I found it interesting that comments on another blog basically said that cooking for two is a real problem because of all the leftovers. As a long time balabusta I'd like to address the comments.
First, get the word "leftovers" out of your vocabulary and out of your mind. The word has a highly negative connotation. Something leftover is unappetizing. Something that was leftover was not desirable. Instead, the word that I have used for years is "cook-aheads." Far more positive in connotation. Cooking ahead means you are organized and thoughtful. Cooking ahead means you are prepared for anything.
So, what can be cooked ahead? Just about everything and anything. Any remaining bits and pieces of meat or chicken? Cut in chunks, put in a plastic bag and freeze--label as to content. What can you do with these bits that are too small to feed the two of you all on their own? Defrost, chop finely and add to a soup. Chop finely and add to sauce for a meat sauce over pasta or rice. Chop and add to a casserole. Chop or grind finely, mix with eggs and breadcrumbs and seasonings and form into meat balls cooked in a sauce. Take a couple of those bags and use the chunks in a paprikash. Chop up and use as the filling for an omelet. (Yes, eggs can be used for a fleishig meal too.) Extra baked fish can also be used like the leftover meat.
Leftover pasta or rice? Freeze in small bags. The rice can be added as is to a soup. Pasta can be very soft when defrosted but just chop it and add to a soup where the softness is a plus.
Leftover potatoes? If mashed, refrigerate. Within a couple of days add eggs and spices to the mashed potatoes and either make fried potato patties or put into a pan and make a cooked potato kugel. For variety you can throw some finely chopped veggies into the potato mix and/or some of that finely chopped meat you've frozen. If you're making a potato kugel that you know will be too much for one or two meals, right after baking cut the kugel into reasonable portion sizes and freeze everything you won't be eating right away. Baked potatoes can be refrigerated and then cut into chunks, dusted with spices, sprayed with oil, and fried or baked.
Leftover veggies? Try omelets, or toss them into a salad, or add a few chunks of cheese and some dressing and use for a lunch meal. Or grind them up or chop finely, add eggs, a bit of bread crumbs or leftover rice and spices and make veggie patties for another meal.
If you actually have two portions of something that didn't get eaten, wrap carefully and freeze for another time. There's no reason to have to eat the same meal three days in a row just because you overcooked.
And that brings me to overcooking. Most cookbooks will tell you how many portions a recipe will give you. If you are overcooking and have a lot left after a meal it could be that you are cooking a recipe that says it will feed 6 and there are only two of you. Cut the recipe into half or thirds or freeze the extra right away. Or you may not know what actually constitutes a serving size. Get online to the USDA and find out what the recommended serving sizes are.
And then there is this, come to over many years of cooking for family and for larger crowds as well: cook what you know the people you are serving will eat. If your family leaves over 3/4 of a lasagna or eggplant parmigiana, stop making them. If only one person likes a particular dish, and it can't be frozen successfully, stop making it. A home is not a restaurant or fast food joint. Or you could try this: dinner is what you cook and they eat. If they're not enthused tonight there is always tomorrow night. I never, ever, ever made two or more main dishes for a family dinner because I wasn't looking to create problem eaters and more work for myself. Again, I was not the chef in a restaurant and no one was ordering from a menu.
That old saying really does apply: waste not, want not.
11 comments:
I made a recipe and it turned out to be too much for my family. I put it away and served it two days later. One of my kids looked at the meal and recognized it. He said he wasn't going to eat it because it was "used" food. He wanted something else. When faced with a bowl of cereal or the meal I had put on the table, he ate tthe meal.
Points out that we live in a throwaway world, for food and everything else, and as soon as something has been used once we want on to the next new thing.
I almost always double every receipe, either to freeze ahead, or to serve in a varied form later in the week. Interesting how other people won't touch things.
You are making me hungry. If you really have a problem with lasagna or eggplant parm going to waste, let me know and I'll be happy to help.
On a more serious note, there are some foods that work great as leftovers - lasagna, stew, etc., but some simply do not. Broiled chicken is just to dry, but you can make it into a nice chicken salad. Leftover haddock is another story. The key is to plan ahead for what types of dishes work a second day. If they can't be made to work, don't overbuy or skip them entirely.
A lot of the I've cooked too much problem comes from girls getting married without any real training in how to shop, cook and run a household. Making an occasional meal in your parents' home doesn't qualify you to know what to do in the best way when you are running your own home.
We send the girls off to seminary in Israel for a year of just what? The time would be better spent in giving them a solid year of instruction in household economics, budgeting, best xshopping practices, cooking and baking from scratch, nutrition and all the other practical skills they may need in marriage and life.
And no, let's not leave the men out of the equation either. They surely could use some practical skills training before they get married. Cooking is a gender free exercise. So is doing laundry. And it's not negiah to grab hold of a vacuum cleaner.
I love leftovers. I bring them to work everyday for lunch. Today I had leftover french onion soup and stir fry tofu with veggies from Shavuot. It was very tasty. Yesterday I had leftover chicken from shabbat, and it was also tasty.
Mark
home ec should be taught to both genders both in school and at home. Lovely post, ProfK. Thanks!
I love leftovers! I can't wait for Friday so I can eat whatever is left over. My mother won't let me near them the rest of the week. :-(
But I'm a drop squeamish about freezing baked fish and stuff. Is there a trick to it?
Thank you! I will definitely use some of the ideas (some others I am already using)! Unfortunately, freezing food doesn't work in my house. Hubby can definitely taste the difference (and yes, I do know how to freeze stuff).
SubWife,
Some foods don't freeze as well as others--the texture changes in freezing or the spicing/flavoring seems to disappear. When it's a spicing problem I always make sure to add more spices in before warming the food up. The texture problem for some foods--like baked fish or roasted or broiled chicken--can be solved in many cases by freezing the food covered in a sauce. The extra moisture prevents the dry texture that is common when they are frozen alone. A can of diluted soup works well with the fish. Use the smallest size plastic freezer bag that will hold the fish, pour over the diluted soup and shake the bag gently to make sure the fish is coated. Cream of mushroom or cream of celery or any of the tomato soups work. For the chicken add in tomato sauce or pizza sauce or one of the garden vegetable sauces. I found that some people can taste the food has been frozen but only if it has had a texture change or if you try to serve it in its original form.
I'm no so sure that teaching home ec is as affective of actually having to live it because you are on a budget and want to buy a house/save for a big purchase/etc.
SephardiLady,
You can't use skills you don't have, particularly those skills that are easier/better to acquire by being taught them formally. A newly married woman with the desire to cook economically and efficiently will be hampered if she doesn't know the basics of cooking and shopping and nutrition.
Let me put this another way. I have students who, for many reasons, don't have computers and/or access to the Internet. They are woefully unskilled in using a computer both for research and for keyboarding. All my assignments, including the final exams, must be produced on a computer using the tools available in a word processing and spreadsheet program. Those who were never taught keyboarding and the nuances of a word processing program take an agonizingly long time to complete just a one page letter. When an assignment is longer or more complex they work for hours. And they don't always get things right because they don't know how to do so. Sure, practice brings improvement, practice makes perfect. But first you have to know what to practice.
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