Eating What You Have vs Healthy Eating

[Ottakee]

This is definitely a rich world problem.  I am struggling a bit with eating what we have vs eating healthy.

I have bread that needs to be eaten, shredded potatoes that need to be eaten, milk that needs to be used, and other perishable items that aren't the healthiest....like left over banana pecan pancakes, leftover ham and rolls from Easter, etc.

Do you eat up the perishable stuff even if it might be higher in carbs, fats, calories, etc or try to eat healthier and let some food from to waste?   How do you strike a balance?

I am trying to limit my portion size and Continue regular exercise of some form.  

 

[Acorn]

I guess we might define healthy differently. I would freeze the ham and rolls. We eat wheat bread, low fat milk, potatoes, and pancakes made using oil instead of butter to follow our heart healthy diet. 

[mlktwins]

I am here although I would prefer to be able to eat more healthy choices.  I don’t even like the heels of a loaf of bread, but am eating them so they don’t go to waste LOL.  Some leftover spaghetti noodles that no one else will eat, I’m adding a little sauce or a little bit of butter and garlic salt and finishing it up.

i didn’t realize how much I took unlimitied food for granted.  I used to throw away the heels of the bread because no one here likes them.  One of my sons is now eating them too.

 

[Acorn]

We toast the heels and then food process to make breadcrumbs.

[Soror]

I'm trying to straddle the middle ground, getting all the fresh food I can manage when I do get pick-ups and stretching it as long as I can, eating with whatever other dried foods we have to make meals. I hardly have any ham left, if there was a lot I'd freeze it for another meal. We only had a few rolls left, I ate a couple yesterday and will have the last one today, no guilt the rest of my meals were whole foods with plently of veggies as I just got a pick up order. I usually make myself high protein pumpkin pancakes with cottage cheese, pumpkin, eggs, and oats and just keep them in the frig and eat a bit at a time and have no issue eating them multiple times a week. If I had more indulgent ones that was more than we could eat a time I'd put them in the freezer too. If I have leftovers that aren't being eaten I'll make a whole meal out of a hodge podge of leftovers, everyone picks something, I dont' make anything new until we eat it all. If it is something everyone likes we compromise and you share. Dh and I generally take what others don't want.

[Miss Tick]

16 minutes ago, Ottakee said:

This is definitely a rich world problem.  I am struggling a bit with eating what we have vs eating healthy.

I have bread that needs to be eaten, shredded potatoes that need to be eaten, milk that needs to be used, and other perishable items that aren't the healthiest....like left over banana pecan pancakes, leftover ham and rolls from Easter, etc.

Do you eat up the perishable stuff even if it might be higher in carbs, fats, calories, etc or try to eat healthier and let some food from to waste?   How do you strike a balance?

I am trying to limit my portion size and Continue regular exercise of some form.  

 

Pancakes, ham and rolls could all be portioned and frozen and used as parts of later meals.  Milk can be frozen, but I haven't tried that. Surely it would be fine for cooking with.  When it feels like my freezer is loaded with delicious I find it easier to fill the fridge with healthier choices. Coming off a holiday is tricky!

17 minutes ago, mlktwins said:

I used to throw away the heels of the bread because no one here likes them.  One of my sons is now eating them too.

 

We generally eat the heels, but sometimes I collect a bunch in the freezer, today then dry in the oven, and then grind them in the blender into breadcrumbs - which them sit around in the freezer waiting to be used!

[Matryoshka]

Dh and I recently ate french fries and fishsticks that one of my dds had left in our freezer - I needed the room for healthier stuff, and I couldn't bear to throw anything out right now...

And of course right after we did that, that same dd ended up having to move back home.  When we cleaned out her apartment, we found her roommate had left a 12-pack of ramen and some instant coffee.  I'm putting those in our basement and figuring once we've eaten everything else in the house, those will be the real starvation diet...  What else should I do with the ramen?  Maybe I should donate it to a food pantry?

[Ottakee]

I am much more conscious about food waste now.  We have been given some food and  want to make sure to use it up.  Yesterday was a restaurant package of shredded potatoes.   So last night it was fried hash brown for supper (huge hit with the kids) and today will be potato soup with ham.  The rest I froze.

I am NOT a hugely healthy eater, so don't get me wrong, it is just making sure to use whatever we can with no waste.   Freezer space is limited here and currently packed.   We do not have a lack of food, I am just trying to figure out how to use it up in sorta healthy ways 

[Carrie12345]

I’m on a very different level, lol. I’m good with the bread, potatoes, milk, etc. if it keeps me from the sweets and chips.  (Shh! It’s not.)

