I'll usually plan to have leftovers of many things I cook. The list is endless. Sometimes I freeze some of the leftovers so I don't have to eat the same thing for several days in a row.

Chili, chicken and noodles, pot roast, ham and beans, soups, various grilled dinners,, etc.

I rarely turn leftovers into entirely something else but I do occasionally. Left over chicken breasts might become a quesadilla or a Caesar salad for instance. I'm not very creative. LOL

" Do you have favorite ideas for leftovers? "

Nope! I am not a big fan of most leftovers. A single repeat of the original meal is tolerable but then they typically wind up in the garbage so I limit them as much as possible.. The exceptions tend to be more or less just proteins.......roast chicken, steak, pot roast, pulled pork. etc.

Left over bacon from BLT's goes in a quiche, leftover pork tenderloin goes in a stirfry, leftover rice goes into fried rice, leftover any meat goes in a quesadilla, that sort of stuff.

" Left over bacon "

Wow, there's a term rarely heard. Or, in my case, never heard until now!

I too am not a big fan of leftovers or making big batches of anything to freeze and eat at another time.

Two days, tops, is how we roll too. Nothing purchased or made to be frozen for later use,

. Sometimes I freeze some of the leftovers

I do that frequently, make a big batch of something and then freeze meals for later, but like you, the leftovers stay in their original form. But this time the chili was morphed into a frittata, and it turned out so well that I might do it again.

“I made a comforting early lunch with leftover chili…”

Exactly our lunch today.👍🏻

We roasted a chicken with potatoes, carrots and onions Saturday night and ate the dark meat with the vegetables for dinner. I used the breast meat for chicken enchiladas which we had Sunday night and will have the leftovers tonight. Put the meaty carcass with the skin, roasting juices and some aromatic vegetables in a pot with some water and will make a stock and defat it to put in the freezer for soup. We frequently cook more than one meal's worth at a time with planned leftovers, either as the same meal or as ingredients for a different one. We like the convenience of MREs in our freezer when neither one of us feels like cooking or shopping for more food.

I'm fine with eating the same thing a few days in a row. I lived alone for most of my life, and food isn't that big a thing for me. My husband, on the other hand, likes a lot of variety in his diet. The only thing I cook and freeze is spaghetti sauce, which I'm doing today in this cold weather. If I'm cooking while my husband is out of town, leftovers just become my next meal.

Otherwise, Frances likes to take care of my leftovers.

I am the queen of the garage freezer. I make homemade soups and different pasta sauces. When I make meatloaf, it's always two, with one to tuck away, and several batches of pizza dough are just as easy to make as only one. I am famous for my cranberry sauce ( I just brought one up to put in the refrigerator.) The question is "If I haven't eaten it once, is it still considered a leftover?" LOL

Right now, we have leftover chicken breasts. DH diced one up and put it on top of his green salad, for lunch. Last night I heated up half of one with some BBQ sauce for dipping. Yesterday I diced up one & put it on top of green chili nachos. YUM!

I will do leftovers in a limited way. Tonight, we are having the leftover Costco chicken ( DH eats it for lunches) in a real old timey comfort food recipe.

It's real old timey and not gourmet at all, but it's so yummy.

I use stuffing, 3 or more cups of the leftover chicken ( cubed or at least cut up) , gravy, and some veggies depending on what we have around. Since everything has already been cooked- it goes in the oven at 325 for 25 minutes. Again, this is peasant comfort food and it works for us.

We love leftovers and I often cook more than we will eat in one meal in order to freeze the rest for another time when we’re too busy or too tired to cook. Other times I cook extra to use for some other meal, such as last week when I cooked a triple batch of rice and froze two portions. One portion was defrosted and heated to serve with a meal DH cooked (he’s not confident about his rice cooking abilities) and the other I made into nasi goreng for another meal. I roasted a large chicken on Sunday to have cooked chicken for lunches with salad as the weather here is hot.

Most leftovers are not served as is, but get turned into something new. We try to minimise our food waste, so I will add small amounts of suitable leftovers to things like fried rice, spaghetti sauce etc.

