The "Save Everything" Mindset and My Fridge

⏲ Easy-breezy! 2 min. read.

I've never been good at editing the objects in my life. I have a whole cast of characters in my head that work to keep my "save everything" mindset. There's Mr. "You know you paid good money for that. You don't want to take a loss on it." And there's old Mrs. "Dearie, you might need that some day. You'll feel just awful if you get rid of it and find you need it later." And then of course there's Miss "But I l-i-k-e my stuff!"

I am outwitted in my own mind by my own voices. I am stuck saving nearly everything.

This extends to the kitchen even. If you are definitely and decidedly minimalistic, perhaps you'd better shut off the screen now. I'm about to show you a few things others would for sure toss.

Here's the fat that I trimmed from some beef earlier this week.

And here's the liquid from the bottom of a pan of meat-vegetable-rice stuffed cabbage rolls for Tuesday's dinner, about 3 tablespoons worth.

And here's a soup that was made from leftover Sunday's sausage pasta to which I added lentils and vegetables for Monday's dinner. It was then "enriched" further with leftover pizza sauce for Tuesday's lunch. It's now been enjoyed for a couple of days.

Okay, so how will this all get used?

I'm currently rendering the beef fat. I'll end up with cracklings (like bacon bits in texture), that I'll freeze to top soup and sautéed leafy greens. The fat will be poured into a custard cup to cool, and then that disk of fat will go into the freezer to use in cooking.

The liquid from the stuffed cabbage rolls will be added to the leftover-leftover soup (so it's now leftover-leftover-leftover soup), and eaten today for lunch. Final decision. No take-backs. This soup has got to go! Fortunately I have a very willing lunchtime participant in my game of "eat the leftovers," my husband.

Tomorrow I'll take another look at the leftover foodstuffs in the fridge and see if I can A) part with something, or B) recycle them into a new meal.

How about you? Do you take a minimalistic approach to keeping leftovers, or are you very maximalistic, and save everything? Is there a place where you draw the line and say, "this can't stay?"