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 have some yogurt with a use by date of 15 December. it's unopened and I do intend to use it. Our fridge, despite being over 20 years old, always says 3 or 4 C on the display.

I'll hold you to that comment about a month Mona.

This is such a terrific thread, it's giving me great ideas for what to do with our leftovers.

It’s basic home economics! We were taught (way back in the last century) not to use the oven unless you were going to cook the whole meal! If that wasn’t possible, bake something as well. We had a lesson on the cost of using the oven.

My children have only learned to make the most basic food (they do go to a special school but they’re more than capable of more) such as sandwiches or using jars to make lasagne. They have never peeled a spud in school but it’s a job they actually enjoy at home!

It must be a generational thing? I just refused my DS1 cod goujons (half a pack from the Lidl - previously fresh, not frozen) from the freezer for lunch because I wasn’t using the oven for the rest of the family’s lunch. He had (leftover) cheese from Christmas in a sandwich because that’s what I was making and the whole family likes cheese.

I wonder how many here could cope with relying on a “milkman” now who delivers at an unknown time in the middle of the night and leaves it on the doorstep?!

Now here’s a whole new other thread ... what do you do with leftover gin?? (My address is available for all donations!!)

Yes - I’d keep using it until it was done, without a moment’s worry. But because we shop carefully and plan our meals bearing in mind the things that need using up it wouldn’t usually hang around for much longer than a week or so.

To be fair, I think the cost of using the oven is relatively a lot less these days.

They heat up much faster and are more efficient, and people generally have higher disposable incomes, so just putting the oven on for one item isn't as wasteful or unaffordable these days.

Call me profligate, but I regularly just cook fish fingers to make sort of fish tacos if that's what I want to eat.

We were taught (way back in the last century) not to use the oven unless you were going to cook the whole meal!

That advice is actually a bit last century, though

If the oven is modern and well insulated the cost of using the oven is the energy required to heat it up (5 minutes, say, at around 3kW, so about 3p of gas or electricity) and then the energy that is sunk into the food. Cold food absorbs energy, which causes the temperature in the cavity to drop, which is replaced by the energy the oven consumes. Air is a poor conductor of heat so the thermal losses from the oven are relatively slow.

If you can choose between turning the oven on and not turning it on, then don't, obviously. But once you have turned it on then adding more food into it spreads the 3p heat-up cost over more items, but also consumes more energy cooking the additional food. If you cook two cakes together rather than one (leaving aside the risk that the temperature in the oven will drop and therefore they won't rise as evenly) then you're probably only saving a couple of pence.

You can get way more energy saving by getting a decent induction hob, which are phenomenally efficient.

Someone posted on a facebook money saving page that they had thrown out 10 eggs, half a tub of cream, some fruit, tomatoes and a few other items because they had reached their date!

I have never ever looked at the date on an egg. In fact I now buy my eggs from a neighbour so they don't even have a date on them. I don't really look at any dates. I only found out recently that cheese even has a date on it.

I think a lot of younger people just see the dates on food as gospel. I have tried saying to people that food doesn't know when it reaches the mythical date on it and promptly goes off at midnight but to no avail.

I don't eat meat or fish (I would be more careful with those if I did) and just look and smell foods out of date. If they seem fine I eat them. I have eaten yoghurts over a month out of date.

The poster who buys 4 yorkshire puddings and throws 2 away. Why don't you have a meal with them the next day? You could make bubble and squeak or yorkshires with some sort of filling Also surely things like ready made yorkshires have fairly lengthy dates on so you could eat them days later or the following week?

I was speaking to someone today who had cooked a ham hock and beef joint for boxing day for 3 people, then threw away what was left.

I don't get the love for bubble and squeak! I seem to remember having it as a child and it was vile, probably something to do with containing cabbage!

Someone posted on a facebook money saving page that they had thrown out 10 eggs, half a tub of cream, some fruit, tomatoes and a few other items because they had reached their date!

I was speaking to someone today who had cooked a ham hock and beef joint for boxing day for 3 people, then threw away what was left.

