People often ask me how much I cook, expecting me to say that I'm in the kitchen chopping and baking every day. But the truth is that I only cook two or three times a week. My not-so-secret secret is leftovers with a capital "L". I say make it once and eat it twice — or more!
I always look for recipes that serve six to eight. With just me and my husband at home, those recipes keep our bellies happy for days at a time. If I make a pasta dish, I keep the sauce and pasta separate so that the leftover pasta doesn't get soggy. Casseroles are also a big favorite since they re-heat so well. And of course, a roast chicken on Sunday makes its way into meals all week long.
Here are some of my favorite go-to recipes for intentional leftovers:
• How to Roast a Chicken
• Chicken and Swiss Chard Pasta Bake
• Lentil Soup with Lemon Yogurt Cream
• Slow-Cooker Curried Chickpea and Vegetable Stew
• How to Make a Frittata
• Quick Tomato Sauce with Pasta
• Meyer Lemon Grain Salad with Asparagus, Almonds, and Goat Cheese (Great with an egg on top!)
What are your favorite meals "make once, eat twice" meals?
It's Reader Request Week at The Kitchn! This post was requested by Mary Frances Ellison.
Related: What To Do With...? 75 Tips for Leftovers and Ingredients
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Bean and sweet potato burritos. The ingredients hold well over a few days, so we have it for dinner one night, and then in various forms for lunches or breakfast (quesadillas, huevos rancheros, etc).
I like to make a big batch of kemp's V\Black beans (from Epicurious) and serve it with quinoa for dinner one night. Later that week I might make enchiladas. I'll freeze some beans in their liquid for dinner a few weeks later.
I often plan a meal thinking about what I'll do with the leftovers. My favorites are using potatoes or rice to make croquettes the next day. Leftover risotto makes the most flavorful! I recently made a sort of stew of black quinoa and beluga lentils, flavored with orange, fennel and tarragon, and I made it into delicious veggie burgers the next day.
I really like mark bittmans bulgur chilli. It makes a lot and freezes well and is very open to personal touches
I try to always have some sort of leftovers in the fridge so that my boyfriend can take his lunch to work (if I don't, he'll take something like cheese sandwiches--not the healthiest choice). And I'm always trying to eat as much veg as possible, so I tend to cook veg-heavy one-dish meals. Favorites around here are Shepherd's Pie, vegetable lasagna, and baked ziti. Right now, I've got the Kitchn's Tex-Mex Cheesy Rice and a sausage and tortellini soup (added extra veg to both) in the fridge, so we're set for a few days.
I'm always cooking with leftovers in mind. I haven't found too many meals that are worst the next day. Soups especially gain major flavor from sitting in the fridge over night.
My go-to meals are stuffed peppers, a chili recipe from Moby's Teany book, Bittman's cauliflower mac and cheese, mulligatawny, thai curry soup, and crustless quiche. You'll never find me packing a sandwich.
Can't get enough of these, thank you!
I like chili because there are so many ways you can use it--with eggs, over potatoes, over rice, with cornbread, with peanut butter sandwiches (although maybe that's just me--my elementary school always served peanut butter sandwiches on chili day, so I like them together), over pasta, and more.
I also like to do veggie soups for a cup before dinner later in the week or afternoon snacks that add in an extra veggie serving or two.
@STH I also planned on leftovers from my veg-heavy adapted version of the cheesy tex-mex rice...but my guests ate it all! Anyway, totally recommend a couple extra kinds of peppers, garlic, and some black eyed peas. Looking forward to playing around with other sets of ingredients, too. Great template recipe...if you can manage to save any leftovers!
http://www.thekitchn.com/potluck-side-dish-recipe-chees-148634