Posted on 04/08/2021 9:19:37 AM PDT by mylife
whine.
And a contradictory story yesterday was saying that people were getting so much takeout food that we have a catsup/ketchup shortage?
I think this comes from being spoiled as children.
Many right now never had to take leftovers for lunch to school. Why? Because those homecooked leftovers didn’t meet guidelines.
We’ve done a lot of programing for this problem.
How did the flavor and texture hold up on those canned foods? Are there any foods that have stood out as more or less affected by long storage than the others?
Exactly right. My husband calls me the leftovers queen.
For those who don’t know how to use leftovers, here’s what I do. I like leftovers a lot, but usually not for dinner the next night. So I skip a day, and then use the previous days leftovers in a new dish.
As as example, I used grilled chicken and serve it Thai style. Two nights later, we use it with Mexican or Italian seasonings. If the seasonings are already added, we make a salad and use it as the topping.
With a steak or ham dinner, we use that sometimes as breakfast in the next day or two. There are lots of ways to get creative. Don’t be afraid to try new combinations or new ingredients.
Maybe the ones with too many leftovers can work out a deal with Grubhub or someone, to deliver the food to the starving children in India or wherever. You know, the ones we always used to hear about when we were kids.
I’m eating just meat, so I cook a chuck roast or tri-tip and live off it all week. Steaks are good too, but no hamburger, as the grease goes everywhere.
When I need to cook for one, I just fry up a salmon burger, or put something in the toaster oven. It’s not hard.
My dad did the same thing heading into Y2K. Soon after the apocalypse never came, my family put its collective foot down and insisted he only get what would actually fill the shelves of the walk in pantry, and no more. He finally got the hang of it with some coaching.
Mom and Dad did entertain groups of friends 10 at a time, so they did create a balance between large amounts of food and using it up.
Depression era kids had a hard time of letting go of food especially. I expect that there will be some kids caught up in that same mindset since lockdowns forced so many people to lose their livelihoods. Thanks Democrats, for nothing but misery.
“... hate leftovers....”
I learned how to cook mainly from my mom. She was a MASTER at leftovers simply because she made a new dinner that really didn’t resemble the previous one. It was all new. For example, leftover meatloaf became spaghetti with “square” meatballs... a fun idea we really enjoyed as kids (she would slice leftover meatloaf and then cut slices/into squares). Leftover chicken/beef became a soup or stew. Leftover boiled potatoes became fried with a bit of onion and green pepper for breakfast the next day. That being said, when my brothers hit their teens, Mom would be upset that there wasn’t “anything” left... not even a bit of meat for a soup. :)
We've got some ham from Easter in the fridge, and since it was a 20 pounder, I cut it into 4 sections and we froze three at about 5 pounds each.
Additionally, last week Mrs. Alaska made an 8 pound beef roast and again I cut it in half and we froze it.
When we want a great roast, it will be there and will last for months.
I don't believe that we should throw food out, unless it spoils or the dog won't eat it.
With today's refrigeration and in a tightly sealed container, food will last for well over a week and taste very well.
This must be people without a dog.
“Your folks were the same age as mine. Depression Era; nothing got thrown away, especially not food. Good luck.”
My wife and I are in our 80’s and were born during the depression and the scarcity of food due to WWII.
Our mothers, cooked what they could afford and any leftovers became lunches or more meals. No one in our extended families ever had food poisoning due to bad food.
My wife had a little trouble reducing her recipe sizes when our sons left home to go college and/or work. So at first a lot of food went to our German Short Haired Pointer, our canine garbage disposal.
The dog’s vet recognized the weight gain and why in the dog in one year. He told my wife to give the dog a little left overs and mix them with her evening dog food dinner. In a year, the dog was back basically to normal weight wise and lived until her late teens.
My wife got into cooking smaller meals with basic control sized helpings. Costco is big help there with their salmon, beef, hamburger and pork package in basically one person sizes of seafood, beef, pork, chicken or ?.
Any leftovers after dinner go into a plastic container with a seal-able top and into the refrig for leftover lunches or another meal.
Also, in about 2 weeks, our fresh veggie/fruit merchant will be seeing us about 3 times a week until about Thanksgiving or the first frosts. My wife uses our Costco protein meal sized portions for one to go with the fresh produce.
“People in this country are not only spoiled, they have poor planning skills.”
47% are ignorant, as evidenced by their D voting.
And lack critical thinking skills (untaught by our pubic school teachers and single moms for decades).
Mom, a Slovak, learned to make spaghetti sauce from Aunt Phil. The big cooking pot went in the fridge and sometimes it was there a few WEEKS before it was empty. If it didn't have green mold or smell bad it was served and It didn't kill me, or even make me sick ! As an advantage, the longer it had for the flavors to marry together it kept tasting better and better. I also enjoyed grabbing some cold spaghetti & meatballs as a snack. Still do.
Thanksgiving turkey - two or three weeks. Still working on Easter leftovers today.
Kids today - MEH !
Well, the trick is to put leftovers in the freezer, not the fridge. I end up with 3-4 different kinds of meals in the freezer so I can still have a decent variety and not get sick of eating leftovers.
I grew up in a less-than-financially-comfortable family. We were raised not to waste money or food. I don’t mind leftovers and, in fact, there are certain foods which taste better a day later than when they were made. Now that there are only two of us at home (and pain while standing a long time), I cook less and often use convenience foods but I also make large portions of food and freeze a lot of it in two-person portions. I especially use this for taco meat, sloppy joe meat, bean soup, fajitas and more. Our meals are frequently only five minutes away from ready. Last week I finally finished off the Thanksgiving turkey which had been frozen after being sliced and cooked in teriyaki sauce. We also freeze bulk batches of fresh peaches, mandarin oranges and berries for our smoothies. No need to waste a lot of food which can be frozen.
I recall during my school years eating school lunches that every Friday was “vegetable soup” which was obviously the leftover vegetables from meals earlier in the week. This was during the sixties, by the way.
“It’s funny that a dual-income household of today has both people working like dogs, but in a living standard doing no better or worse than the single income of the past.”
Simple economics. When you double the supply of labor, without doubling the productivity of the economy, wages are not going to stay the same.
I almost always eat my leftovers.
I eat for nutrition, not to satiate senses.
I can eat the same breakfast, lunch and dinner for 5 days strait.
Of course, I’m a great cook and use only the finest ingredients.
I can afford to purchase the finest because I eat what I buy and buy what I eat.
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