Leftovers

I don't know about your family, but my family has a total love/hate relationship with leftovers. *I* love them. Everyone else hates them. haha!

If I have learned anything from cooking for my picky husband for the last 9 years, it's to plan ahead for leftovers. Don't put away leftovers of whatever it is I serve for dinner. For example, if I make lasagna tonight, I don't plan to serve leftover lasagna. Ever. If I put away leftover lasagna (or any other dish), I'd better be planning to eat it myself, because otherwise it'll sit there until it's time to throw it away.

So I plan ahead. Make extra sauce, brown extra meat, shred extra cheese, etc. Use what is needed for tonight's meal, and put the rest away in the fridge or freezer to assemble into another meal entirely. So another night this week, we can have spaghetti, or I can incorporate the meat into tacos or enchiladas, and then use the marinara sauce with deli ravioli or something else another night. If you make meatballs, make a triple batch, and tonight you can put them with spaghetti, a week from now, you can throw them in the crock pot  and make sweet and sour meatballs out of them, another night you can make BBQ meatball sandwiches with your favorite BBQ sauce, some swiss cheese and a hoagie roll. If you make mashed potatoes--make extra, and incorporate them into a shepherd's pie the next night or make potato pancakes for breakfast the next morning.

I made another batch of taco chicken the other day. We didn't eat it for dinner that night, but I froze it in small batches. Tonight we are having chicken quesadillas made with 'leftovers'. I've been making what I call 'cheater' meals like this the last couple nights, which is why I haven't posted recipes. haha!