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.

And we eat the same things twice in a row at times. No big deal.

Blondiecub0109 - never reheat anything twice, that's just as bad as not reheating at all.

I spent a few days over the Christmas holiday at my Sister's house. I was actually offended at the amount of food her and her family throw out. They seem to go through the fridge on the hour looking at sell-by-dates, if it runs out tomorrow and they don't think they'll eat it by then - it goes. Milk, Cheese, Meat, Desserts, Yogurt, whatever it is, if it's been in there for more that a couple of days, out it goes.

I was sat with her one morning having coffee and as we chatted, she's looking in the fridge, bin bag in one hand, just slinging out what she didn't like the look of. Big lumps of Christmas Pud, leftover Turkey and Ham from Christmas day, all perfectly good, went in the bin. She was picking up things, some of which she couldn't remember buying, or knowing what she could do with it, and that went too. There was a 1.5 litre bottle of milk on the table and she kept asking me if it was good still? I'd drunk some already and told her it was perfectly fine, she didn't believe me and kept sniffing it.. I actually got a bit annoyed and took it off her and put it back in the fridge. About 20 min's later I saw her husband pouring it down the sink.

She has three children, 17, 18 & 20, all living at home, who come home at all hours. In the evening she'll make a big stew, Spaghetti Bol, Chilli Con Carne or some such thing and she'll leave it on the stove for them. if, when she gets up in the morning it's still there, however much of it - it all goes in the bin.

It's their business of course, but then she moans about how much they spend per week on food - around £300. Of that, I think it's fair to say, more than half of it ends up in the bin....They're not particularly big eaters either..

I almost fell off of my chair when she told me. I can't help but feel really angry and frustrated at this sort of thing. There are people starving in this world, food is getting more and more expensive as we're struggling to feed an over populated world. I'm no Tree Hugger nor am I one of these preachy Vegan types, but I find it incredibly irresponsible.

rachet
I noticed the other day that Eat Well for Less were looking for participants for their next series. Your sister and her family sounds like an ideal candidate.

Well I've just picked up orange sticker bargains in the Co-Op. Don't care that they go out of date today.

500g pack of mince £1.40. 8 large Yorkies, 94p. Spiced sticky toffee pudding thing, 47p.

So tonight we'll be having the mince cooked with onion, peas and carrots in the yorkies with potatoes, then the sticky toffee and ice cream.

YUM.

Quite glad there are weird people out there who turn their noses up at the reduced to clear section. More bargains for the rest of us.

I didn't realise that I might be judged for using leftovers . I mainly cook from scratch, batch cook soups, curry, chilli, casserole etc and make things from leftovers. Make something different with the leftovers or serve with different veg/sides. It doesn't have to be the 'same meal' the next day. Or freeze it the so on the days you can't be bothered to cook to have something quick and home made available.

It's a crying shame when so many in the world struggle to eat enough that we are throwing for away. Bad environmentally too.

It's their business of course, but then she moans about how much they spend per week on food - around £300.

Jesus Christ. It must be nice being able to waste £600 a month. When we have four adults in the house our food bills - eating well from Waitrose - are about £120, so I guess would be £150 at most with five adults. With tax relief that could be as much as a grand a month into your pension.

I'm a bit of an extreme user upper to be honest. Bones from chicken, carrot peelings, celery trimmings etc go in a tub in the freezer to make a big batch of stick for freezing when I have a spare moment.
Lemons / limes / oranges that have been juiced go into another freezer tub - marmalade when there are enough.
Bread odds and ends go in a bowl ( freezing kitchen in old house so they just dry out, rather than going mouldy) to be used for bread pudding, bread crumbs, migas etc.
Odds and ends like a couple of cooked new potatoes, a slice or two of steak, a bit of left over broccoli become Benton boxes ( brilliant because they're lots of tiny portions of different things so you can use up bits that you can't make a whole meal off) or can be chopped / mashed and made into fritters with a bit of flour an egg, herbs or spices. These get frozen for lunch boxes as great cold with a dip.
I enjoy cooking so it's a bit of a challenge to me to use as much as I can, however I appreciate most people probably find it a bit wired!

