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 generally love leftovers but find the taste of any roasted meat that has cooled has an odd taste (something's like a stale dishcloth) that I find very hard to stomach. I have to disguise it in stews or lots of gravy.

[The Queen]once sent back a lemon that had been served as a garnish, saying that it could be used again by the kitchen' and 'Phil Dampier, co-author of What’s In The Queen’s Handbag And Other Royal Secrets, says: “Very often when she’s at home she’ll be happy to have leftovers'

I'm a big fan of leftovers, even from the plate if we share spit, but that looks like a wind up BarbaraOfSeville. I think the writer of What's In the Queen's Handbag And Other Royal Secrets might have been sniggering up his sleeve.

Who the fuck reheats pizza or lasagne? It's best eaten cold standing in the kitchen before anyone else gets up.

Cold pizza, with extra salt is one of my favourite breakfasts!

I really try not to waste food and do most of the things suggested on this thread. The only thing I seem to regularly chuck though is bread! How can I not waste bread .. I buy a loaf and half of it is going mouldy by the 3rd day

I freeze a lot of bread. I also use stale bits up as French toast or bread and butter pudding.

Cat,

I always halve loaves and freeze the second half (equally always freeze rolls on the day I buy them).

A lot of what is in my freezer is there for less than a week - it's there to squeeze a few extra days out of the week's shopping (do a single weekly shop with no top-ups) for bread, milk, meat etc rather than store things for the long term. I also use it to freeze things like family packs or BOGOFs in 1-meal portions to save money without creating waste.

Yep, split loaf in half. Save old bread bags to wrap the half for the freezer!

Especially if it's sliced. You can make toast or lunchbox sandwiches straight from the freezer.

I also occasionally gather up any odd slices lurking in the freezer & zap in food processor - breadcrumbs (keep in freezer in a tub) are great for topping lasagne, cauliflower cheese etc to create crunch.

Not poor, just 'careful' Entire meal of leftovers tonight but with 'class' Left over smoked salmon on cream cheese covered pieces of bread. half a dozed oysters each and ham salad sandwiches - all washed down with left-over Prosecco. Everything left from NYE and stored correctly

When I was a child we did nt have left overs - my mom pretty much made sure she got the right amount - but when I took over cooking ( as she was and Is a dreadful cook! Burn water type !) there were sometimes left overs .. but I had a brother who inhaled food !! .
I make at least 2 -3 dinners from a chicken - chicken dinner - chicken and pasta - chicken soup - plus chicken stock for Gravy. .
The Christmas turkey made dinner - sandwiches - turkey cheese on toast - turkey curry And turkey soup / stock. I am a tight arse. I want my food to stretch - we are on a budget and I like to buy meat I know has lived a good life / to do that on a budget it has to stretch.
Any dinner left overs - get frozen. I have a freezer full of meals ( I have poor health so when I m not up to cooking - we all get a freezer dinner that was fresh made by me ! )

Sometimes the leftovers are nicer than the first meal!

My kids made sandwiches out of their dad's homemade bread, leftover turkey, stuffing, cranberry sauce and pigs in blankets. They looked as if they were the best sandwiches in the world.

I made soup with the leftover turkey, a couple of slices of bacon, stuffing and some vegetables and it was delicious.

Isn't throwing edibl;e food away bad for your domestic economy and bad for the planet?

How can you eat Xmas leftovers for a week! How yuck and how boring!
We have 3 meats for Xmas dinner, have same as cold cuts for Boxing Day and then the rest is in the bin as by then we fancy some fish or a nice beef curry.
I do eat leftovers the next day but wouldn't eat them beyond that. I could never be bothered to freeze etc.

How can you eat Xmas leftovers for a week! How yuck and how boring!

I dare you to make Delia’s parsnip and cheese roulade and not want to eat it every day for a week.

We don’t usually have roast dinners during the year. Surely it’s more boring to have one every Sunday than 7 days in December?

I had no idea that people didn't eat leftovers. How weird and wasteful.

What's wrong with leftovers? I spend all December on the lead up to Christmas looking forward to my boxing day bubble n squeak, served with leftover turkey and gravy!

I always make extra portions of everything, which are then used for lunches at work, its economical, less wasteful and most stuff tastes better the day after.

We very rarely have leftovers as I'm a pretty good judge of how much to cook but if we do then I'll happy reheat.

I did too many par boiled potatoes for xmas so froze them. Chucked them in the oveb yesterday & sprayed with oil once they had defrosted a bit & they were the best roasties ever!!! So crunchy, but fluffy inside.

My older sister lives on takeaways. Chinese for example she'll order herself say fried rice, chow mein, curry and prawn crackers. Eat maybe half of it and then throw it away she says its because she cant be bothered to faff about packaging it up for the fridge. She's crazy though & extremely weird about food. Dont think she would know a home cooked meal these days if it jumped up & bit her on the arse.

