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I love recipes that make leftovers! Below is information about what you can expect from our recipes tagged as leftovers. The leftovers tag represents recipes that generate leftovers.
Vocabulary.com defines leftovers as extra food that gets saved and eaten later. That’s what we mean, too. Furthermore, here at Recipe Realism, leftovers are extra food, after two portions have been served, that then gets saved and eaten later.
Quantity
Therefore, since I generally serve two people, a dish tagged as leftovers yields more than two servings. Typically, our leftovers recipes provide two initial meals and two leftover meals. Chicken Marsala is an example of this.
Sometimes a leftovers recipe may provide two meals and then less than two portions of leftovers like After Hours Tortellini. Other times, a leftovers recipe may provide two meals and then more than two portions of leftovers like our Chicken Alfredo Recipe. If a meal provides more than two portions of leftovers, anything beyond two additional portions is most likely frozen.
Quality
In line with our commitment to recipe integrity, if leftovers do not taste the same or better than the original recipe we will not use the leftovers tag on a post. We like leftovers that you can look forward to.
Leftovers Yield, Storage & Reheating
Each recipe has a Leftovers section at the end of the blog post. Here we share how many leftover portions a recipe yields. We also make recommendations for how to store the leftovers and for how long. Our most common storage methods are either to refrigerate or freeze. Finally, in the Leftovers section of a post, we share ways to reheat the leftovers including which method we prefer for a dish. Reheat methods are commonly microwave, oven and stovetop.
How to Use the Leftovers Tag
I like to use the leftovers tag one of two ways. I use it when meal planning for two and when meal planning for three or more.
Meal Planning for Two
My most common use of this tag is when I’m meal planning for two each week. As I’ve shared, leftovers are one of my meal-planning inspirations. When I know a busy night (or two or several) is coming up I know I’ll want to have leftovers those nights. So I’ll mark that night down for leftovers.
Then I’ll use the leftovers tag to pull up meal ideas and look for recipes that I can make two or so days beforehand, depending on when I have time to make a larger meal. This approach lets me backfill my meal planning, which I like. Luckily for me, our leftovers nights tend to be earlier in the week so that means I can make a bigger leftovers meal on a weekend when I’ll have more time and then have those leftovers a couple of days later when I have less time. (Thanks, past self!)
Here is more of a breakdown of what I consider busy nights and how I approach leftover timing when doing my weekly meal planning.
Leftovers Nights
Leftovers nights look different for everyone. Here are a few of my leftovers night examples. I know on what I call ‘trash night’ I don’t like to have to think about what’s for dinner. So I make that a leftovers night. I already have a big and dreaded chore to do so I want an easy meal that night. After work, I don’t want to gather trash, take it out and then make a whole meal. Weekly trash night is usually a leftover night at our house. Sometimes trash night is a meal kit night but I digress.
Another example of a leftovers night is when work runs late. Once a month or so, work schedules are known to run a little later than usual so those nights are slated for leftovers too.
A final example of a leftovers night is when I know one of us won’t be home for dinner. I like to flag that as a leftover night so whoever is home can just heat up some leftovers for themselves.
Leftovers Timing
As for leftover timing, when I meal plan I try to space out leftovers. For example, when I make a leftovers meal over the weekend, let’s say on Sunday, I schedule those leftovers for Tuesday. That way we don’t have the same thing for dinner two days in a row. And the leftovers get used up sooner rather than later. I’ll also add that I try not to have more than one round of leftovers. Once a dish has been enjoyed the first time and then again as leftovers, it’s either all used up, or if there are any leftovers I prefer to freeze them, if possible, to use again in a week or two. And when a busy night or two turns into a busy week, frozen leftovers are lifesavers!
Meal Planning for Three or More
The other way I use the leftovers tag is when planning to host an additional person or two for a meal. I know any recipe with this tag yields at least three servings so I pull the leftovers recipes up for inspiration and make my pick.
Where to find our leftovers recipes
Our leftovers recipes can quickly be found in a couple of ways. One way is to click the Resources drop-down in the main menu at the top of our site. The other way is under the Tags section by scrolling down the menu along the right side (or at the bottom on a phone). Or, while you’re here, just click the button below.
