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.

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I don’t need a law or a mandate to tell me to live in what I consider a principled and responsible way.

And perhaps if more people took a wider ranging view of their day-to-day actions instead of relying on legislation to guide them on what to do or not do, the world might be in less of a mess.

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 law of, we're all super-fucked because of our feckless, overconsuming ways. Put down the Heat magazine and read an actual newspaper.

I cut mould off cheese or eat the other side e.g. Philadelphia

I don’t see anything wrong with conserving energy and I don’t believe my views on using the oven are last century. I hate waste.

I’m no tree hugger but I am a responsible inhabitant of this planet.

We seem to be a bit more proactive on our little island of Ireland. We’ve been using food waste bins for years, collected by the councils. I don’t know anybody who doesn’t use theirs. It’s just common sense. I’m not doing it because I’m told to do it. I had a compost bin up until then (I don’t use it anymore because the garden is now an open space for the kids).

I don’t have a blatant disregard for advice offered via use-by dates but I’m not a slave to them either! I exercise caution and (the now rare commodity) common sense. I refuse to be nannied and mollycoddled by government agencies. I’m rarely ill and my children have never had any illnesses other than the odd cold.

Now I’m off to put the leftover shepherds pie into freezer boxes. Yum.

300 Mls double cream left over. Use by today. Now residing in freezer as rum raisin and cocoa ice cream.

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

This, just this, from abacucat is everything that needs to be said about leftovers. I pity the people who don't understand.

My mum's forumula for bubble and squeak has followed her to the grave but I will try to recreate it until I die

The thoughts of it makes me gag but we don't have that much left over after dinner as there's 6 of us.

The thoughts of it makes me gag but we don't have that much left over after dinner as there's 6 of us.

I keep reading this on this thread and it makes me gag too. There were six of us growing up. What's so amazing about you and your family?

We had leftovers then because there were a lot of us. Now there are just two of us we don't have many leftovers. That's the way of the world.

I have to make an effort to cook more potatoes and greens at Christmas so we can have bubble and squeak on Boxing Day because I love it more than Christmas dinner.

It's not the end of the world if I can't have it but I do eat leftovers and certainly don't do anything as stupid as gagging..

Tomorrow I will go out to dinner and I guarantee that if there are any leftovers I will take away a doggy bag and I won't do anything as juvenile as be ashamed or gag .

The thought of cutting off mound and eating the rest of the item turns my stomach. I'm not keen on waste but mouldy food, out of date items and things that have been opened past their guidelines go in the bin. We just don't overbuy so it's not usually an issue and most things get eaten.

I'd never dream of taking left overs from a restaurant though I know people do.

There will always be waste or drains on resources. Cheap clothes, air travel etc.

I don’t do mould either, except if a block of cheese is mouldy I’d happily cut off the mouldy bit with a generous margin and still use the rest. I don’t eat bread once it’s got mould on it, and I don’t eat ‘soft’ foods (yogurt/jam/sauce/etc) that have mould present. But mould rarely happens, as food doesn’t stay around that long.

I'd never dream of taking left overs from a restaurant though I know people do.

Why wouldn't you 'dream' of it? You know it's going straight in the bin if you don't, right?

I ask for the leftovers from a restaurant if it’s something the dog would eat - lol literally a doggy bag

Why wouldn't you 'dream' of it? You know it's going straight in the bin if you don't, right?

For me, that’s exactly why I’m squeamish. Plate scrapings/half-eaten food belongs in the bin (or in the food recycling bucket/composter).

Food still in the original pan or serving dish is fine to pack up and eat later. Stuff with teethmarks in it isn’t.

I asked for a doggy bag in an Indian restaurant once. The waiter made a really big deal of it and kept trying to say no and basically was trying to humiliate me for asking for it. It's put me off doing this since but I'm going to start asking again now 🙂

And I avoid food waste by taking small helpings and going back for seconds if I’m still hungry - I very rarely chuck food out at home. That’s my objection to US portion sizes - they give me far more food than I want, and I hate to see it going in the bin. But I don’t want cold soggy half-eaten nachos the next day either.

I know some (US) people who cut their meals in half and send them straight back to the kitchen to be packaged up before they even start eating (to avoid the teethmark/half-eaten issue). Which just underlines how stupid portion sizes are here.

Thebigbang, so do you throw away food out of it's date without smelling it, looking at it etc? Plenty of food lasts longer than the supposed date on it.

I cut mould off cheese all the time. Nothing wrong with that. I don't like cheese much so a block of it lasts an age in our house. If I threw it away every time it has some mould on it it would just be so wasteful.

I don't eat mouldy bread. I used to just cut the mouldy bits out and eat the rest but I read that you should not do that so now I don't . Health experts though all seem to say cutting mould of cheese is fine.

I also will scrape mould off jam etc and eat that.

Of course I get a doggy bag when I eat out. Can never eat a whole pizza so the rest comes home. Love indian food but can't usually eat it all so that comes home too.

I usually make my own pizzas at home but if we buy one me and DH can never eat a whole one between us so the rest gets eaten the next day or sometimes frozen for a future meal

Why are we even talking about teethmarks?

Use a knife and a fork, that’ll solve it.

Why wouldn't you 'dream' of it? You know it's going straight in the bin if you don't, right

Exactly, it's meant for the bin. I wouldn't scrape leftovers off a plate at home to eat another day so why would i ask a restaurant to do it. Not to mention it looks cheap and penny pinching.

Surely it was meant for eating, not for the bin?

Not to mention it looks cheap and penny pinching

I profoundly disagree. I think it's far more respectful to the food and the people who cooked it. Who would want the meal they worked hard to prepare in the bin rather than enjoyed?

As for all the 'teeth marks' comments, do people not use knives and forks when they eat in restaurants these days?

I work in the waste and resources sector.
Climate change IS happening.
It WILL affect those of us on the planet in middle age and younger (in negative ways). It absolutely will affect our children.
I'm assuming most of us love our children and can't bear the thought of leaving them in a world that could be awful.
There are LOTS of things we all do that contribute to climate change. Wasting food is one of them but it's one that is a relatively easy one for individuals to change in their own homes without 'sacricing' our lifestyle (compared with things like not driving, not flying etc).
A lot or carbon goes into growing, fertilising, feeding, transporting, refrigerating, processing food (making carbon dioxide in process - main climate change 'greenhouse' gas).
Food which ends of in landfill makes methane gas as it rots - 10x worse 'greenhouse gas' than CO2.
No matter how wealthy we are, the scientific evidence is clear that wasting food at home, from restaurants, in the food chain is STUPID, STUPID, STUPID.

Wasting food is one of them but it's one that is a relatively easy one for individuals to change in their own homes without 'sacricing' our lifestyle (compared with things like not driving, not flying etc).

Exactly this. It's such an easy win compared to most other changes and it saves money too.

Which is why I can barely wrap my head around the comments that it looks 'penny pinching'. Who the fuck cares? It's clearly the right thing to do.

What's the actual point here though of this thread other than an echo chamber for everyone to say how great they are and anyone who says why they throw food away is called names, as if that ever changed anyone's behaviour.

Which is why I can barely wrap my head around the comments that it looks 'penny pinching'. Who the fuck cares? It's clearly the right thing to do.

In the US nobody thinks it's penny pinching and in many or most restaurants you don't have to ask. They offer "should I wrap that for you?"

Americans are less concerned than British about how other people think it looks.