Leftover Yorkshire pudding, preferably one pan kind, eaten cold the next day, covered with horseradish.

Cold sour holopchi. Great finger food!

Spanikopita. I only make it for guests, but am sure to make a huge pan of it so I can send home leftovers with them and still have several meals for me. Good for breakfast, lunch and dinner. I usually heat it until just warm in the microwave. The phyllo doesn't crisp up but it still is fabulous. Reheating in the oven for crisp phyllo dries out the spinach/egg part too much for me.

Leftover pizza! Homemade and heated in the fry pan. I don't really like cold leftovers.

Olychick maybe you could try heating your spanakopita in the fry pan. I end up with some crispness on the bottom. Although I am not opposed to a yummy hot piece of pizza heated up any old way.

Planned leftovers is common practice in this house so I don't have to cook EVERYnight. I often cook for 6, there are two of us. That leaves us with a meal to freeze for eating at a later date, enough for a lunch or two for DH--he brown bags it every day; and yes for some a repurpose of say corn beef brisket used for Rueben's. If we are grilling we always grill up more than we need for two and freeze for later eating. A turkey on the grill for no reason other than the leftovers is a favorite.

We do like arcy. There's just 2 of us and when I cook, I typically make for more, some of which gets frozen and the rest for leftovers. I too appreciate the days I don't have to cook. Hard to pick a favorite as I do it so frequently. But soups are always better the next day. My soups are more like a stoop (stew/soup) as they are so full of goodies. One of my latest favorites is the Moosewood broccoli noodle casserole which I cut up and freeze. I always look forward to that for dinner on our "fend" or "getchuroni" nights.

Pizza. My homemade pizza not so much, but from the pizzaria I actually enjoy it reheated more than fresh. Especially Sicilian. Other than that I rarely plan for leftovers as too much gets ignored and tossed. It's more likely for small bits to be snacked on, but making a full meal from leftovers rarely happens.

DH does the cooking now. We often have enough leftovers for another dinner for both of us (or breakfast/lunch for DH if it's not enough for both of us dinner). I am fine eating leftovers the enxt night or in a few and also will freeze for future. I never really enoyed cooking dinner so I am very agreeable for the most part that anything anyone prepares for me is fine, I don't like cold leftovers and do need to re-heat it (microwave is my easy helper).

The only meal we really repurpose is leftover chicken or turkey which I make into a crustless pot pie. Occasionally if leftover salmon and or chili, we will have atop a salad.

I don't have a favorite but one I don't care for that many do. is leftover hamburgers. DH will happily eat them cold ( of course with ketchup but they never did it for me.

I do like Arcy does also, I will almost always cook enough for several meals and either freeze several portions or have the leftover for lunch the next day. My fave used to be leftover pizza but I eat little pizza these days. When I go to Heaven there will be all the pizza I can eat and carbs won't matter.

Then there are those who absolutely refuse leftovers, ’planned’ included. Such waste! Sheesh, I have a relative who refuses to cook and eat anything frozen i.e.meets, veggies etc.

In the winter I make soup intended to be frozen and taken to work for lunch through March.

Any time I grill I always make good use of the hot coals and cook enough for at least 4-5 meals. I'll usually have at least 3 different proteins and a couple veggies going at once. Timing can be challenging but I have it down pretty well.

Soups for sure. I love homemade soups and make them often. But they are almost impossible to make in a small quantity so freeze some and also share with my sister. Last week it was minestrone with fresh summer veg....this week it is chicken tortilla.

I will also cook various meats/proteins intentionally so that I have leftovers to create sandwiches or other meals. And roasted or grilled veggies for salads, frittatas and paninis.

Otherwise, I am not a huge lover of leftovers........:-)

Green chili. We like smothered nachos. 🍴

Spaghetti, it always gets better with age.

any casseroles really

We love left over spaghetti, which I do a spaghetti pie the following day.

Chili

"crack" buns

Absolutely every meal I cook, I make enough for more meals. I don't want to cook something new every day if I can help it.

Chicken breasts, drumsticks, pork chops, no matter what it is, I cook extra.

No human can make just 1 serving of pasta, so there's that.

I'm making 3 lb of meatballs this weekend for the freezer. Easy to take out a few to make a Chinese dinner, add to spaghetti, make a meatball sub, etc etc.

I always make pizza from scratch and have slices in the freezer; soups, etc.

Just "one" favorite? impossible. If I liked it "fresh cooked" I'll like it heated up either the next day, used as a component of another dish, or frozen for a quick meal in the future. That includes egg souffles, which I will enjoy either cold from the fridge or sliced and heated in butter in a frying pan.

The only leftover I don't like is seafood. My DH likes leftover salmon, but mostly we buy only enough seafood for one meal.

Oh, and lettuce salads are always prepared in a "single serving" size because who enjoys wilted lettuce.

Chilli is better the second day. I know it's weird, but I like leftover steak cold from the fridge. I make an apple,walnut, blue cheese salad that I like better the next day.

It's coming to the time of year when we will start cooking the "stick to your ribs" types of food.

Love to make a turkey on rye with cranberry sauce on the day after tgiving.

