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Forum -> Household Management -> Kosher Kitchen

Planned leftovers

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Amital

Tue, Nov 02 2010, 3:18 pm

Does anyone do planned leftovers? Do you make a meal and make extra food on purpose that you then use in another different meal? I've also heard it called cook once, eat twice. A classic example is the Thanksgiving turkey--you'll see magazines with all sorts of ideas on how to use that extra turkey, from turkey salad to turkey sandwiches. Planning leftovers gives you a second meal with less work!

I use extra cooked chicken for enchiladas (wrapped up in a tortilla, topped with enchilada sauce, and baked), chicken pot pie, chicken salad, or stir fried.

For beef, it depends on the type, but meatballs are put into sandwiches/subs. Other cuts could be shredded and added to a a BBQ sauce, added to stir fry, or even put into boreka-type pastries.

I make plain pasta sometimes, which we eat with sauces for dinner, and the rest can be made into macaroni salad, tex mac (basically 7 layer salad with pasta), or baked dairy dishes.

I try to plan like this once a week so I can make the most of what we have. I'm always looking for ideas, though--anyone else?

chocolate moose

Tue, Nov 02 2010, 3:32 pm

Not really. My family gets weird about leftovers Mostly dd eats them for lunch.

mha3484

Tue, Nov 02 2010, 3:41 pm

I do with certain things. I will often make more soup then necessary for shabbos and we have it for lunch or dinner sunday. This past week we had meat turnovers for shabbos lunch so I made all of them knowing we will eat them for another meal as opposed to baking half and freezing half. It really depends on the actual food how well it reheats and what our week is going to be like.

saw50st8

Tue, Nov 02 2010, 3:44 pm

We eat leftovers :-)

Sometimes I'll repurpose, but usually we eat it as is.

If I have leftover chicken cutlets, I'll make wraps.

ra_mom

Tue, Nov 02 2010, 5:23 pm

The only things I plan on is pasta, hard eggs, salad dressing...

When I have extra baked chicken sometimes I throw it over a salad.
When I have chicken leftover from the chicken soup sometimes I make it into pot pie.
When I have cooked sweet potatoes from the chicken soup sometimes I make it them sweet potato bourekas.

You can make plain rice and use it topped with a saute' one night, make a rice salad another night.

seeker

Tue, Nov 02 2010, 6:28 pm

I always plan for extra soup. To me, making soup is very time consuming but worthwhile, so I may as well make a huge pot and freeze individual supper-size containers. Besides, I like reheated soup, it gets thicker and tastier each time.

Also most of my bread/challah recipes make more than I need, so I will make a whole batch of dough, freeze half, and bake half. So the next round we get fresh bread, not leftovers exactly, but SO much easier to make.

KAlex

Tue, Nov 02 2010, 7:22 pm

We always do. We like to have a good variety of veg in our meals, and with just the two of us that wouldn't be practical otherwise. It also saves us time (and fuel!) on the slow-cooking things, since they only have to be cooked once, and then reheat as fast as anything else. We make stews and things in large batches, then portion them out and freeze most of it. We try to have portions of at least two different meals in the fridge and freezer, so that we don't get bored, although we also do something to change each batch as we reheat it, for freshness and added interest. (Eg some frozen veg that just needs heating, or some new spices, or some cheese/peanut butter/houmous/tomato paste/whatever to make it more saucy.)

By portioning it out, the food is only getting reheated once after the initial cooking, which is fine.

PinkandYellow

Thu, Nov 04 2010, 10:28 am

No, we eat leftovers as is, on purpose. I'll make 4 packages of chicken for shabbos so we have chicken for dinner sunday and monday. I make 2 bags of macaroni at a time and thats macaroni for two days. always, 2 or 3 packages of meat at a time. if you don't like the leftovers, you can always top with ketchup. this is why we have two microwaves. n/t fancy here.

shirgal

Sat, Nov 06 2010, 4:14 pm

I usually use leftover meatballs by mushing them up to use in a pasta sauce. I also use leftover salad bits in scrambled eggs in the morning - even with dressing still on it, it always adds something interesting to breakfast.

Ruchel

Sat, Nov 06 2010, 4:16 pm

We vastly prefer not having leftovers.

Tamiri

Sat, Nov 06 2010, 4:21 pm

I have to beg people to eat leftovers here.

grace413

Sat, Nov 06 2010, 4:26 pm

DH and I love leftovers. It's the picky children who mess up the plan.

Liba

Sat, Nov 06 2010, 5:03 pm

Leftovers don't always go over well, but I often cook doubles or triples for the freezer. If it is portioned out as different meals and not served, refrigerated, reheated and re-served on another day soon after it is a different story.

I can make one huge pot of meatballs, serve 1/4 and freeze three meals worth of meatballs. No one likes them any less the following weeks than the liked the original meatballs. Same for chicken soup, I make broth and freeze 2/3s of it for the following two weeks. If I make chicken pot pie I make two.

Leftovers are not the same as meals made and frozen fresh to be served at a different time.

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