put your leftovers on a salad.
Make a wrap or quesadilla. Roll up leftover meat, vegetables, salad, rice etc. in a tortilla. Drizzle on a little salad dressing. For a quesadilla, heat cheese, leftovers, and vegetables in a tortilla on a skillet.
Open a bottle of wine. Suddenly leftover chicken spaghetti doesn't sound so bad when you consider opening a yummy bottle of wine and making a fresh side salad to go with it.
Stephen and I started a ritual on Sunday nights. When we get home from church, we march the kids straight to bed and then we enjoy a candle lit meal of properly cared for leftovers and a glass of wine. It's a date.
It's really fun to have something like this to look forward to at the end of the weekend. Sunday nights used to be kind of a bummer for us until we started this Sunday supper thing.
Here are some of the leftover meals we've shared together...
pork chops re-heated in the skillet with a little butter, side of pasta and broccoli.
leftover spaghetti and meatballs my mom sent home with us from the beach.
hamburgers with toasted buttered buns
If we don't have leftovers, a fried egg on toast is pretty good.
What about your family? Do you eat up all your leftovers or do you find yourself throwing food out?