How to properly store your leftovers

What do you do with your leftovers? 

Melanie Safka already sang about it in the 70's, though I wonder if she was truly a visionary or just lamenting the low quality of her leftovers:

“But what will I do with that leftover wine”

So what do we do with leftovers? Well research shows that by and large we throw them away. Somewhat over 250 pounds on average of good food gets thrown out per capita each year in both Europe and America! A huge waste of good food that with a little more care and planning could feed your family for weeks! I'm not even going to go into the moral dilemma of having food wasting and children starving in the world. Let's not get into that argument. Instead let's take a look at how we can use the good food and resolve not to throw anything away that is edible, ever again!

Preserving starts at the grocery store

First of all, planning is needed from the grocery store to the kitchen. A head of lettuce doesn't last a whole week and if you're like me you do most of your grocery shopping in one trip, once a week. So buy things you know are going to last that period of time, plan ahead and if you're buying some fresh vegetables, know they are perishable. Make sure you don't buy too much of the most perishable veggies, like tomatoes, lettuce and any leaffy greens. Onions and leeks last a lot longer as will most cabbages, pumpkin, carrots, basically anything that has a crunch. Even iceberg lettuce lasts longer than lollo rosso or other fancy lettuce. Plan ahead and don't buy things that might land in the garbage unused.

Storing your food properly

Second step is to store your vegetables properly when you get home. Get yourself some storage containers. that are right for your storage needs. Be smart about storing things right away when you get home. A quart of milk that stays out of the fridge too long will get “heat shock” and will not last till it's expiration date. So make sure you store it right away.

If you've got some fresh veggies for a nice casserole, you might consider cutting them after you get home and storing them in a food container in the fridge or freezer. That way you get all your slicing and dicing out of the way in one go and it will be a snap to make the casserole on the day you want to eat it. Eggs go in the fridge, tomatoes and avocado's do not. Storing avocado's close to bananas will make them ripen quicker and more throroughly.

Leftover's make a great meal!

Now, after dinner, if there is something leftover, always strive to have enough instead of excess, but if you do have some leftovers, don't just let them sit on the counter. Instead find a fitting storage container (you can get some good ones at gdiscount for low prices) and put your leftovers in there right away. That way they're covered, they won't dry out and they will preserve better. Before stowing them into the refridgerator however, consider when you're likely to eat this. For the most part, if you think you're going to eat it as a snack, you won't. It'll sit there untill it withers away and instead of having a ready made meal you now have garbage and wastage. Instead, stuff it in the freezer and when you get enough of them to feed your family, plan a leftover night. It'll be fun to see everybody eat their favorite meal of the week and watch all that healthy food go to good use. It's easy, fun, economical and good for the environment to use your leftovers.

As for Melanie's leftover wine, that'll go great in a stew or if you let it sit a little while longer it can be a stand in for vinegar. No need at all to throw that out!