I hate to find food in the refrigerator that didn’t get eaten up or has gone bad. It feels like I am just throwing money into the trash when I have to throw away that food. There are a few things we do, though, to prevent this from happening:
∞ Weekday dinners: My husband and I (and sometimes our older son) take the leftovers from dinner for our lunches the next day.
∞ Shabbos food: We normally have one meal of Shabbos leftovers (either Sunday or Monday night). If there is not enough to make a meal we use up the small items accordingly:
– chicken becomes potpie or fried rice
– challah becomes french toast
– kugel or vegetables go in our lunches
∞ Bread: If have a few pieces of challah or other miscellaneous bread, my husband keeps the bag open and lets the bread harden. He then makes bread crumbs or sometimes croutons out of them. We haven’t bought store-bought bread crumbs in years! He stores them in the freezer.
∞ Chicken parts like necks and miscellaneous leftovers that are not enough to make into something else: These get frozen and later made into chicken soup stock.
∞ Cereal crumbs at the end of the bag: These are great to put on top of yogurt for breakfast or a snack.
For more ideas on easy meals, see my posts “Menu planning” and “Stretching your dinner dime… dollar.” Also check out my post on “Shelf life of your food.”
Please feel free to add your leftover ideas in the Comments section!
Surviving on a tight budget 