Meal prepping leftovers is a great way to save money and be more efficient with your time. One of the most important leftover meal prepping tips is to keep cooked ingredients separate as much as possible. Use food storage containers that have compartments to keep entire meals separated. (This is also great for portion control) Picking recipes that produce good leftovers for meal prepping can be tough. Follow these tips on meal prepping leftovers and you should have a great place to start.
Intro
- Add sauces just to the portions that you are serving that night. This way your food won’t get soggy with the sauce and your sauce won’t dry out.
- Keep proteins and veggies separate. They reheat at different speeds, have different moisture levels and obviously taste distinct. If you mix them in the containers this can cause the veggies to become mushy and everything will taste the same.
This isn’t always possible. One pot or one pan recipes don’t really leave this as an option. These meals will be tougher to meal prep with but some still work great. Stir fry is a great example. Although everything is mixed, veggies, protein, and sauce, it still works great. Choosing the right recipe isn’t always easy. A good way to think about it is, if the meal has distinct side dishes, then keep them separate or if you’re dealing with pasta or rice. Testing out different recipes is a recommended approach.
Repurpose Leftovers
Most people don’t like eating the same leftovers day after day. Repurpose them into entirely new dishes. This is much easier if you keep the individual parts separate as recommended above. Chicken is a very versatile protein and simple seasoning works great. This way you can use it in american, italian, bbq, and many other ways without having to cook more. This will make it easier to meal prep and stick to the routine. Since proteins tend to be versatile, when cooking originally, consider decreasing the number of or volume of the sides. It’s typically easier to cook more of the sides the next day if you like them but this also means you can have plenty of chicken, beef, or any other protein ready to go as you mix and match recipes in your meal prepping.
You can also use the ingredients to make a frittata or casserole. These solutions can make a modest amount of leftovers go much further as well if you’re looking to feed many people or make it through the busy week without cooking again. This can save food that has lost it’s ideal texture. The casserole can mask it and add a new flavor on top.
Even just adding a simple egg on top can make a big difference when meal prepping leftovers. The egg itself brings life back to the flavors already there and adds a delicious flavor in itself. Also if you like runny yolks, this is a great way to add moisture to a dish that has started to dry out in the fridge.
If your meal didn’t not include a sauce or you want to try something different, add a sauce to your meal prepped leftovers. This will make it more likely that you want to eat your leftovers as you get bored of them by adding a new flavor and changing up the whole dish. The new sauce can also add much needed moisture to dried out food. An easy solution for most people is to add hot sauce to leftovers. It’s quick and has a lot of flavor to bring excitement back to your 3 day old chicken and broccoli.
Leftover Prep & Safety
After you’ve finished eating your food and you’re cleaning up the kitchen and preparing your portions of leftovers, let them cool down before putting them in the fridge. This is important for a few reasons – see our article on tips for freezing meals.
Only reheat chicken once to avoid harmful bacteria (also to prevent drying the chicken out even more). The best way is to portion out meals originally so that you’re only reheating what you know you’ll eat. The other option is to create your plate of food from the leftovers and only reheat that instead of reheating the entire leftovers container.
When reheating leftovers, go slowly and cover the food. The biggest issue with leftovers is that they dry out. You don’t want to further dry them out by cooking them at high temps. Low and slow and with a cover on. The cover can be aluminum foil in the oven or a plastic/glass cover in the microwave. Another option is a damp paper towel as the steam from the paper towel can bring a bit of moisture back to otherwise dry food.
Meal Prepping Leftovers
The last piece of advise if you don’t like eating leftovers, don’t over cook. Cut recipes in half. This is a great approach if you’re cooking for one and don’t want to eat 2lbs of chicken in the next couple of days. Use an online calculator or simply cook less protein and veggies.
