Perhaps the most important Tip-of-the-Day is to enjoy a wonderful dinner with family and friends without overeating! The trick is knowing that the leftovers can easily be incorporated into a thoroughly enjoyable meal tomorrow for breakfast, lunch or dinner … don’t go for seconds since you need to save enough leftovers for the next day or two.
This also means that there’s no reason to blame your favorite restaurant for the obesity epidemic when faced with a huge plate of food. Just focus on how to turn some of that food into leftovers for a healthy second meal at home.
As Laura puts it:
I’m not talking about just reheating them (although that can be good, depending upon the food), but turning the contents of your doggie bag into the basis for a whole different meal.
To start with, here are some great tips for Doggie Bag Dining at your favorite restaurant:
1. Plan your outing so you can refrigerate the leftovers within two hours, and if the temperature is above 90, make that one hour.
2. When reheating, unless it’s a food already in a sauce, add water to avoid food that is too dry.
3. If using the microwave, beware metal handles on many Asian takeout containers. Transfer to microwave-safe bowl.
4. Avoid reheating in Styrofoam containers (particularly solid food, as opposed to soups and other liquids). If the food gets too hot it will melt holes in the foam.
5. Reheat thoroughly to reduce contamination. When microwaving, stir part-way through to ensure that heat is penetrating all the food.
Here are more delicious recycling suggestions that apply specifically to Leftover Cooked Chicken. At the top of my list is using leftover chicken in a delicious soup, such as this popular recipe for Skinny Chicken Vegetable Soup.
Other ideas include:
6. Make chicken salad.
7. Put the chicken ON a green salad.
8. Chop up into coleslaw.
9. Put it in a casserole such as Chicken Pot Pie.
10. Make a chicken quesadilla with low-carb tortillas, salsa, and cheese.
Continue on to the next page to see more great tips for recycling leftovers …
(Eliz) I love leftovers. Not only are they tasty, you can be creative and you have possibly supper already done. 🙂