Who the fuck reheats pizza or lasagne

Restaurants reheat lasagne. As do I. I live alone and I'm not going to go to the hassle of making a single portion of lasagne... Leftovers are great. Saves me a huge amount of time.

YANBU. I hate wasting food, and often eat food past its use by date, so long as it's not mouldy or smells/tastes off, then it's fine. Just keep it in the fridge. Otherwise why not just throw your money in the bin!
I went to Zambia a couple of years ago, and our camp cooked leftovers were taken to the nearest village. Makes you think and appreciate.

We have 3 meats for Xmas dinner, have same as cold cuts for Boxing Day and then the rest is in the bin as by then we fancy some fish or a nice beef curry.

Why not use some of your three meats to make a curry instead of binning them also it's barely any effort to freeze stuff.

Leftovers are usually much tastier than the first time around. I love leftovers. When small (many years ago) my Nan cooked roast leg of lamb for Sunday, we had rissoles, cold slices, and shepherds pie from said lamb for the next few days......And she (no one) had a fridge. We all enjoyed the food and I bet my immune system is better than most. For goodness sake not only is it wasteful and more when people are going hungry it is encouraging our immune systems to be weaker than they need.

life isn't right If you haven't or don't enjoy leftovers.
if there isn't any then that's fine but anything that is left is leftover ready.
my dad is the nab that will put a spoonful of curry in a bowl though!or leaves a cm of pasta bake in the dish that fits the whole shelf!i just call this lazy so he doesn't have to wash up tbh

I think Turkey is ok for 3 days.After that i wouldnt risk it.i got 3 dinners out of my Turkey then it went weird,so in the bin it went

We bought a turkey to feed 9-11. We got 17 meals out of it over 6 days. It went like this:
Christmas Day - 5 people.
Boxing Day - 4 people, along with leftover pigs in blankets, stuffing and roasties. Yum
27th - pasta dish for 2
28th - risotto for 2
29th - turkey curry for 2
30th - turkey curry for 2 again. Chucked the remainder out.

Nobody took unwell ...

Just had leftovers for tea. Cold roast potatoes? Food of the gods, ditto cold pizza. A curry always tastes better the next day. We don't eat meat so don't generally worry about possible health issues around eating leftover food the next day. I'm still slightly traumatised by the house guest who helped me 'tidy up' after dinner once by throwing a whole pan of rice in the bin before I could stop them. When I explained (through gritted teeth) that I had deliberately made extra for another meal, I was told rice would somehow turn to toxic waste overnight 🤔 I'm aware of the potential salmonella risk, but fridge it and then re-heat it thoroughly and it's fine.

My post wasn't goady. We like a roast chicken...roasting single chicken breasts just isn't the same. I don't like dark meat so won't cook something else with it and there's no way I'm wasting my limited time off making stock from the carcass. Been there, done that, got the tshirt...but I don't need to do that anymore. If I want chicken stock, I'll buy chicken stock. The item is made/killed so how much I eat is neither here nor there. We also buy GF yorkshire puddings but we can't eat 4 between us so two go straight in the bin. If I could buy just two I would, but I can't. We don't have a freezer to freeze them due to the size of our kitchen and what the landlord has provided. Same with a pack of parnsips or carrots. It's usually better value to buy in bulk and I don't have to eat them all to make my money's worth.

I understand sustainability and every buzz word that you may care to throw at me, and I am a smart individual. I'm a civil-structural engineer so sustainability, carbon cycle and other such stuff is not unfamiliar to me. But in the same way as we may chose to put sustainability second priority in a design, I also can't bring myself to give much care to throwing out my chicken carcass with legs still on!

If I need to make money stretch again, then I'll be using my leftovers, but for now, I don't need to care. It's not as if me leaving my chicken legs is taking food from the mouths of others. That's like the good old 'there's starving children in africa' when you left food on your plate as a kid...it's not like people are going to be eating my leftovers. Me included. I do cook big batches of curry which do a few days to save me cooking the next day, but that's to save me time and effort. It's not that I have some fear of leftovers...I just can't bring myself to give a hoot about that carrot I throw out...it cost pennies. Or two chicken legs. You'd have to pay me to care and I doubt anyone's going to start doing that.

To be fair, I have the same attitude towards anything. If I'm not going to wear something anymore, I would rather throw it in the bin that bother taking it to some charity shop. Same with books that I've read but aren't good enough to keep. Not enough time or care to take it to the charity shop. If I've got my entertainment out of it, then fine. Fortunately for you sustainability warriors, my DP DOES care enough to take things to the charity shop so if he's helping tidy up, things might find a second home.