@jupid...Love Frances. What breed is she?

The delicious dish you described sounds right up my alley of using leftovers!

Yes, I enjoy leftovers very much ! Making a soup recipe for 6 when we are only 3 in the house allows for a bowl for lunch later in the week, reaping the reward of work already done... , same with a curry, pasta dish, savory tart, etc. I wouldn't know how to cook or eat any other way! I love a night off now and then because we have already cooked up a storm - we call it a 'snacky dinner', just help yourself to your favorite from what's leftover.

If I lived alone I'd just make one large lasagne or chili or quiche etc. and eat it all week.

And repurposing a meat course whether it be a roast chicken, pork shoulder, splurging on ribeyes, etc into a salad or taco bar or nachos... I don't know how to cook and eat any other way

If I have a head of broccoli or cauliflower I like to cook it all at once and if we dont manage to eat it all that night it becomes beautiful in a fritatta later in the week. I don't enjoy leaving raw veg piecemeal in the frig very long, rather cook it all in one fell swoop and it'll get used that way. Unless it's a raw-veg tray to be dipped in hummus, that'll last a few days raw.

I don't freeze very often but when I do it's if I've made too much of a sauce.. I've learned to label it in a way that's enticing - recently it was a green sauce with tomatillos etc. that I had made too much of and we pulled it out a month later to enjoy with a mexican-spiced roast chicken legs. So easy and delicious the work was nil due to having been done the prior month...

Maybe the term 'leftovers' needs a makeover haha! It is kind of an offputting word .

@Jupidupi - I’m curious about Frances too! And, I’m a dog person. Those huge ears & distinctive face markings - what a beautiful creature she is. Is she a tortoiseshell with a clipped hair do?

I like cooking one thing that will be meals for several days. I also like one pot meals. Some dishes hold up better than others and are even tastier after a night in the fridge - especially chilis, stews and tomato sauces.

I just did the same as colleen yesterday and roasted a big chicken, also chunks of carrot - all seasoned with curry powder, smoked salt and lime juice. Now we can have sandwiches and salads for a few days.

Frances is a Cornish Rex. She's a tortoiseshell, but they come in all cat colors. Their fur is very short, naturally wavy and super soft. They are known for being very people-oriented ("velcro cats"), smart, usually slender with big appetites and curious about trying everything. And yes, big ears. Here's her baby picture, before she grew into them.

Does Frances "talk" a lot?

She looks like Bastet 😻

Lily, you mean like Francis the Talking Mule? She yowls when she wants treats or is trapped in a closet. I call her Frances Off Key.

With her big ears, I thought she was one of the very vocal cats who answer their person when spoken to. I've seen hilarious videos of the "talking" cats. Maybe they were British Shorthair. My daughter's Siamese is very vocal. I once had one who was.

I tend to cook more rice than needed so my leftover is usually steamed rice which then becomes fried rice, or ends up in chicken rice soup. All good stuffs in this kind of weather.

For dinner tonight I had leftover yellow rice from a Mexican take out order. I combined it with Italian ham and intense black oil cured olives and called two minute paella.

I made ”cheater” pilaf last night using Rice-A-Roni. DH loves it and plenty left over.

@chloebud... that one is our favorite of R-A-R's. It's the only one that I buy. It's nice to have on hand in a pinch, and goes with almost everything.

The only one I buy, too.👍🏻 Must be the most popular one since I occasionally find an space empty for it on the grocery store shelf.

The goal is to not throw good food away.

I totally agree. I wish there was a way to teach young people how to plan and use food purchases.

Freeze, reimagine, plan ahead so there is extra meat to be used serveral ways.

Those who have people in their family or circle of friends who know how to do this are lucky. What with food prices rising, such an education is precious and worthwhile.

Yes, although we freeze as a last resort. As it ends up. we very rarely have any food go bad. It helps that DH will eat leftovers forever for his breakfast, and we both are pretty frugal.

Also, we often "sweeten" Wally's dry dog food with some part of our leftovers. )