There isn’t enough love for leftovers. People often waste a lot of food simply because they do not know what to do with leftover food. Are you one of those people that keep leftovers in the fridge, never touch them, and end up just throwing them out?
Instead of just scraping them into the trash bin, you should utilize those leftovers for your mid week meal prep! This article will discuss the very happy relationship that exists between leftovers and meal planning. Here are a few different ways that you can utilize leftovers for your meal planning.
Create A Delicious Leftovers Menu
If you typically use a single day of the week to do the bulk of your cooking, then you may consider making your favorite meal large enough for leftovers. Something like a casserole or homemade chili can easily feed a family of four several times throughout the week.
Plus, there are even some types of food that taste better on the second day, from curries to chili.
If you’re wondering, why does leftover food taste better, it’s because the extra day in the fridge gives the flavors and aroma compounds time to mingle together. This results in a tasty eating experience.
Leftovers also make for a great grab-n-go breakfast that you don’t have to worry about cooking. Make sure you have plenty of meal prep containers and consider how long certain meal preps last in the fridge.
What to do With Leftover Food: Reuse It
Sometimes we plan to have leftovers during our meal prep. However, let’s say you cook a large Sunday feast for family or friends and are left with a lot of leftovers. Don’t be so quick to hand out take-away platters at the door because leftover food tastes better most times.
Even if you’re just not the type of person who can eat the same kind of meal every day, you can reuse leftover food and repurpose it into a new dish for your meal planning. Let’s take the earlier example of chili.
Sure, you could have it for a hearty breakfast or toss it into your bag for lunch at work. Or, you could use that same chili and create something new, like baked chili nachos, chili stuffed spaghetti squash, or chili-loaded baked potatoes.
Reusing leftover food gives you a chance to become a little creative in the kitchen. It will help ensure you have a lot less cooking to do overall and keep meal prep exciting with new recipes all week long.
Choose Meals That Make Good Leftovers
Finally, you need to know what kind of meals are the best at creating leftovers. Meals like lasagna or shepherd’s pie last for quite a while in the fridge and taste better throughout the week.
If you pack your leftovers menu full of vegetables, legumes, and healthy starches, you and your family will be getting all the nutrition you need throughout the week to support a healthy and active lifestyle.
If you’ve been asking what to do with leftover food, we hope this article helps you. Remember to use your leftovers to your full advantage, even if that means purposely cooking in bulk so you can plan several meals from one type of recipe.