Benefiting from Leftovers and Easy Spaghetti Sauce
Today, please welcome my guest, Sheila, from Eat 2 Gather: The Pursuit of Food, Family, and Fun.
I met Sheila a couple years ago at BlogHer Food. She came to BlogHer Food knowing only The Pioneer Woman! I’m serious. She had visited PW’s ranch, but came to BHF to branch and and meet new bloggers. That’s where all of us girls came in … Sheila with Wendy, me, Robyn, Kristin and Amy, and we became fast friends.
Sheila is sister-material. She’s the real deal, we both share a love for cooking and hospitality. I loved getting to know her, and especially appreciated her 31 Days series back in October, on how to provide meals for others.
Each week she writes about how we can love on others through the gift of food.
She encourages us all to serve and give to others, and she provides a place on her blog to link up your favorite food post each week, one that is easy to take in a meal form to a needy family.
Just beautiful!
(Okay, this P & J Bar recipe (pic below) sounds fantastic!)
Take the opportunity to check out Eat 2 Gather, but for now, here’s Sheila’s guest post:
Hello! I am so excited to have the opportunity to write a guest post here today. Thank you Sandy for inviting me to RE, I love it here! A friend of mine introduced me to Sandy’s blog Reluctant Entertainer. Then Sandy reached out to me and we became fast friends! Quickly realizing we share a love for opening our homes to others and for meal ministry. When I finally met Sandy at Blogher Food in 2010, I felt like I had known Sandy my whole life. So thankful God put this lady in my life!
Let me tell you just a smidge about myself. I love to feed people. I have a passion for wanting to inspire others to enjoy family time around their dinner table. As my four children race into the teen years I see the importance of this more everyday, and am thankful that my husband, of 17 years, and I have made family meal time a priority.
Today I want to talk about leftovers. Who said “waste not want not”? I went looking for this phrase in my Bible, it wasn’t there. So then I headed where all people go when they need to know something….no not the library silly, Google! I googled it. “Origins of waste not want not” It’s sort of sketchy. One source said that Ben Franklin penned it in 1700’s. Other sources say it’s from an English proverb book that dates back even further. Who knows?! What I do know is it makes perfect sense. For all we know Adam probably said it to Eve. “Pick those dropped apples up off the ground and make some apple sauce women!” “Do you really need a new fig leaf everyday? Seriously, Eve, waste not want not.”
Confession: I waste food.
I love to cook, and bake, and there are always leftovers. What do I do with those leftovers? Well, until recently, I would package them up, place them in the refrigerator, where they would sit for a few days, even a week, until I decide to clean out my fridge and throw them all away. Waste! If my dad, who’s a bachelor, eats dinner with us I always package up the leftovers and send them home with him. Which he loves.
My Dad with my boys
Why don’t we have a leftover night? We do sometimes, but my kids hate it, my husband doesn’t really care for it either, and to be honest I am lazy about forcing it on them. (That was confession #2)
What do you do with leftovers?
Recently, after having lasagna for dinner, which is a favorite of a single friend of ours, I said to my husband, “Will would love these leftovers, but when are we going to see him again?”. Right then and there I had an idea! I decided to take the leftovers from that night and package them up to freeze right away. I labeled and dated them, so we would remember the what and when of what was in the dinner packages. Then when my dad or our friend came over I could send them home with perfectly portioned frozen meals. They would love it. I started freezing everything. Cookies, brownies, any entree’ that I made. The key is to freeze it right away, and then date it. It should be eaten within three months of the date it was made.
I am sure this is not a new idea to many of you, but for me it has been revolutionary. I have been able to let go of my guilt regarding how much food I waste. No matter how cliche it sounds, there truly are people starving, not just in China, but literally in my own city. And when I throw food away I always think to myself, and sometimes out loud to my family, “that would have been a good meal for somebody, but we are to persnickety and spoiled to eat it!”.
Even though my dad and our friend are by no means starving, I at least feel I am helping them out by sharing, and they are grateful for it.
Who do you know someone that could benefit from your leftovers?
A sibling who is single, a parent, a good friend, there has to be someone in your life that would be grateful for frozen meals.
Recently instead of giving these two ol’ men our leftovers I have portioned some out for them first. Spaghetti sauce, soup, pulled pork, cookies…..I bag it up, freeze it and then we get the “leftovers”! Kind of a sneaky way to get my kiddos to eat leftovers wouldn’t you say?
I’ve shared the recipe for my Spaghetti Sauce before, but I’m feeling the need to share again. It comes together quickly and it freezes easily. It’s a great recipe for your family or to share with others. I hope you enjoy it!
Do you have a leftover night, or does your family complain like mine?
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I hope I’ve encouraged you to share a meal with someone. Every Friday I host Meals 4 Sharing Fridays. I encourage everyone to share by linking up their favorites if you have a blog. Sharing in the comments is welcomed with whoops, hollars, and high fives!
If you would like to Link-Up your favorites today stop by Eat 2 Gather , and if you have a recipe that is especially easy to freeze, well by golly share that one!
Sandy thanks so much for having me!
Hugs to you all,
Sheila from Eat 2 Gather
Hello and welcome to my home and table!
I’m Sandy—lover of food, family, cooking, THE BIG BOARD, travel, and bringing people together. Through great recipes and connection around the table, we become better, stronger, and more courageous people. Feasting on Life is real, and every time we do it, we grow a little more. Read more...
We call it “The Feast of St Leftovers” in our house. I love it because it’s economical and gives me a night off from cooking, we each choose a single-portion leftover and always have a fresh salad and some warm bread alongside. We have been known to invite guests too, and we were delighted to be asked to a friend’s home a few Sundays back to share a leftovers lunch after they had hosted a formal dinner the night before, it was wonderfully informal and we shared cleaning up duties afterwards.
Sheila, so happy to see you here! Sandy was my first fan, shouting out my apron attributes from the get go, and continuing to do so! I’m so grateful, for her warm hearted friendship and approach to entertaining. I can see where the two of you would be kindred spirits, not mention I think you girls actually look alike!
Leftovers are a given in my house. I’m only cooking for two, but can’t seem to get out of cooking for four gear. Since my husband doesn’t mind eating the same thing twice, I try to space it out, serving the meal I cooked on Monday again on Wednesday with a few new added twists.
Reaching for the jar is pretty much my thing when it comes to spaghetti sauce. Mastering the homemade version has escaped me all these years, but your sauce is now on my to make list!
Great post. My husband and I have no problem eating leftovers, but I cook something fresh to go along with them, as we seldom have meat left over. I also try to share one meal a week with my sister, who lives alone and has a stressful job. It doesn’t always work out, but whenever it does, I love the pleasure of gathering around the table for a meal.
What a super idea to freeze leftovers! I like the idea of sharing them or even of keeping them on hand for kids who may come home late from something and feel hungry. My daughter sometimes eats at odd times due to her work schedule. I am inspired to keep small portions of leftovers in the freezer in a box for her. Then she can always grab out something yummy when she is hungry and food is saved from being wasted!
Hello Sandy,
this is one useful post. I like the idea of using leftovers for new meals. I must say that I am not an expert, I do throw away food sometimes, which is bad. I just don’t freeze everything always. But I do use chicken leftovers to make a chicken salad for example.
I always feel guilty about leftovers and started donating a lot of baked goods to local soup kitchen. But thatnks for the inspiration!!
I think both ways of sharing are great. I’m so lazy about thinking ahead to have some containers on hand for extras. Will certainly add that to my shopping list so I can be prepared next time.
(HUGS to y’all!)
I absolutely *love* this idea!! Thank you so much, Sheila!
And Sandy, too! :)