Rethinking Leftovers

I plan a menu and grocery shop every week. I make dinner every night. Actually, I really enjoy the process and I love to cook (proof in recipe binders). Lately, I’ve been checking out a stack of cook books from the library and trying recipes. I copy ones that are really good and return the stack at the end of the month and get some more. I have a large cookbook collection, but now before I buy a new one, I have to love at least three recipes from the cookbook.

All of this being said, I don’t have a lot of time to cook and I have two littles running around in the kitchen while I’m cooking. So how can I make this an easier daily event? I broke a rule that I had made for myself when I married my husband. (I never told him about it, so it was easy to break). I started making food intentionally so that we’d have leftovers. I always thought about leftovers as “oh that again”, but now as a busy mom, it’s an “I don’t have to cook night”.

My new mantra? Cook every other night. That I can do. I either make a large enough batch of something so that we eat it for two nights, or something like a chicken or a roast and turn it into something different and easy. When I can make a double batch to freeze ahead, I do that too and then some weeks I only have to cook once – it’s my own staycation.

Here are last and this weeks’ menus:

What do you do to streamline your kitchen time?