[Soror]

3 minutes ago, Seasider too said:

 

Would you share that pancake recipe, please? That sounds like a great breakfast option for some people around here. 

https://cleananddelicious.com/video-high-protein-pumpkin-pancakes-clean-delicious/#wprm-recipe-container-29586

But I just use 3 whole eggs, I hate throwing out half the egg and have crazy stupid low cholesterol anyway.

[Matryoshka]

5 minutes ago, happysmileylady said:

With the ramen, you can use the noodles but not the seasoning packet.  All the sodium and stuff is in the seasoning.  

Yeah, but I just read that something they do to those noodles (the brick style ramen, not ramen generally) renders them pretty much indigestible and they just sit around in your intestines forever (and yet I still can't bring myself to chuck them)

Here's an article that talks about all the preservatives - and lacquers?! - they use to make those indestructible,  but also apparently indigestible. ..

[Matryoshka]

9 minutes ago, happysmileylady said:

Well if you can’t bring yourself to pitch then and can't eat them maybe you could like crush them up like bread crumbs or something?

Lol, I still think I'll either squirrel them in case I really run out of everything else (unlikely but gives a psychological cushion - like a backup to my backups), or donate them somewhere. I've got lots of other stuff to work through before I'm desperate enough to start on these. 😂 And y'know, if it does get so bad that we actually have gotten to the point that this is all that left to eat, I'm gonna say to heck with it, and eat all the sodium msg, and laquer!  😂 

(I did already offer them to my other adult kids and their roommates - no takers!)

Edited April 14, 2020 by Matryoshka

[Monica_in_Switzerland]

I don't like to waste, so after  holiday meal, we eat leftover holiday meal until it's gone.  

I am getting better and halving recipes for sweets, even for our largish family.  There is absolutely no reason for me to make a 24 batch cupcake recipe- that's FOUR per person in our house!!! So I half those recipes.  Same for cakes, I'll half the recipe and if I still want a layer cake, I'll use a smaller baking tin.  Etc.  This helps a lot with not feeling "obligated" to eat bad food until it's gone.  

In general, now is a great time to slowly move your meals towards healthier.  There are plenty of healthy fruits and veggies that can last quite a while, like cabbage family, root veggies, apples, etc.  I don't think it's a great time for radical change.  You don't want to find yourself with a houseful of kale and pinto beans and then discover that you hate them both.  

 

EDIT:  I do know the verb is *halve*.  Sigh.  I can't explain what happened there.  

Edited April 14, 2020 by Monica_in_Switzerland

[Matryoshka]

1 minute ago, Monica_in_Switzerland said:

I don't like to waste, so after  holiday meal, we eat leftover holiday meal until it's gone.  

I am getting better and halving recipes for sweets, even for our largish family.  There is absolutely no reason for me to make a 24 batch cupcake recipe- that's FOUR per person in our house!!! So I half those recipes.  Same for cakes, I'll half the recipe and if I still want a layer cake, I'll use a smaller baking tin.  Etc.  This helps a lot with not feeling "obligated" to eat bad food until it's gone.  

In general, now is a great time to slowly move your meals towards healthier.  There are plenty of healthy fruits and veggies that can last quite a while, like cabbage family, root veggies, apples, etc.  I don't think it's a great time for radical change.  You don't want to find yourself with a houseful of kale and pinto beans and then discover that you hate them both.  

Mmmm, I love kale and pinto beans!

Lol, but seriously,  I've also been limiting my fresh stuff to things like root veggies and cabbages and winter squash - or frozen.

[Ottakee]

53 minutes ago, happysmileylady said:

I am kind of confused why you would even have purchased the food if you don’t consider it healthy enough to eat it?

Several things at play here.

First is the Easter holiday.  I wouldn't typically have rolls and potatoes and pie at the same meal....but for the holiday we did and have some of each left.

Second, some of the food has been given to me.  I might not have typically bought it myself, but now that it is in my house I don't want it to go to waste.

 

[Ali in OR]

Not wasting food has become a higher priority these days. Last night one dd couldn't finish her last piece of pizza (our first takeout since SIP) and was walking toward the trash with it. I grabbed her plate from her, cut off the portion where she had bitten into it, but fed the rest to disabled dd as part of her dinner. I would try to freeze anything you can't get to right away. And that's a reminder to myself to cut up our little bit of leftover steak from Easter and move it from the fridge to the freezer since nobody ate it for lunch yesterday.

