# Waste nothing, save a lot!



## GeorgiaXplant (Oct 26, 2014)

A cyber friend on another board said that and lives it. I wish and wish I could convince DD somehow, someway. She prepares way too much most times (when she cooks at all!), but none of them will eat leftovers. After it sits in the fridge long enough to look like a failed biology experiment, she throws it out. 

At least three nights...at LEAST...dinner comes from a drive-thru, and often, especially on weekends, lunch comes from a drive-thru as well. As you can imagine, feeding a family of four (I rarely participate in the Drive-Thru Adventures) a diet of fast food is not only just unhealthy, it's expensive as well. They probably part with more than $100/week on fast food. 

Occasionally, she or DSIL will ask me to cook dinner...usually some favorite of hers or his...and I try to cook only enough for the meal. If there's anything left over, it doesn't matter one iota how much it's something they really like, the leftovers sit in the fridge unless I heat them up for myself on a night when they're doing drive-thru yet again.

It's not like they have unlimited funds to squander as they choose. As for the health aspect, DSIL is required to have a complete physical every year for his job and always comes through with flying colors: low cholesterol, normal BP, normal creatinine and triglycerides, even though he's at least 100 lbs overweight. DD has high BP and probably high cholesterol as well and if she lost 75 lbs, she'd look like herself again. Both the g'kids are thin as rails...it's a trait that runs in both sides of the family...but I wonder if they'll start packing on the pounds as they get into their 30s/40s, just like their mom and dad.

Throwing out the food that does get cooked at home just really goes against my grain. Maybe I'm just remembering as a kid my mother saying "I'm not telling you to like it; I'm telling you to eat it! There are children starving in Europe because of the war!" She was a REALLY BAD COOK, but nothing is ever served here that the kids don't like. Limits our menu for sure, and because they're so used to getting fast food instead, they prefer it and often decline to eat so that DD will fetch them something from McDonald's, BurgerKing, Kentucky Fried Chicken, Taco Bell...

Can we say picky eaters and spoiled kids? I keep mum about it because I have to live under this roof, too.

The above is just a rant, of course


----------



## SeaBreeze (Oct 26, 2014)

Fast food on a regular basis is really bad for adults and kids.  My mother used to get mad at me if I didn't finish everything on my plate, and she gave me very little, I was skinny and a picky eater.  Took care of that problem in my adulthood! :fat:  She always said about the children starving overseas.  Even today, me and hubby have no problem eating leftovers made at home.  Rarely step into a fast food place anymore, not from all I've heard about their reusing oils over and over again for French fries, pink slime in hamburgers and tacos, etc.


----------



## rkunsaw (Oct 27, 2014)

We don't throw nuthin out. Some leftovers are even better the second time around. We rarely eat out at all, although we were in town a few days ago and my wife saw a Taco Bell so we got some to take home. It reminded us why we rarely eat out.


----------



## Melody1948 (Oct 27, 2014)

I love left-overs.  They have a chance to marinate all night.  Pasta is always best the second day.


----------



## GeorgiaXplant (Oct 27, 2014)

Soup! Soup is better the next day. DD and I like soup. DSIL and the g'kids don't think it should be a meal.


----------



## Vivjen (Oct 27, 2014)

Pasta has been shown to be better for you when reheated....more useful carbs, less fat....or something.
no time to look it up!
casseroles are better second time round too; quicker to make than a drive thro' then just let it cook!


----------



## Twixie (Oct 27, 2014)

I watched an elderly lady in France..scrub all her veggies..peel them..and put the peelings in a pan..soften them and then liquidize them..making a delicious soup for supper..


----------



## Ameriscot (Oct 27, 2014)

My dh makes a big pot of curry or chili or soup most nights (different veggies, different protein source like beans, tofu, Quorn) which is enough for at least 3 meals.  It doesn't go off as there is no meat in it.  I will sometimes add tofu later so it can marinate before the next dinner.  Sometimes I freeze it in serving sized containers.  We waste very little food at all.


----------



## RadishRose (Oct 27, 2014)

Agree w/ all about stews and chili's better next day, but the family doesn't eat leftovers, darn. They could put the leftovers into the freezer and enjoy in a few weeks. Potatoes and pasta don't thaw well, but roast chicken, chili, stews should be ok. Just cook up some starch for the side.


----------



## Lee (Oct 28, 2014)

About the only thing I throw out around here are the used coffee grounds.


----------



## oldman (Oct 28, 2014)

When I flew for the airlines, I would eat a lot of airport breakfasts, unless we were flying cross country say, Baltimore to San Francisco and then we would have breakfast available on-board, then I would rather eat one of those meals. If we were flying in the evening, I generally just grabbed an airport salad or maybe a turkey and swiss sandwich on a Kaiser roll, or maybe flat bread. Never any mayonnaise. I really appreciated my wife's cooking. I can only imagine what truck drivers go through with eating, although I knew of one truck driver who used to make the same run and would stop at the same diner all the time because the food was supposedly home cooking. He used to say it was better than his wife's cooking. The only fast food I like is Wendy's chili.


----------

