Thrifty Thursday

Leftovers.

I know, when we had teenagers in the house, we didn't have a lot of leftovers. When we did have them, it was because whatever I made was just so bad that nobody wanted to eat it.

But now, we find ourselves with leftovers that we can't finish before they go bad. Even worse, when I make them into something new, the something new isn't getting finished before things go bad.  What to do? What to do? 

Enter my giant freezer. I have been making a roast of some type on Saturday night. Sunday finds me taking the leftovers and making them into other things, and then freezing these things into smaller portion sizes that will feed the two of us.  So, when I would have made a 9"x13" pan full of chicken and dumplings, I am now freezing two 8"x8" size pans.  That's enough for us to have dinner, plus leftovers for lunch for a couple of days.

The huge pot of chili?  (I honestly don't know how to make a small pot of chili.) I'm freezing leftovers in quart size containers that we can take out and easily reheat for dinner on a busy night.

But what about the odds and ends of meat? Meat is getting too expensive and needs to be saved up when you have it. I've been taking those weird odds and ends of meat and then tossing the meat into a food saver bag before I suck all the air out of it and toss it in the freezer. I'm not positive what I'm going to end up doing with that meat, but I do know that I just bought myself some time to figure it out.  Pot of soup? Stir Fry?  I will figure that out on the day when I pull it out of the freezer and need to make something with it. 

Believe it or not, this has actually made a huge dent in our bottom line.

Fruit.

I've gotten absolutely obsessive about fruit lately.  I'm making a point of pulling out what I know we can eat and then freezing the rest. I'll have a lot of frozen fruit for my yogurt, muffins, and oatmeal this fall and winter. 

Veggies.

I've been freezing and dehydrating extra veggies as they come in. I'm putting the dehydrated veggies aside for soups this winter.  My goal is to eventually mix them all into the portions I'll use for soup. But for now, I'm saving the veggies in separate bags until I have enough to put together a bag for one pot of soup.

So, what kinds of things are you doing with your leftovers? How are you stretching out your food budget?