We're not huge veggie eaters, but dh and I do like salads. Well, this week's shopping trip was Costco yesterday instead of a grocery store. They had no lettuce, so we just don't have the salad option for this week. I got grapes, bananas, and a pineapple. We still have some carrots and celery and I'll make a soup for tonight with that. But yeah, we'll probably have a carbier week this week. The last day or two before I make the every week-10 day grocery run, we don't have many choices for fresh produce. But we do have frozen berries, there are usually some apples or oranges, etc.

[Pen]

1 hour ago, Ottakee said:

This is definitely a rich world problem.  I am struggling a bit with eating what we have vs eating healthy.

I have bread that needs to be eaten, shredded potatoes that need to be eaten, milk that needs to be used, and other perishable items that aren't the healthiest....like left over banana pecan pancakes, leftover ham and rolls from Easter, etc.

Do you eat up the perishable stuff even if it might be higher in carbs, fats, calories, etc or try to eat healthier and let some food from to waste?   How do you strike a balance?

I am trying to limit my portion size and Continue regular exercise of some form.  

 

 

I’d freeze all those perishables and spread out their use if you think they are not healthy. Other than the milk which doesn’t freeze well.

or make things like something that incorporates shredded potato and freeze that

I’d go ahead and use the milk and in future try to only buy it in quantities that fit what you think of as healthy, or if you don’t think it is healthy don’t get it at all, or if your area has it rationed, maybe offer yours to a family that uses a lot and can’t get it in sufficient quantity. 

[barnwife]

I try to do both. For example, one of the kids didn't finish their toast for breakfast this morning. I will choke it down at lunch. It won't be easy. (Due to the member of our family arriving this fall, there are...a lot of foods I just can't stand and/or make me sick. Bread is one of them.) But, DH is at our other house so he can't eat it. And the kids won't eat it.

FWIW, my grandpa used to tell us how they had oatmeal every day for breakfast. He hated it. But, it was the Depression, so not eating it wasn't an option. So it'd be there again at lunch...and then at dinner, if necessary. When he grew up and was engaged to my grandma, he told her he'd marry her if she'd never make oatmeal. (Thank goodness she agreed...and stuck to the bargain.)

I am not quite there with our kids yet. 

[amyx4]

If you're not in a hot spot, I would suggest freezing the milk for future baking. 

Yesterday, the grocery store was completely out of gallons. I could get 1/2 gallons and quarts but no gallons. I should've taken a picture.

[MEmama]

We’ve never been food wasters, but all of us are even more conscious of making sure we eat up everything. Small tidbits left over from any meal just gets finished off during the next. None of cares if the flavors don’t “go well”. It’s a habit with only positive effects in the long run. 
 

We are definitely eating more treats than we normally do. It’s a small comfort and enjoyment and I don’t feel bad about it at all. That said, our meals continue to be well balanced and healthy. I am super grateful we bought a small chest freezer this fall.

[Matryoshka]

1 hour ago, happysmileylady said:

I am kind of confused why you would even have purchased the food if you don’t consider it healthy enough to eat it?

Well in my case I didn't purchase it.  I 'inherited' it from dd and her roommate...  I'm very good normally about not buying anything that's not healthy so I don't eat it.  Dd moved home a week before we went back and got all the food out of the apartment, and she complained bitterly about our lack of 'snacks'.  My snacks are nuts, fresh-popped popcorn, dark chocolate in small amounts, and sometimes whole grain crackers and cheese.  I've also been making myself healthy low-carb treats (no-bake carrot 'cake' slices, black bean brownies...) that she won't eat.  Dd wants things like goldfish and cheese puffs.  Nope, not buying that.  Told her that her stash from her apartment is going to have to last her all of the lockdown...

Edited April 14, 2020 by Matryoshka

[skimomma]

Wasted food has always been a pet peeve of mine so our normal food management results in very little waste.  And I am not worried about eating the occasional unbalanced meal during times like these.  In fact, the first thing I stocked up on was crappy frozen junk food....mostly as a "replacement" for our 1-2/week restaurant habit.  I never EVER buy this stuff so being able to produce a frozen pizza, ice cream, or some french fries is an "event" in my house.  Being spring, most of the food I put up in the chest freezer for the season has already been consumed, so that is where I have the most storage space right now.  There is still plenty of room for leftovers and the frozen veggies I am now uncharacteristically buying to carry us for a few days after all fresh produce is eaten. 

