What Do YOU Do With the Leftovers?

I like cooking dinner. I just hate planning it. And I am not a big fan of throwing something together at the last minute (those kind of meals are rarely very healthy and often not too tasty).

As a mom to a big family, cooking dinner is a big part of my job…and dinners need to be BIG. My kids are old enough that they don’t tolerate mac n’ cheese like they used to, so I need to be more creative and plan a little better for meal time.

Because I never know how much my kids are going to eat or how far a recipe is going to stretch, I tend to try to err on the side of larger when I’m making dinner. But big meals often result in left overs, and there’s always the question of what to do with the left over dinner.

Left over tips from my kitchen

• I plan one to two “left-overs” nights into my weekly meal plan.
• When there is a full meal portion left over, I immediately package it up in a freezer-safe container and freeze it for later.
• I always look for different ways to (re)use meats.

– Last week, the slow-cooked pork loin roast became BBQ pulled pork a few days later.
– Whenever I get a rotisserie chicken, I use those left overs to make chicken enchiladas, chicken tortilla soup, or chicken pot pie (or countless other chicken recipes).
– I make extra taco meat (with black beans and rice mixed in) and save it for taco salads later.

• Left overs make the perfect lunch, especially when there is only a small amount left after dinner.
• Too much left overs? This past week, I made an amazing soup, but made a little mistake in the amount of broth/water that I added to the veggies. It turned out way too watery, so I ended up having to add more of everything to thicken the supposed-to-be-thick-and-creamy soup up. After I had eaten it for lunch and dinner twice, I passed the rest on to my friend, who enjoyed it as a NEW meal.

How do YOU use your left overs?

 

I am thrilled to be working with Toni Spilsbury, the author of The Organized Cook™ Cookbook. She’s got some pretty exciting things going on, including free weekly meal planning, 12 Days of Thanksgiving, and her blogger Affiliate Program, and weekly twitter parties – starting this week!

#MealPlanning Twitter Party – Join me!

This Thursday, October 13 from 8-9 pm MST, I will be a panelist at the #mealplanning twitter party with @organizedcook.

Party guests can win prizes including a $100 grocery gift card, subscription to The Organized Cook™ Weekly Meal Plan and copies of The Organized Cook™ Cookbook. We’ll be talking about family meal planning for busy moms, asking questions and sharing tips.

Be sure to RSVP for the party and enter to win (And get this – you can get an extra entry just by saying in a comment why you love me. How’s that for a cool contest?!).

It gets better – #mealplanning parties will be happening weekly, so there will be tips and helpful information coming regularly! Hope to see you this Thursday!

Disclosure: I am being compensated for my participation in this campaign and for my part as a twitter party panelist. Meal planning, left overs, and just plain eating are things that I get pretty passionate about, but as always the thoughts, opinions, and ideas expressed on my blog are my own.

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