Last week I talked about how to reinvent leftovers. This week, I'm going to focus on how to prevent some of those leftovers in the first place. Most days there are just my husband, me, and a toddler eating dinner. If I make a casserole, I have a ton leftover and I get sick of eating it before it goes bad. My husband isn't a huge fan of leftovers so I'm stuck with the same thing for lunch for days. I've solved this problem using one of the following methods:
Cut the recipe in half: Some recipes easily cut in half, some do not, so this takes a little trial and error. I find the hardest ones to cut in half are those that use whole cans of food. I try to make another recipe within the same week using the other half of the can so that I'm not wasting food.
Split the recipe into two dishes: I usually use this method for items that freeze easily. Whenever I make a lasagna, I usually make it in a loaf pan. One gets eaten for dinner and the other goes straight to the freezer. It is the same amount of work to make both as it is to make one. I do this with meatloaf too. I love having a few meals in the freezer so that I don't have to think about dinner on busy nights.
Tuesday, March 24, 2009
Tightwad Tuesday: Cooking for a Small Family
Posted by Julie at 9:52 AM
Labels: Tightwad Tuesday
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4 comments:
Good ideas. I don't have room in my freezer to freeze an entire meal but I do cut recipes in half. We are only a family of three (and one of us is 3-years-old) so most recipes make too much food for us. Usually if I cut a recipe in half it makes plenty for our dinner and lunch the next day.
hi Julie,
Thanks for stoping by my blog!
Please make sure to come back this Saturday the 28th for my 100th post giveaway!!
i hear ya about the leftovers..you try to save $ but after the third day you gotta just say enough!
Thank you for sharing! This is also helpful for those of us still cooking for one!
I'm always looking for pairs of recipes that use the same ingredients so I don't waste food!
I actually love leftovers. We are also a family of 3, but we like to eat at least one meal of leftovers for lunch. Then I do freeze the rest, and sometimes I'll put them into smaller meal size containers. This is really good for singles. You can rotate them in the freezer so every night it's a different meal.
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