The biggest shift in our house has been trying to use up what we have on hand to lessen trips to the store.  This has resulted in some bizarre meals.  I always have an assortment of whole grains, storage veggies, infrequently-needed condiments, and nut butters in the fridge but I am trying to use them up so that I have more room to accommodate larger-but-less-frequent grocery trips and also to buy more time before I need to make the next trip.  I want that space for fresh produce and other frequently-needed perishables.  So, when I served up bottom-of-the-bags rice-buckwheat-bulgar hot cereal this morning, I got some looks.  Last week's winter radish, beet, and storage carrot slaw was also an eyebrow lifter.

[Jaybee]

2 hours ago, happysmileylady said:

I am kind of confused why you would even have purchased the food if you don’t consider it healthy enough to eat it?

Well, I haven't read past this, so she or someone else may have responded. But for me, it isn't the food itself, it's the combination of foods--making sure I get enough other nutrients to keep from having meals that are too carb-heavy, keeping a healthy balance. OP, I'm still buying groceries once a week, because our freezer/refrigerator combo doesn't have enough space for the teenage appetites, so I'm mostly buying as much fresh produce as I can, then combining that with my more carb-heavy staples. If we get completely house-bound, we won't be able to keep as healthy a balance. I do try to get some canned green vegetables along the way, but they are harder to find.

[regentrude]

We don't waste food. Leftovers get eaten before the new stuff - unless they can be frozen. Pancakes, ham, and rolls sound like perfect candidates for freezing.

I baked my mom's Easter wreath, a sweet yeasted baked thing. It's too much for the two of us to eat right away, so I froze half. But I'd never throw out food that hasn't gone bad.

Edited April 14, 2020 by regentrude

[regentrude]

3 hours ago, mlktwins said:

 I used to throw away the heels of the bread because no one here likes them.  

Bread crumbs. Croutons. Bread salad.

My mom would never have tolerated us throwing away bread. She was born in 1941 and lived through the post war famine as a child. Wasting food was considered a sin.

[Hilltopmom]

I’m trying to stay on keto during this. I stocked the freezers with things I knew I would eat and put back up stuff in the pantry. The kids eat pasta and breads so they get more shelf stable stuff right now than me.

[mlktwins]

22 minutes ago, regentrude said:

Bread crumbs. Croutons. Bread salad.

My mom would never have tolerated us throwing away bread. She was born in 1941 and lived through the post war famine as a child. Wasting food was considered a sin.

Yes, I took it for granted!  My DH was brought up the same way as you at his house.  I was not, although we didn't waste bread.  My mom or dad just ate that part of the loaf or the things I didn't like.  I'm not wasting them anymore and my family of 4 isn't leaving even 1 grain of rice on their plates!  Our thinking with regards to food (and toilet paper) is forever changed because of this.

[J-rap]

I would use up things that at least provide some health benefit -- like ham, in a dish that's mostly healthy and nutritious.  Like today, I'm making navy bean soup with lots of carrots and celery and onions and a little left-over Easter ham for flavor.  🙂  I think ham sandwiches are fine too!  

I'm really not throwing away too much at all, but I guess I generally don't buy stuff that I think is absolutely unhealthy.  Most things are fine in moderation.  I'd freeze the shredded potatoes and use it here and there to bulk up things like omelets with veggies.  (And didn't the Irish once survive on potatoes?)

I guess I don't think of anything you listed as super unhealthy!  I'd just use them a little sparingly, and maybe freeze them so they last longer and you can space them out more.  

Edited April 14, 2020 by J-rap

[Ottakee]

I realized that it is more that each food isn't so unhealthy on its own....but rather what left overs we have combine to make less healthy meals.  For lunch today I had left over ham and a left over roll...and the last sliver of pie.

A veggie would have been nice but that would have meant opening something else ....so I didn't 

[Spy Car]

I have always been a frugal cook. I've taken that to extreme levels during this crisis. Almost nothing gets wasted.

I'm looking at every crumb and container and asking "what can I do with that?"

Dandelions are providing beautiful salads through careful harvesting. Egg shells are being used to grow seeds. 

I made savory bread pudding, a grape-nuts-like cereal, and Kvass (a fermented Russian style drink) from a bread loaf that I overcooked.

