What’s in Your Refrigerator?

carrots at a marketIf you cooked a lot of Rosh Hashanah food, you probably have a lot of leftovers in the fridge. Let’s see if we can keep them from being thrown out.

I’ll be brave and admit share what I have left. You don’t have to be Jewish to play–just open the fridge and tell us what’s inside.

Are you ready?

  • a cup of mango salsa
  • a cup of carrot-apple salad
  • half a chicken breast in lots of sauce
  • 3 cups of cholent with little meat
  • a few meatballs
  • half a dozen cooked potatoes
  • a cooked sweet potato
  • rice with eggplant, but I’m afraid that is already on its way out.
  • marinated beet salad
  • a cup of chard cooked with onion and garlic
  • half a cup of techina (sesame dressing)
  • several cups of lettuce salad

That doesn’t include some chicken soup, which I’ve put in the freezer, and part of a challah. On the plus side, I don’t have many raw vegetables that will be going bad soon. I ran out of carrots for the first time in ages.

There were quite a few dishes that did get finished up, but I can’t think of them right now.

I have five kids at home this week, including three teens. The thing I’m most concerned about is the potatoes. Some of the food was cooked on Friday so it’s safer. I’ll probably make one meal from the leftovers tonight, and put the chicken sauce, leftover stew and potatoes into a soup.

What about you?

Comments

  1. 1. Some squash that is just not good – it’s a kind of squash I bought on a whim and nobody liked its texture or flavor no matter what I put on it.
    2. A speck of chicken and some potatoes and carrots that were cooked with it – will be mixed with rice to make a rice dish tonight or tomorrow.
    3. a nice big piece of corned beef. Will be super-yummy sandwiches one day this week. Not much challah left, as we bought only one big one and everything else was rolls.

    • LeahGG: If you see the squash again, can you take a picture? I had almost no meat or chicken left. Those are easy leftovers to deal with.

  2. We were left with:
    * A whole meal worth of garlic-chive chicken, which I froze
    * A couple of cups of butternut squash custard
    * A couple of cups of whole couscous with toasted nuts
    * A cup of green beans
    * A cup of sauteed carrot chips
    * A cup and a half of salad
    * A very small piece of wonderful honey cake that will be gone shortly…!

  3. A tiny amount of cake–no problem getting rid of that–some quinoa, some tomato salad, about a cup of undressed cabbage and undressed but washed arugula. Red pepper that I sliced for kid guests that didn’t get eaten. Turkey meatloaf, 4-5 portions. (One whole one already went into the freezer for another Shabbat.)

    We should be able to finish it up tonight.

    We had planned on a simple meal of bagels and spreads at some point over chag but got invited for shabbat lunch at the last minute, so the bagels will stay in the freezer and get used for post-YK instead. For the four meals we were home I really only made 2–cooked for Wed night and ate leftovers for Thurs lunch; cooked for Friday lunch (w/7 guests) and had leftovers from that Friday night and last night after Shabbat. It actually feels good to not have so much kicking around, though I really must go food shopping tomorrow.

  4. Only some cake left. The leftovers of Thursday night’s chicken were eaten for lunch the next day.

  5. Well, I have just enough leftovers to break the fast: some chicken, a little chulent, carrot salad (with scallions, cranberries, raisins in a light dressing), a little fish, tzibele (egg salad with scallions and parsley) that I forgot to serve on Shabbat, tiny piece of potato kugel. The Rosh Hashana menu went over the two days. Although I made a laaaaaarge pot of chicken soup, only enough for erev Yom Kippur remains. I declared Motzei Shabbat that I was not going to cook all week and we would just live on what was left, but I just may have to eat ๐Ÿ™‚ my words!

  6. Miriam Isserow says

    A lot of chicken but that was intentional and we’ll eat it tonight for dinner along with lefotver carrot salad and sweet couscous. We also have some beets which we ate several times over the holiday. Our meals on Thursday were “family” meals with no comnpany on purpose to keep it light and we were invited out Friday night and again ate lightly on yesterday. One extra challah is in the freezer as is leftover plum cake. Lots of leftover honey chocolate cake even though I threw some out. People loved it but we’re trying to eat less and I guess there was no need to make a double batch. Husband and I are watching our weight this year (though we had a few indulgences for the holiday) and I guess in the past I would have eaten the extra cake without thinking now I’m not sure what to do. I don’t think hte glaze on top will freeze well.