Pink, I think it is absolutely fine to NOT cook a recipe that uses leftovers if you don't like it!

In this household, there is no leftover cabbage because...we don't eat cabbage as no-one likes it first time round, let alone as leftovers. Many, many other vegetables: yes. Cabbage: no.

Eggs can be easily frozen - out of shell and whisked up then put in little pots. Cooking well with eggs needs some consideration - some dishes are best with very fresh eggs but others are better with less fresh eggs.

Bread lasts longer if you let it sit out of it's packet for a few hours then pop in the bread bin in a paper bag. We have a special bread bag we use but not sure where we got it from.

I always plan to have left overs as I have a small family and less time. I batch cook and it makes everything more economical and much less work.

My friend won't use left overs but she has very poor cooking skills and food knowledge and seems unaware of putting food away quickly after shopping. Her milk goes off quickly as she lets it sit on the counter for ages. She seems unable to change.

The friend who doesn't do left-overs has a very restricted diet. Since living alone she seems to live on tinned soups, cheese sandwiches and biscuits. She will eat all the biscuits in one go as she won't have 'left-overs'. She says they go 'bad' but she won't put them in a tin etc to stop them going soft.

Come the end of March, food costs are going to be rocketing. Food waste will be a thing for only the über wealthy. The rest of us are going to have to learn to be more careful with our food supplies.

Those who view using surplus food as a mark of poverty - have you tried turning it on its head - using everything you buy will help keep you out of poverty.

We throw out very little. I feel guilty every time I find something that has been forgotten in the fridge which has gone beyond edibility. happens most often when MIL has been to visit as she brings all her manky fridge scrapings with her .

We have a whole Serrano ham leg here which we are gradually working our way through. It would be criminal to throw that out after the first meal!

I'm glad it's not just me that hates cabbage cantkeepawayforever! My uncle thinks I'm odd, but I think he's the odd one as he'll have a whole cabbage to himself, often with eggs...

Bubble and squeak is delicious. We make sure we have leftovers so we can have this.

What is it exactly that you don't like? You made the initial meal and consumed a portion of it so it is obviously something you enjoy eating. What do you believe happened to the meal you enjoyed eating just 12-24 hours before? I'm not judging just curious as to your thought process.

Leftover Gin I love it!! But somehow there NEVER seems to be any left over, hmm....🤔lol

Pink, I don't always put cabbage in my bubble and squeak. I use leftover roast potatoes, yorkshire puddings, brussel sprouts, carrots, roast parsnips, peas.

I also have a weird thing about leftovers. I know in theory it won't make me ill but I can't help but have a horrible feeling that it's somehow 'germy' and 'gross'.

I completely realise it's me that's in the wrong, but it's so deeply embedded that it makes me feel sick.

It's amazing when you read packets...I have a block of cheddar in the fridge. It says...once opened consume within 7 days. I'd keep it for weeks, until I'd used it all up. Most ham says, once opened consume within 2 days

Just a question, where is it written or what law states that we ALL must reduce our waste no if ands or....buts? Just wondering as I have never heard of such a mandate. I was wondering who authorized that.

No one mandated it. But a shocking amount of food goes to landfill. This has a negative impact on our planet.

Just a question, where is it written or what law states that we ALL must reduce our waste no if ands or....buts? Just wondering as I have never heard of such a mandate. I was wondering who authorized that.

The mandate of common sense.

When I was younger (in my 20s) I liked the idea of eating leftovers so would store them in the fridge, but something would stop me from actually reheating and eating it, I suspect it was something to do thinking it wouldn't taste as nice/meant I was poor (which I was 😂).
Now I'm a military wife and essentially a single full time working mum for long stretches of time, I don't know how I'd get by without them, I simply just don't have the time to cook individual meals for lunch and dinner every day! Because of this, I have noticed a huge reduction in my food waste.
I also do a lot of meal prep (see pic) when I want to lose a few pounds, which massively helps me to stay on track.
Now, I hate not having meals in the fridge/freezer that I can simply reheat. Saves so much time and less washing up!