Saving bacon fat. Making buttermilk. Trying not to waste a scrap.

Bill 
 

Edited April 14, 2020 by Spy Car

[Spy Car]

The thing with the ham is that a little bit of ham can flavor foods that might otherwise be "boring."

I'd try to treat the ham as a flavoring agent as opposed to a main course (depending on what else I had).

Bodies (and especially the brain) need fats to function. I'm all about food density at the moment.

Bill

[ScoutTN]

We are thrifty with regard to food at all times and eat leftovers. Not optional. Little waste here. My kids eat sweets in moderation, mostly homemade baked goods. Two teens in this household. A small pantry, one regular sized fridge, no backup freezer or second fridge. I make homemade stock and we eat lots of soup because it is cheap and economical. Back to bread baking since this all started. We buy mostly real, whole foods, including a CSA box from late spring through late fall, as well as some meats, eggs, fruits, veggies and raw milk from local farmers (as budget allows). 

But, dh eats low carb-ish and I am diabetic. Lots of veggies here! Lots and lots. Not lots of long-keeping, starchy ones like winter squash or potatoes, though. I simply cannot eat meals full of grains, legumes, or starchy veggies and keep my blood sugar at a healthy level. No pasta, bread or cereal for me. So while we do use up odds and ends, make do with frozen or canned veggies, and work hard to be both frugal and creative, I still need to go to the store every 6 days in order to have food that I can eat. 

 

 

 

Edited April 14, 2020 by ScoutTN

[Pen]

3 hours ago, Seasider too said:

 

Something I did when the kids were all younger was to keep a soup bucket in the freezer. It was a plastic tub from a gallon of ice cream. Any leftovers that might make a reasonable blend would be diced and put into that bucket, with each addition I’d add a bit of water to cover the new additions.

 

I love this idea!  Adopting immediately though in a smaller container I have available!  

 

[Matryoshka]

1 hour ago, happysmileylady said:

Yeah, but that’s one meal.  I presume you had a veggie when you had the ham, right?    Plus now your pie is gone so you aren’t going to be eating it at the next meal.  But, presumably you will be having a veggie with the next meal, right?

healthy eating isn’t about eating the most perfectly healthy meal every single time.  It’s about overall intake.  And I presume you aren’t eating pie with most meals, and that you aren’t skipping veggies with most either.  

Hm, if you make pie right, it's just fruit and bread, lol.  (I do tend to make mine with at least 1/2 ww flour and very low added sugar - so that's what I tell myself! 😂)

[Pen]

 

1 hour ago, Spy Car said:

Egg shells are being used to grow seeds. 

 

Do you have a technique for fairly reliably getting eggs to break right to do this?

 I’ve done it, and love how easy they plant after sprout omg, plus extra calcium—but I have trouble deliberately breaking the eggs so I get a good 3/4 or so she’ll to plant in— other than chance

[cjzimmer1]

We're generally pretty low waste here but I've definitely kicked it up a notch.  Fresh produce is so difficult to get these days (like about 75% gets canceled out of every order I make) so we are not about to let anything go.  We're are struggling to get enough salad fixings as it is, so I've turned to growing sprouts for salads just to give us some kind of freshness on a regular basis. As for other odds and ends,  my kids have always grown up with "you get what you get and you don't throw a fit" concerning the random bit of leftovers I have (and we have a "dabs and doodles" meal at least once a week to use up things) but if I know they truly hate something I will try to repurpose it into something more to their liking.  

So if I had too many unhealthy/less healthy things left over, I would try to freeze some for later and the rest mix in with healthier options but no I wouldn't get rid of anything just because I didn't think it was healthy enough.  Too many people are struggling to get food as is, I couldn't justify that kind of waste just because something wasn't to my desired level.

[Acadie]

7 hours ago, Matryoshka said:

And of course right after we did that, that same dd ended up having to move back home.  When we cleaned out her apartment, we found her roommate had left a 12-pack of ramen and some instant coffee.  I'm putting those in our basement and figuring once we've eaten everything else in the house, those will be the real starvation diet...  What else should I do with the ramen?  Maybe I should donate it to a food pantry?

 

Have you ever made cabbage slaw with ramen, scallions, soy sauce and sesame oil? Might use up a couple packages anyway....

I'm buying cabbage more often these days because it keeps so well.

[SKL]

About 90% of my diet is leftovers, and probably 98% of it is stuff I don't actually like but I'm eating it to prevent it from wasting.

