The Arc of the Left-Over
I believe in not wasting food. I believe in left-overs. What I'm not sure about is whether, if you cook for one person, as I do, and you deliberately cook enough for several meals, are those additional meals left-overs? I don't think so. I think that's Planning Ahead and Being Organized.
Long ago, Samantha bought two packages of Trader Joe's frozen hamburgers. Each package consisted of four nice-sized hamburgers, plain, unseasoned. I complained about the amount of space they were taking up in my smalli-ish freezer, and she told me to go ahead and eat them. Back in the days when my children were young and we were poor, I ate an awful lot of hamburger, prepared an awful lot of ways, and I don't like it much any more. I decided would use the hamburgers to make sloppy joes, which I do still like as long as I don't have to eat them too often. (The other package I gave to my sister Debbie of the limited budget.)
The sloppy joes came out all right, I had them for dinner on rice with a side salad, and froze the remainder. The remainder was enough for at least two more meals.
This past week I decided to have the sloppy joes for dinner. I also decided to cook up some black beans and mix them in, so while the sloppy joes thawed, I simmered about half a cup of beans on the stove. The addition of the beans meant that after I ate dinner, I would still have two more meals left. But wait! when I went to get the sloppy joes out of the freezer, I found a another, small container containing a dab of left over chili, less than half a cups' worth. So I added the chili to the sloppy joes and realized that there were a few slices of chorizo sausage in the chili.
I ate the sloppy-joes-cum-chili on a roll this time with a side of cole slaw, then refroze the left-overs which now look to me to be enough for at least two more meals, probably three.
As I was putting the container back in the freezer, I came across three-quarters of a large link of chorizo sausage. Ah ha! Next time I reheat the sloppy-joes-cum-chili I can fry up the remaining chorizo and add it, too.
You see where this is going, don't you? At some point, I have to stop adding stuff to the sloppy-joes-cum-chili-cum-chorizo and just eat it the hell up. The mixture is now as old as the chili and the chorizo, and I don't know how long ago I made them. I know it wasn't recently! One thing I'm certain of: I am now eating left-overs, not additional meals. FanSee
Long ago, Samantha bought two packages of Trader Joe's frozen hamburgers. Each package consisted of four nice-sized hamburgers, plain, unseasoned. I complained about the amount of space they were taking up in my smalli-ish freezer, and she told me to go ahead and eat them. Back in the days when my children were young and we were poor, I ate an awful lot of hamburger, prepared an awful lot of ways, and I don't like it much any more. I decided would use the hamburgers to make sloppy joes, which I do still like as long as I don't have to eat them too often. (The other package I gave to my sister Debbie of the limited budget.)
The sloppy joes came out all right, I had them for dinner on rice with a side salad, and froze the remainder. The remainder was enough for at least two more meals.
This past week I decided to have the sloppy joes for dinner. I also decided to cook up some black beans and mix them in, so while the sloppy joes thawed, I simmered about half a cup of beans on the stove. The addition of the beans meant that after I ate dinner, I would still have two more meals left. But wait! when I went to get the sloppy joes out of the freezer, I found a another, small container containing a dab of left over chili, less than half a cups' worth. So I added the chili to the sloppy joes and realized that there were a few slices of chorizo sausage in the chili.
I ate the sloppy-joes-cum-chili on a roll this time with a side of cole slaw, then refroze the left-overs which now look to me to be enough for at least two more meals, probably three.
As I was putting the container back in the freezer, I came across three-quarters of a large link of chorizo sausage. Ah ha! Next time I reheat the sloppy-joes-cum-chili I can fry up the remaining chorizo and add it, too.
You see where this is going, don't you? At some point, I have to stop adding stuff to the sloppy-joes-cum-chili-cum-chorizo and just eat it the hell up. The mixture is now as old as the chili and the chorizo, and I don't know how long ago I made them. I know it wasn't recently! One thing I'm certain of: I am now eating left-overs, not additional meals. FanSee