Wtf? Like your half eaten leftovers are decent enough for the homeless because they should be grateful. This is not the depression nor a world war. Get a grip. Food production and yield has greatly improved and an abundance is the result in a wealthy nation. Excess results in a lack of scarcity which means reduced value. This can surface as a demand for better or even fresher quality to the foods we consume everyday. Restaurant food in particular can be too mass produced to be truly good. There are usually leftovers because they sucked to begin with. Why should saving them a day and reheating them improve the quality of a bad meal. When the next famine hits we can all eat potato skins out of the garbage bins, but until then I'm throwing away whatever is of poor quality. I'm certainly not going to decide that whatever's not good enough for me is good enough for someone poorer. They deserve quality food too even if I have to pay for it.

My great-grandparents starved to death in a Jewish ghetto in Poland. That anyone would throw away what's left of a perfectly good meal offends me deeply. You people should be ashamed of yourselves. If you're too good for your own leftovers, at least donate them to a shelter.

Anonymous wrote:We do a leftover dinner on Friday nights, from the past few days, lunches and dinners. It's like a small plates type of meal. My kids love it.

Or you could do a leftover parfait like in Malcolm in the Middle.

Hal: What’s for dinner?
Lois: Leftover parfait.
Malcolm: It’s even worse than it sounds. Once a week Mom cleans out the fridge. Anything that doesn’t actually have something growing on it get’s thrown into a casserole and served for dinner…
Malcolm: (while looking at parfait) Sunday, Saturday, Friday… It finally happened. The fifth level of this week’s leftover parfait is last week’s leftover parfait.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This is my husband. He flat-out refuses to eat anything with chicken that isn't cooked fresh. He's not nasty about it and would genuinely rather make himself a cheese sandwich than eat a roast chicken from yesterday. Used to drive me mad. Vegetables are OK occasionally.

I get this because reheated meat (especially chicken) gets gamey. It is repulsive when chicken is gamey the next day and there is not much you can do to avoid it. I thought it was great the Sunday poster planeed her roast chicken meal but 3 DAYS of the same chicken, no. It gets dry and gamey. Two days max.

You don't know how to cook. Nothing is getting reheated to get "gamey."

Who doesn't eat leftovers? What is the point of having modern appliances like a fridge and freezer? How incredibly wasteful and out of touch. People in this country starve to death or suffer malnourishment and would give anything for event a bite of your leftovers. Go spend a day serving food to the homeless, you spoiled children. Gain a little perspective.

DH, who basically does not cook, also makes zero demands about what's for dinner and views it as his mission in life that nothing in the fridge goes bad. We all eat leftovers and, like others here, there is usually one night a week (if not more) where dinner is "leftover fiesta" and everyone forages in the fridge. Sometimes it's four people eating four different things.

A few dishes great for repurposing leftovers -- quesadillas, fried rice, burritos, salads.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Interesting. I've noted in my own personal life that men seem to be the most adamant against leftovers. Seems to be that way here, too. I wonder if its a biological thing where women are more open to leftovers.

+1 the only people I know who are adamant about leftovers are men.

It's because they aren't the ones doing the #%^*%} cooking and cleaning up every night.

In our house I usually cook and dh cleans. When he cooks, I clean. He just appreciates and craves a freshly made dinner every night. He isn't being difficult or inconsiderate. That is just the way he has been since I met him. Even before we became an item I noticed that he would rather boil spaghetti noodles every night and stir in fresh jarred sauce than boil a big batch once and reheat the next night. He just is not a leftover type of guy. It's more of a quirk than anything else.

fresh jarred? LOL

Anonymous wrote:I don't understand this either. At least two of my friends have husbands who refuse to eat leftovers. Guess who does the cooking? (Hint- it's not the husbands.) It's annoying to hear them complain about how they HAVE to make dinner every day because ___ won't eat leftovers. I always ask "How often does ___ make dinner? Or any meal?" The answer is always "never."

Why do women put up with this?! On day 1 of any of the above, my answer was "If you don't like what I'm doing, do it yourself."

My husband will eat whatever is put out, We have a rule here - if you don't like what I make, you are welcome to make something for yourself. My husband does this on nights we have eggplant. He hates eggplant -but my son loves it. We don't do it often though ....

Anonymous wrote:This is my husband. He flat-out refuses to eat anything with chicken that isn't cooked fresh. He's not nasty about it and would genuinely rather make himself a cheese sandwich than eat a roast chicken from yesterday. Used to drive me mad. Vegetables are OK occasionally.

I get this because reheated meat (especially chicken) gets gamey. It is repulsive when chicken is gamey the next day and there is not much you can do to avoid it. I thought it was great the Sunday poster planeed her roast chicken meal but 3 DAYS of the same chicken, no. It gets dry and gamey. Two days max.

I grew up eating leftovers, and every now and then we'll have what I refer to as a "scrounge night" at home: Spouse and kids and I will compile various dinners from the week's leftovers to empty out the fridge. Things can go on bread as sandwiches, go on top of lettuce as a salad, etc...

This post made me serve leftovers for dinner tonight ?.

Anonymous wrote:I usually distribute my extra food. So, if I cook more than we need (happens all the time), my neighbors get that food.

We cook and entertain a lot. If I am cooking for a dinner party, some dishes I will make extras (like desserts) and then call my friends over for tea/coffee etc., the next day or so. If I bake extra cookies, I will invite my kids friends for a playdate and serve those. We have friends that drop over after dinner for drinks and munchies and it is very rarely that I do not have something in the fridge that I cannot serve with confidence.

Wow -- I like the way you run your home!

Anonymous wrote:I don't understand this either. At least two of my friends have husbands who refuse to eat leftovers. Guess who does the cooking? (Hint- it's not the husbands.) It's annoying to hear them complain about how they HAVE to make dinner every day because ___ won't eat leftovers. I always ask "How often does ___ make dinner? Or any meal?" The answer is always "never."

Why do women put up with this?! On day 1 of any of the above, my answer was "If you don't like what I'm doing, do it yourself."

My cousin's husband insists that he doesn't like leftovers and doesn't eat them. But she serves them all the time and he doesn't notice. They've been married 18 years.

My DH LOVES leftovers for next day lunch. No argument from me.

If you are fussy about not eating leftovers, you should always make less food than you need. Then supplement with fresh fruits, cheese, raw veggies with salad dressing and yogurt etc.