    • Miriam, I baked an apple and a honey cake, and guests brought another cake. It’s all gone! I thought I had made too much and almost didn’t take the honey cake out of the freezer. I’m sure the cake will be edible, if not photo-worthy.

  7. I made far too much food. I have an entire meal’s worth of chicken left (more than two chickens.) I froze it on Tuesday when I cooked it, so I can’t refreeze. Half a pot of soup and a large container of matzo balls. A cup of beet salad no one will eat. A cup of green beans (asian style). A cup of Asian Cole Slaw. Potatoes. An entire container of turkey. Chocolate Rugelach. Potato Leek Soup – at least 4 cups, and again, I can’t refreeze. Noodles. Two pieces of potato kugel. A couple of cups of ratatouille, a cup of meatballs. A cup of vegetarian meatballs. A little piece of salmon. 2 cups or so of pot roast. A few baby potatoes from Wed. that I think are already bad. I have started by making notes on my RH menus and lists so that I will remember not to make so much food the next time, and to skip one protein altogether and plan on re-serving. I always worry that there won’t be enough food, and then I forget how little people eat of a main dish when there are so many other courses and foods. Major fail. Hopefully the kids will not resent a week of leftovers.

  8. I also have potatoes and some meatballs left. My idea is to take the potatoes (already mashed) and mix in an egg and put half of them in a small pan, then the meatballs sort of mashed up in a layer and then the potatoes and top with breadcrumbs (so it will look nice) and bake. It’s based on a dish I often make on Passover.
    my $0.02 other than that we don’t big quantities of leftovers and most will get eaten this week. That is all except for about 10 little challa rolls because I got carried away wanting to ‘take challa’. They are in the freezer.

  9. With almost seven hours to go before the end of the fast, I guess I’d better stop reading people’s comments until the fast is over.

  10. I cooked with the intention of having a ton of leftovers to go into the freezers (yes, plural). We probably don’t have to cook anything for both Yom Kippur meals (before and after), and I have enough desserts for a few meals on Sukkot as well. I decided that all the desserts were going to be the same, seven different cookies and bars and some halvah sorbet, served on a three tiered plate. I’ve got enough stashed away to last us until the end of the chagim, and enough variety that no one gets bored.

    Our leftovers in the fridge? Three pieces of ravioli and some red cabbage salad which was quickly eaten on Saturday night.

  11. it was little green mini-squashes. I baked them in the oven and cut them open. They were stringy and just… not tasty, imo.
    I like the orange squashes, particularly the one that they sell everywhere and you buy whole (as opposed to the one you buy a chunk of because it’s gigantic)

  12. Mrs Belogski says

    I recycled the rice from Friday lunch with the stirfry from Thursday night into salad for Shabbos lunch. Served fish and salads from simanim and Friday night for seuda shelishis. Family plus guests picking/stocking up against fast on motzaei Shabbos, and everyone eating supper last night took care of most of the meaty leftovers, leaving only some rather unappetizing grains, which went in our council composting bin this morning. Fish and salads have one more day before they go the same way. Spare cake will be consumed by children on return from school this afternoon.

  13. I purposely have leftovers. With that said, the leftover brisket went right into the freezer – we love it with egg noodles when the weather turns cold.

    I cooked two chickens – we have the soup bits in the freezer & enough for 2 or 3 meals (2 leg quarters, 2 breasts)

    No leftover challah, sides, or desserts. So now I only have to cook side dishes to go with our chicken a couple nights this week.

  14. I was wondering if the gal who left the comment about the garlic chive chicken would care to share the recipe? Sounds wonderful.

  15. Aviva – The recipe for the Garlic-Chive Chicken can be found here:
    http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Garlic-Chive-Chicken/Detail.aspx

    We use chicken thighs and legs instead of breasts, and we usually serve it with rice instead of pasta. Very tasty! Enjoy!

  16. Mrs Belogski says

    Interesting to see how much of the same food keeps cropping up – not just simanim and chicken, but sounds like a lot of people ate meatballs and turkey. ( we had our meatballs in sweet and sour sauce and they were delicious!) Have also discovered in fridge some sliced roast turkey and a pot of ratatouille. Turkey sandwiches sound good and the rat can be frozen for after the fast.

  17. Miriam Isserow says

    Our meatballs were turkey meatballs since we’re watching cholesterol here. I made them Baghadadi style–according to Claudia Roden–with lots of onions, garlic, lemon juice and mint. No leftovers on this one–every last one was eaten (which my mother would say is a sign I didn’t make enough).

  18. Thanks for the link to the garlic chive chicken.

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