I grew up borderline poor and have never had an easy time wasting food.  But now it's to the extreme.  And I wish others in my house would lean a little more my way.

[Sherry in OH]

5 hours ago, Dreamergal said:

I've been more conscious of food waste while before I would just dump things.

You can make bread crumbs out of bread. 

Can you make soup out of the leftover ham and potatoes adding more vegetables to make it nutritious. 

Here is a method to use left over milk. I make form of Indian cottage cheese called panner. Here is the recipe. You need only vinegar or lime juice. 

https://www.cookwithmanali.com/how-to-make-paneer-at-home-homemade-paneer-recipe/

It is a bit of a process, but you can add this to a lot of dishes to stretch it out.

If you have a yogurt starter (yogurt from a previous batch or commercial yogurt with live cultures) , you can make yogurt with the milk. I just boil the milk, cool it down, add about 3 Tbsps of starter  and keep it in a warm place, usually overnight. 

ETA: As for healthy eating, I figure eating a lot of fruits, veggies, less meat and all the walks we take cannot but help, though the baking might add to the weight. So DH and I are doing intermittent fasting. 

 

Thanks for the paneer recipe.  One of my boys loves paneer. Our regular grocery doesn't carry it and I have been reluctant to visit speciality stores in pursuit of one or two items, so it has been off our menu.    Our grocery store usually has milk.

 

 

[Spy Car]

8 hours ago, Pen said:

 

 

Do you have a technique for fairly reliably getting eggs to break right to do this?

 I’ve done it, and love how easy they plant after sprout omg, plus extra calcium—but I have trouble deliberately breaking the eggs so I get a good 3/4 or so she’ll to plant in— other than chance

The easier (but risker) way is just to whack off the top with the thinnest and sharpest knife you have with a swift strike. Try to avoid severing fingers in the process.

The cumbersome (and in the Covid-19 era less...er, um.."socially distanced" way) is to make two small holes on either pole of the egg and blow out the contents into a bowl. After which you gently expand one hole.

Bill

 

 

 

 

 

Edited April 15, 2020 by Spy Car

[Shoeless]

15 hours ago, skimomma said:

The biggest shift in our house has been trying to use up what we have on hand to lessen trips to the store.  This has resulted in some bizarre meals.  

 

I have been using up odd bits of this and that to reduce food waste.  Husband asked me what I was planning for dinner, and I said "I dunno, chicken and lightbulbs". As in "None of this really goes together, but I"m working with what I've got.  Please don't give me a hard time about it". Now it's a running joke. 

[Laura Corin]

I grew up on leftovers.  Rationing ended less than seven years before my birth, so the habits were ingrained still.  We would have a piece of meat on Sunday (a roast chicken, piece of lamb, etc.) then would eat it in various guises for the rest of the week, stretched with pulses, dairy, grains and vegetables.  By Friday it would be used up and we would often have sausages and beans.  I can't remember what happened on Saturday - maybe a one-off dish.

We waste very little anyway, so things are not too different at the moment.  It's more that when we run out of something, we don't dash out and replace: we just do without that and eat other things (we are lucky to be able to afford a pantry stocked with healthy food).

Edited April 15, 2020 by Laura Corin

[SamanthaCarter]

The only difference here is that DH doesn’t dash to the grocery store when he sees that something is running low, and come home with that and several other items. I’ve always been a “we can do without until next grocery trip” kind of shopper/food preparer. I’m still operating under the assumption that the store will have what we want, or a suitable substitute. We are not in a hotspot. 
 

OP, I grew up in a family of big eaters, 6 of us. Over time I’ve adapted my sense of portion so that my family will have few-to-manageable leftovers. Ive eaten way too many meals of the other half of the casserole or the other third of the pot of soup all by myself. Nobody helps eat up leftovers unless it was the rare, highly prized dish or I force the issue. It kind of sucks that I don’t get much break from cooking, but little scraps of raw materials prepped and squirreled away in the freezer helps. Chop up that ham and freeze it in 1 cup portions. Use the rolls for breadcrumbs.  
 

ETA: yesterday I made zuppa toscana that included the rest of the too-big portion of braised kale from earlier in the week. No one noticed. Monday I used the rest of the chicken with creamy sun dried tomato sauce by tossing it in with a small batch of Alfredo sauce and stirring it into fresh pasta. The sun dried tomatoes were not that, they were cherry tomatoes (from my kids government lunches) tossed on the grill after the hamburgers came off last time we cooked out. 

