Leftovers are My Friend

 This is our refrigerator.  It is not a pristine environment, nor is it extremely well organized.  It tends to be quite full of food, some of it LEFTOVERS!

  Let me talk a bit about leftovers.  One of the little things I've learned in the last few years is that "leftovers are my friend" (I am not sure about the grammar there..."friend"?  "friends"?)

   Ok, back to our regularly scheduled blog.

   We eat a lot.  A LOT.  There are 9 of us stuffing food in our mouths, and one baby in my womb encouraging me to eat more. 

  A couple of years ago, I tended to throw away little dribs and drabs of food.  I'd look at a half cup of leftover corn and think, "Oh, that's not enough to bother saving" and I'd toss it in the chicken pan.

  I have learned the error of my ways (mostly).  We keep purchasing small glass containers, and I try to save as much food as possible.  And fairly often, we'll have a lunch composed of a little of this and a little of that.  You know, it works quite well!  We may have only small portions of 4 or 5 things, but put together they make up a meal for the hungry horde.

  Interestingly, this new understanding follows in the footsteps of my paternal grandmother (now deceased), who came of age during the Great Depression.  I of course am far younger, and when I spent time with her I occasionally found myself exasperated with her refrigerator. It was always completely stuffed and sometimes I found it difficult to FIND things in it.

  But I think she learned the value of food while struggling to make ends meet in the 1930's.  So she didn't throw food away.  Now, I'll be honest -- I am not sure what happened to the food. She was also an incredible cook and I don't remember eating many leftovers at her table. Did she eat it?  Creatively disguise it and serve it again?  I'm not sure.

  Anyway, I'm all for saving food if possible now.  It does presumably cut down on our grocery bill, and requires less cooking from me.

 Of course, sometimes food gets left on someone's plate (we don't make the kids "clean their plates") and plenty of food does go into the chicken pan.  And I'll say that is yet another reason I like chickens -- they will eat our leftover food so I feel like it isn't entirely going to waste.  Our extra food is producing at least some eggs :-).