This is a sponsored post. All opinions are my own. For more information, see my disclosure policy.
I recently teamed up with Glad Food Protection to take the #SAVEITSUNDAY pledge to not only help eliminate food waste in my own kitchen, but to show you some cool and creative ways you can reduce food waste in yours.
What is the #SAVEITSUNDAY pledge?
Well basically it’s about loving food more and wasting it less, one day at a time.
We’ve covered leftovers before and talked all about how to properly store leftovers to prevent food waste. You’ve saved them in your Glad containers, and Glad storage bags. Now what? You are left with a full fridge of properly stored leftovers. You have spaghetti left, but no more garlic bread; taco meat, but no more tortillas; mashed potatoes, but no more chicken. An entire fridge full of a hodgepodge of food.
So have a hodgepodge dinner.
Step 1: Open your fridge and remove all leftovers.
Step 2: Assess the contents. Most leftovers should be eaten within 4 days, so if you have moldy lasagna from 2 weeks ago, I don’t recommend repurposing it.
Step 3: Divide into categories. Hopefully you have enough leftovers to have a main dish, a bunch of random sides and a dessert or two {who am I kidding, desserts are scarfed down the 1st day and there are never any dessert leftovers!}. Although having a hodgepodge meal of random sides and only random sides is awesome too.
Step 4: Spice up your meal. I’m not talking about adding paprika, but decorating for your hodgepodge meal. This step is especially fun if you have young kids. If you are going to have a wacky meal spanning all different food types, have a little fun with it. Set the table will all mismatching plates, cups, etc. Make crazy food labels, placemats or place cards.
Have a little fun with your hodgepodge meal and you’ll be using up all those leftovers in the process.
Looking for more ideas? Head on over HERE where you’ll learn lot’s of cool tips and tricks to keep the food you love fresher, longer from Glad Food Protection. From one protector to another — we salute you.
Have you ever served a random assortment of leftovers as a meal? Did you family love it or revolt?
~Mavis
Glad knows a lot about protecting the food you love. But they’re always impressed by your protective nature, too. Let Glad help protect and wrap the food you love to help keep it fresher, longer. From one protector to another — we salute you.
For more information about the #SAVEITSUNDAY Pledge and how you can enter to win a gourmet chef prepared meal in your home, head on over to SAVEITSUNDAY.com. You can also follow Glad on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube and Pinterest.
Dianna says
I have a friend who makes a good dessert on nights when she serves leftovers, so her kids will have motivation to eat up! We hardly ever have enough leftovers to make a meal from them: we eat them for lunches!
Mary Ann says
We love leftovers and I regularly set them out as a meal. We have some interesting combinations that way but no one goes hungry. Yeah for a night off from cooking and for reducing food waste!
Emily says
We called this meal “space food” growing up, because the goal was to make space in the fridge.
Beth says
My great grandma referred to these as “dab dinner” so that is what we call them…I planned to have one tonight but then my husband made a big Mac and cheese to go with the leftovers so of course we didn’t make much headway on the leftovers!
Pam E-P says
At my house this is called “Survivor Night” because we used to do it the night Survivor was on. Everyone raids the fridge, takes the leftovers they want, and dinner is done!
Mavis Butterfield says
Ha! Thats funny!
Ellen in Clackamas says
When we were kids my Mom called this ” frig goulash” . She would dump all the dibs and dabs into a pot, pour in a can of tomato sauce and ta-da…dinner was served!!! There might be spaghetti, egg noodles, meat loaf..whatever. I never heard anyone complain. Nowadays with a microwave it is much easier to warm up leftovers so I think they get eaten more. And little side-note…my daughter NEVER has leftovers. When I tried to put something into her frig she told me they just throw out those dibs…when I asked why she said no one would eat them so into the garbage they went…ohhhh the waste! I could not believe it.
Karen at A Glimpse Into My Reveries says
Dibs and dabs go into a freezer container. When the container is full, I make soup. Adding all pan drippings add lots if concentrated flavor. Surprising, all flavors meld nicely when doctored with chicken stock or boullion, herbs, seasonings, and a dash of worchestershire sauce or tomato paste!
Larger amounts of leftovers are sent to work with my hubby as lunch.
Vicki says
We have “Junk” Food Saturdays. I heat up all the leftovers, add in some fish sticks or chicken nuggets, and then the kids are allowed to choose a bit of this and that for their dinners. They’re allowed any combination and amount of anything they want, as long as they clean (or mostly clean) their plates. Sometimes I’ll make a fruit salad or open cranberry sauce if we’re short on sides, and I always have a dessert for the plate-cleaners. We usually let the kids eat at the coffee table and watch a movie while we’re eating – something that doesn’t happen during the week. Needless to say, the leftovers get cleaned up and the kids enjoy a new tradition.
Mavis says
This sounds like such a fun idea!