Do You Use Your Leftovers?

After munching on way too many Badger Bits at work today, I couldn't bring myself to make a big dinner. And when that happens, there's only one answer: leftovers.

Now as you might suspect (or know from experience), cooking for two yields A LOT of leftovers. When I can, I freeze them. But more often than not they just end up in the fridge ... for several days. And sometimes weeks. Who am I kidding? Usually they'll sit there until I'm forced to remove them to make room for something else. And yes, sometimes that "something else" is more leftovers.

This irritates me because I hate to waste anything, but most of all food. And that's probably the reason I save so many leftovers ... I convince myself that we're going to eat them. But since Bill is averse to leftovers (almost as strongly as he despises condiments), we rarely do.

So I'm looking for more opportunities to use our leftovers and I was proud of myself tonight for finding one. We had some amazing leftover ravioli filling from Sunday night's adventures, plus a loaf of French bread on the verge of stale. So I thought ... French bread pizzas! Thanks to my stellar pantry and fridge-stocking skills, I had a jar of pizza sauce and a bag of shredded mozzarella. Our pizzas ended up being delicious, and best of all, they won Bill's approval.

On another note, I may be attempting fresh pasta again sooner than I thought. After my semi-failure the other night, I happened to catch an episode of Guy Fieri's "Diners, Drive Ins and Dives" where he visited an Italian restaurant in Nashville. I don't associate amazing Italian food with Nashville, but this hole-in-the-wall looked awesome! Guy featured their recipe for fettucini with vodka sauce and get this ... they roll their pasta out by hand! So it is possible! I found the recipe: http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/fresh-pasta-con-vodka-sauce-recipe/index.html

It's not very descriptive, so it's a good thing I actually saw the segment. I may give it a shot this weekend, so look forward to that.

In the meantime, I want to know whether your leftovers live in the fridge until they're able to walk out on their own or if you're good about using them.