Bento not Benton

I continually & deliberately cook more than we need for dinner, so that I have something for the next day either for lunch or as the basis for the next dinner. For instance, we had salmon with herb crust for dinner last night & sweet potato wedges, plus some green vegetables. I made extra roast sweet potatoes which got blitzed into a soup this morning with some roasted red peppers. I also cooked an extra salmon fillet last night, and we've just had that mashed up with some lettuce in a sandwich to go with the soup.

There was also quite a lot of the herb-breadcrumb mixture left so I've bulked it out with the very last of the spiced nuts I'd made for Xmas. I have used that as a stuffing for 1 of the red peppers which we'll have tonight with some fish (and other veg).

So that's three dishes/ meals made from one nights leftovers. All really healthy and dead cheap. This way of cooking is also quick - half of my prep for today was done last night.

I don't view them as "leftovers", they are ingredients!!

I would like to announce to you all that I have just eaten the last of my Christmas Day leftover vegetables and black puddin, supplemented with fresh baked beans,fried in olive oil bubble and squeak style.
Tasted wonderful especially the bits stuck to the bottom of the frying pan that had to be scrapped off.

Plus gravy.

And stuffing.

I go by the look of food.If its reduced and it looks ok i will buy it.If its reduced and it looks grey,not a hope in hell.

Quite glad there are weird people out there who turn their noses up at the reduced to clear section. More bargains for the rest of us.

Quite! Have to say it has been an absolute dream in Waitrose Canary Wharf between xmas and NY! So many yellow stickers. I've been eating like a king for pennies.

I continually & deliberately cook more than we need for dinner, so that I have something for the next day either for lunch or as the basis for the next dinner.

IMO it is just such a waste of effort and time cooking something new for every single meal when you can easily freeze or eat for lunch, or keep in the fridge and tweak slightly.

Chucking something out that looks and smells perfectly fine just because it has gone past its sell by date - shows a severe lack of common sense and critical thinking.

www.lovefoodhatewaste.com/why-save-food

www.lovefoodhatewaste.com/what-to-do

Avoiding creating or using up our leftover food is easy and safe - lots of information on how is available if you need help. Lots of 'waste' food can be easily frozen.
If you throw good food away you are wasting your own money and contributing to climate change.

The only dates that matter on food re food safety are USE BY dates.

SELL BY dates are for the shops re stock control - it doesn;t mean the food goes bad the next day!

www.lovefoodhatewaste.com/article/date-labels

But the food we are talking about is fresh food, which is marked with a use by date.

The vast majority of reduced to clear food is on it's use by date, but in experience, it's totally fine for at least a day or two afterwards. I don't generally go past that as I would have eaten it or frozen it by then.

We quite often make twice as much as we need for a Sunday roast and plate another dinner up for the next day. As soon as its cool enough it goes in the fridge ready for the next day. Saves cooking! Nothing wrong with leftovers as long as it's refrigerated properly.

I can't afford not to. Dp and I have leftovers from dinner every lunchtime.

Use by dates are also pretty much just a guide. I routinely use minced beef that is a couple of days over, for example. Steak I would confidently use quite a few days past the use by date as long as it looks and smells okay. I’m a little more careful with pork, chicken and fish, but I’d still use my own judgement on it rather than slavishly follow what is just a guide.

Although I'm really bad with storage and reheating etc. I'll double reheat or leave it out too long, although I've never had food poisoning in my life so maybe I've been lucky.

Yogurts, cheeses and any other fermented or otherwise ‘digested’ (for want of a better term) things I would easily be comfortable using a week or more past due date. It’s all just down to common sense, really.

Yogurts, cheeses and any other fermented or otherwise ‘digested’ (for want of a better term) things I would easily be comfortable using a week or more past due date

And a month is usually fine, if your fridge is in working order.

I am an obsessive user upper.
Like weedsnseeds1... Squeezed lemons quartered and frozen and used in g and t.
Or jam
Black banana... Banana bread...left over banana bread.. Banana bread and butter pudding.
I just cannot understand people who don't use up food and left overs.
Some yrs ago I watched a TV show that followed a presenter eating out of date and on occasions mouldy food.. He was fine, did not get ill. Even ate slightly off mince,