To not understand people that dont eat leftovers?

[Eliza9917]

I've seen a lot of people say this, and wondered why? What could eating leftovers possibly do to you? Is it a fear of poverty in some way?

My sister knew a girl that would roast a chicken for Sunday dinner and only eat the breasts and throw the rest away. To me, that's madness, I'd get at least 2-3 dinners and a soup out of a large chicken.

I also have a food waste digester so literally have zero food waste in our home

Eh? Food waste which is ground up and put into waste water is still food waste.. Unless by "food waste digester" you actually mean "labrador".

Mines 6 foot 2 and home from Uni.

It's rare we have leftovers, it's not hard to portion food before cooking to save waste in the first instance. The only time is usually from a takeaway.

I don't batch cook as don't like reheated food, it's rarely as nice as just cooked food.

Remove the cling film wrapping from around the mushrooms and cover them with kitchen roll instead.
I don't see anything sanctimonious about telling people they're wrong when they bin bacon which an animal has died for and people are queuing up for food banks. Not forgetting that you're pretty much just throwing money in the bin.

I don't know why anyone would throw away perfectly good food. Fair enough if it's rotten or gone mouldy but there's nothing wrong with the leftovers of your dinner from last night provided you store it properly.

You wouldn't use plastic plates or cups and throw them away after one use, claiming its "icky", "grim", or "yuk" to use something more than once. At least I hope you wouldn't. It's selfish, extremely bad for the environment, and costs you more money!

If you really don't like leftovers, just cook what you need. Or freeze it! Batch cooking saves you a tonne of time in the week when you've had a busy day.

Exactly, it's not sanctimonious at all. It's common sense.

I never eat left overs, I was once very very sick after eating leftovers and now I just can’t bring myself to eat any, my stomach churns and I physically can’t swallow it. I also can’t eat in people’s houses who have pets or eat anything home made that people bring into work.

However I don’t buy or cook more food than we will eat in one meal and waste very little food.

I've never known anyone not to eat leftovers. Food waste is abhorrent

I wouldn't know what to do with a carcass and I only like breast meat. It doesn't go to waste though as the cat devours the rest! Not bones obviously.

I don't like leftovers especially chicken, something to do with the texture. I think it's gross when people scrape people leftover food on plates and then save it

Tbh there's never many leftovers in this house, we have 8 children! And dogs who will happily hoover up leftovers and chickens that will eat veg/bread so everything gets used up.

Christmas and boxing day meals have done two huge bubble and squeaks and a stroganoff for the family.

And yes to not wanting to eat something I've eaten the day before!

I save leftovers if there are any but where the hell are you getting such big (mutant?) chickens from to get multiple family meals out of one?! In my experience there's bugger all meat on them so I don't bother with them anymore.

Mabel no one has said they save food that’s been on someone’s plate.

Why is cooking a massive chicken on a Sunday and then using some of it for a meal that day, some for Monday and then some for Tuesday any kind of sign of poverty? It's just planning.

It's no stranger than filling your car with petrol on a Sunday and then continuing to drive around on the same tank of fuel for however many days until it's nearly all been used up.

if you wouldn't object to driving with fuel that you bought two days ago, why would you object to a meal from chicken that you cooked two days ago? Makes no sense at all.

where the hell are you getting such big (mutant?) chickens from to get multiple family meals out of one?

There's me, DH, DS1 (4) and DS2 (7 months). An average size chicken easily does 2 meals, often 3. We don't eat huge amounts of meat though.

Some things I do not like cold, indeed find them positively unpleasant. So I ensure I do not end up with these as leftovers.

I love leftovers - tasty home cooked food that makes my lunches for work. I have colleagues that spend £4-5 a day on brought lunches then complain that they’re skint mid month!
It might not sound great but one of my favourites is my nans leftover meatloaf - basically a Yorkshire pudding batter with minced meat from the Sunday roast with seasonings etc.

We always eat leftovers and any leftovers from those leftovers go out for the birds/foxes 🦅 🦊

Gunpowder
I’m not into gardening and I’m not well enough to do it. Dh likes it though. So thanks.

If it's a huge waste issue, why cook too much in the first place? Even for Xmas dinner we had no leftovers.

Batch cooking chilli or soup and freezing is not the same as leftovers to me. It is frozen in individual sized portions so no waste.

This is really interesting. My PIL don't like leftovers and also buy really expensive convenience foods which I don't understand - never own brand. But they have far less money than my parents who are into value everything and always overjoyed at finding the bargains in the reduced shelf and love being 'war babies' and very frugal. It's interesting as I hadn't understood the whole 'fear of looking poor' thing but I get it now. For my parents they have a fear of looking or being frivolous!

I love leftovers and always 'cook for the fridge'. Reheated pizza is definitely yuk though as always so chewy!

I'm not a big fan of 'straight leftovers' - so we pretty much never have 'a previous meal reheated' [the exception is that I freeze 1-person size portions of e.g. pasta sauce, stew, casseroles for the DC to eat as quick suppers, as they often have a bare half hour in the house between school and an evening activity]

What i do do is plan to use something cooked for one meal as an ingredient in another very different meal - so cooked ham in an omelette, or cooked chicken in a curry. Or I split a single batch of meat - e.g. a packet of mince fried with onions - into portions for a shepherd's pie, a spag bol and a chilli.

Tbh I find it a real boon for menu planning - I meticulously plan all menus, both to avoid food waste and to cater for a busy family's comings and goings - as I can start with planning which 'main meat' to buy and then gain 2 more evenings' worth of meal plans without having to think too hard! My GM was an excellent wartime / 1950s cook, and my mother brought me up in the same thrifty manner (not quite poverty-stricken, but the kind of make do and mend usually associated in old-fashioned children's books with vicarages - lots of bottled fruit from the garden and gluts of runner beans...).

On a meal by meal basis, we have almost no leftovers due to detailed meal planning, UNLESS anything is very specifically cooked 'for the menu'. Standard question from my father, who always used to serve out, was 'can I offer seconds, or is it on the menu?'

Dh is terrible for food waste.

He wont eat any left overs as he says bacteria has got into the food and its not healthy.

If veg has a cellophane (sp) wrapping on it with a date on and its one day past that date even though the veg looks fine he wants to bin it.

We have lots of food waste in our house because of this.

He will eat something on its last date at 11pm but wont eat it at 1am the next day (2hours later) as its out of date.