Edited April 15, 2020 by SamanthaCarter

[SamanthaCarter]

4 hours ago, Laura Corin said:

We would have a piece of meat on Sunday (a roast chicken, piece of lamb, etc.) then would eat it in various guises for the rest of the week, stretched with pulses, dairy, grains and vegetables.  By Friday it would be used up and we would often have sausages and beans.  

See, to me that’s not leftovers. The cooked meat became raw material for entirely new meals. 

[Laura Corin]

13 minutes ago, SamanthaCarter said:

See, to me that’s not leftovers. The cooked meat became raw material for entirely new meals. 

We rarely ate big pieces of meat two days running, but my mum might make soup or risotto from the meat to eat over several days.

[Alicia64]

I'm doing exactly what you said: limiting my portion sizes and getting exercise.

I lost 50 lbs. 15 years ago. Maintaining the loss has been a trip, but I refuse to regain. So I've learned to maintain.

I kept my weight off through arm surgery and later a cast (a driver totaled my car), the loss of my best friend, and now the fun of the coronavirus.

In my mind I continually think, I won't let this situation sideline me.

The best of luck to you -- I know this a hard time.

Alley

[KungFuPanda]

On 4/14/2020 at 9:10 AM, Ottakee said:

This is definitely a rich world problem.  I am struggling a bit with eating what we have vs eating healthy.

I have bread that needs to be eaten, shredded potatoes that need to be eaten, milk that needs to be used, and other perishable items that aren't the healthiest....like left over banana pecan pancakes, leftover ham and rolls from Easter, etc.

Do you eat up the perishable stuff even if it might be higher in carbs, fats, calories, etc or try to eat healthier and let some food from to waste?   How do you strike a balance?

I am trying to limit my portion size and Continue regular exercise of some form.  

 

I think you strike that balance at the grocery store.  If you're buying more carbs there will always BE more carbs in your house.  I know a lot of us are relying on shelf stable stuff because we can't run to the store on a whim.  I think the best thing to do is not waste food even if it means you eat more carbs.  Then, on your next grocery run try to figure out how you can balance things out even if it means eating frozen or canned veggies once you've worked your way through the fresh stuff.  Eliminating waste will mean fewer trips and fewer grocery shortages.  It might even be worth having one dinner a week that is a leftover buffet just to clear out your fridge.

 

[Alicia64]

35 minutes ago, Dreamergal said:

Perhaps people know this hack, but I had to learn this from Jimmy Kimmel of all people. I made Shrimp fettuccine Alfredo yesterday. I usually make it with cream, butter and cheese, not exactly the healthiest. I do add garlic and herbs, but still it is heavy. So I was watching Jimmy Kimmel and he makes a white sauce for his kids with pureeing cannellini beans, adding some stock to it and cooking it with oil infused with garlic. He add parmesan in the end and added it on pasta for his kids. Apparently it is a winner and they eat it often. 

So I figured if his kids could eat it so could mine. So I pureed some cooked white beans, added some fish stock, minced garlic, added a smidge of butter, a dash of cream, a sprinkle of parmesan cheese and fresh herbs. It was not heavy and tasted delicious and I felt better about it being more healthy. 

 

I'm going to do this!! Thanks for sharing!

Alley

[Matryoshka]

47 minutes ago, Dreamergal said:

Perhaps people know this hack, but I had to learn this from Jimmy Kimmel of all people. I made Shrimp fettuccine Alfredo yesterday. I usually make it with cream, butter and cheese, not exactly the healthiest. I do add garlic and herbs, but still it is heavy. So I was watching Jimmy Kimmel and he makes a white sauce for his kids with pureeing cannellini beans, adding some stock to it and cooking it with oil infused with garlic. He add parmesan in the end and added it on pasta for his kids. Apparently it is a winner and they eat it often. 

So I figured if his kids could eat it so could mine. So I pureed some cooked white beans, added some fish stock, minced garlic, added a smidge of butter, a dash of cream, a sprinkle of parmesan cheese and fresh herbs. It was not heavy and tasted delicious and I felt better about it being more healthy. 

Wow, this is a fantastic alfredo hack... I also cannot even imagine making anything as fatty as 'real' alfredo sauce with all the cream, butter and cheese...  And I've got all these ingredients handy!!  (I think I'd add some spinach just cause I'm too lazy to ever make veggies on the side...does that make it faux alfredo florentine? lol)