Red Chile Sauce. I’ll make a double batch when planning to use it on chile rellenos or enchiladas for our dinner. The next morning, the leftover sauce is great on our breakfast eggs and as a dipping sauce for warmed tortillas. OK, I’ve just made myself hungry again (LOL)!

Chili and most other soups

Cold leftover turkey on a sandwich

Leftover roast beef for open face sandwiches

I make a grits casserole for breakfast or brunch that I like reheated, and I make enough for six to eight servings. It contains red bell pepper, celery, frozen corn, eggs, chicken broth, herbs (especially sage), chile de arbol (or other hot chili), Italian sausage, garlic, butter, and cheese.

I also like leftover frittatas.

My wife and I don't tend to cook to have leftovers and we don't ever freeze an excess. Often the quantity or amount of the items purchased produces more than two servings. An example would be a tri-tip - there are no small ones. One is more than two servings. A hunk of ham. A turkey breast. Homemade split pea soup, I use the whole package of dried peas and we eat it for a few days by necessity. Chili - same.

yup, nothing like ham and peas ...

Day after Thanksgiving....turkey sandwich with Mayo and ketchup. Warmed up dressing and sweet potatoes.

I do eat leftover pizza but that is within a couple of days. Beyond that leftovers are put piece in mouth, chew a couple of times, swallow. Too many months of leftovers in my younger days to do more than that.

Another big batch, make ahead cook here. I have a number of faves too. I like to roast a whole chicken and make salad and veggies to go with and that usually lasts the 2 of us several days, or I'll make a big batch of taco style meat, veggies and beans and make a salad to go with, and that's good for a couple of days too. I make it into taco salads with corn chips and salsa on top - one of my faves 😊

We don't have a microwave, so I prefer things that reheat well in a toaster oven or on the stove - or are good cold. I'm not crazy about having leftover pasta dishes like lasagna and baked mac & cheese, since a microwave's best for reheating those.

I make big pots of soups & stews when the weather gets cool too. My freezer is small, so I don't freeze lots of leftovers.

I am actually eating a chef's salad with cold roast chicken, roasted potatoes, & hard cooked egg for dinner tonight...

I don't freeze but leftovers here are of course soup. We eat out at our favorite Italian restaurant often and heated over pasta the next day is even better than the first.

I have thought about this for a while, and nothing comes to mind. I don't like food reheated as a rule. I do freeze Bolognese sauce, but don't think the freezing improves it.

Russian Salad needs a few hours in the refrigerator for all the flavors to come together. I usually make that the morning of the day I am serving it, or if I am very organized the night before, but rarely, so maybe that's my answer, Russian Salad, but not as a leftover.

Yum for me! Fried chicken smothered in leftover milk chicken gravy oveernight and served the next day with homemade biscuits.

To me, there are two kinds of leftovers. There are the ones that are just fine, even better, reheated just "as is" for a second meal the next day. I'm thinking soups, stews, chili, and some curries.

Then there are the ones where the leftovers are converted into a different meal entirely, second time around. That could be sandwiches, but in my house, leftover roast chicken, beef or lamb can turn into pot pies or shepherd/cottage pies, fajitas, curries, soups and salads. I often cook extra rice so the leftover rice becomes the base for a fried-rice stir fry. Leftover vegetables can go into a soup, a frittata, or, of course, fritters. Leftover bread goes into panzanella salads and leftover parmesan cheese rinds into soups. Waste not, want not.

I purposely make way too many cabbage rolls (mine are not traditional), a huge pot of chili, and a double recipe of nasi goreng. I'll have the cabbage rolls for my lunches for days on end, as well as the chili, both of which I freeze into one serving each size containers. The nasi goreng, I'll make into nasi balls which are to die for delicious! Great.... it's going to be really hot today and I now want cabbage rolls, chili and nasi goreng.....

Meatloaf. Leftover on toasted bread with a little mustard. Lweftover cream chicken gravy on french fries. Who am I kidding never any leftover chicken gravy.

Taco soup, baby back ribs, and spaghetti. Well, DH won’t eat leftover spaghetti but that’s just fine - more for me!

I must not know the trick for reheating pizza. I can hardly choke it down.

I like cold pizza, so I never bother to reheat it.

chicken gravy I love is made with milk added to drippings drippings with a lot of pepper

add leftover chicken, refrigerate overnight

Glenda

cream chicken gravy HAS to have white pepper!

never had white pepper

Thanksgiving dinner is my favorite meal but I enjoy it even more the second day because I'm not tired out from cooking.

I must lead a very sheltered life because I have never heard of Russian Salad. When I googled it, it seems like it's an enhanced potato salad? I didn't notice but do they generally have ham? Still surpirsed I never heard of it.

My favorite way to reheat pizza is in a covered skillet. Lowish heat. The crust crisps up and the cheese melts. I don’t care for it cold becase I don’t like the congealed cheese.

@olychick I heat mine in the microwave first, then heat up my cast iron frying pan and toast the bottom of my pizza in that. It's like fresh out of the oven. Sometimes I'll cover the pan with a lid to melt the cheese a bit more.

An air fryer is perfect for reheating pizza. About 4 minutes and it comes out just like it did right out of the pizza oven.