Saving tiny amounts of leftovers

[Anonymous]

My parents do this. They eat out a lot and every time I visit, their fridge is packed to the gills with containers housing things like 3 teaspoons of fried rice, 1/4 baked potato, 2 shrimp, etc.

I only save leftovers if there's enough of them to constitute a normal portion size. Otherwise the fridge gets too crowded.

[Anonymous]

Well I save a lot of leftovers, but I don't think to the extreme you all are talking about. 3 tortillas is very much "food" in our house as it's good for quesadillas, but if you meant tortilla chips--well those would go in my mouth before throwing away the bag. Same with 3 berries

I have a friend who saves NOTHING and throws away all leftover. It drives me crazy, but apparently I drive her crazy for saving things that, yes, someone will end up eating. I'm a decent cook and can repurpose a lot into a meal. Ie a stir fry from leftover vegetables from a few different nights and leftover chicken breast when we are all the dark meat for dinner the night before. Add rice and sauces and maybe a scrambled egg and you have a lovely meal.

I grew up poor, my friend did not. I assume this could be part of the difference?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I save them. I eat them.

This is me. I save things I will eat. My husband will not save it thinking if it not enough for a meal on its own, then it’s not worth it. To me, a small piece of chicken is perfect to add to a salad.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I save them. I eat them.

Samesies! These things make a perfect mid-afternoon snack. Don't you DARE throw out my quarter of a piece of pizza.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I save them. I eat them.

Same here. My weekday lunches are always a mix of leftovers.

[Anonymous]

It drives me crazy when my mom serves herself last because she will *always* leave a tiny smidgen of whatever is on offer - salad, cornbread, green beans, you name it. Think, like: a mouthful and a half. I think she thinks it's rude to take everything that's left but you're not doing anyone any favors! I hate to scrape food into the trash. Sometimes DH will just eat it standing over the counter to finish it off, but the production is so unnecessary.

[Anonymous]

My husband does this and it drives me crazy. I just toss it when he's not home. He never missed it.

[Anonymous]

Yup, my DH does this and he stores the small bites in the largest Gladware I have! He learn it from his mother.

[Anonymous]

My husband does this. Sometimes it annoys me, but then I remember he used to compulsively clean his plate/finish every container of food and he’s so much healthier since he started stopping when he’s full.

[Anonymous]

Yes, my DH. I don't like wasting food, either, but it's OK to throw some things out, like those last two forkfuls of salad that already has dressing on it, so it won't hold up well ...

[Anonymous]

My DH does this and it drives me nuts. He will leave just enough so no one else (including him at some other time) will eat it.

A college roommate used to do this. She would bring home a corner of rice (like 2 spoonfuls). But she would eat it.

[Anonymous]

God, what a waste of plastic.

[Anonymous]

No

[Anonymous]

MIL will meet out everything onto plates except for some little amount, like 2 small potatoes. We cannot figure out why. It’s seems that she has some monitor in her head that says “that’s enough” even if there’s just a little bit left. This always leads to tiny amounts of leftovers that are useless.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:God, what a waste of plastic.

Why? How does saving leftovers waste plastic? Don’t most people use reusable containers? For those of us who can make a meal out of them, it is wasteful to throw them out. I totally get the frustration of people saving and not eating.