Do you like leftovers? Growing up, my mom never really made potluck soup - you know, the soup that had random leftovers thrown in. But about once a week my mom would heat up all of the leftovers in the fridge and that was the meal. I am a huge fan of variety, so I always enjoyed those meals - a whole smorgasbord of choices!
When I first got married, I cooked only what we would eat for that particular meal. I tried not to cook too much, because I was afraid it would go to waste. However, as I learned to cook more things from scratch and had children, I have pretty much done a 180 on this subject. I intentionally cook more than we'll eat, so that I can freeze or reuse leftovers in other meals. I can make sure my family is eating homecooked, unprocessed food every day while still being able to do some easy microwave meals every week. I know it really saves $ at the grocery store too. But this way of cooking requires contradicting personality traits - both type A and type B - you have to carefully plan out your cooking, yet be very flexible too.
Over the weekend, I found myself in a leftover dilemma. We were going to be out all day Friday, so I needed a crockpot meal - I had planned to cook some venison, and serve with noodles on Friday, then use the leftovers in some burritos Saturday. But Friday morning the venison was still very frozen despite being in the fridge for two days. Fortunately I had some chicken leg/thigh quarters in the fridge (planned for Sunday), so I skinned them, seasoned them, and threw them in the crockpot Friday. Fortunately we had plenty of chicken leftover for the burritos, because my family ate almost all of the venison the next day! I just never know exactly how much they are going to eat.
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