Throw Out Your Leftovers Day

Let’s face it, there’s a dark dreary backwater to most our refrigerators that are the province of only the most brave. Traveling here is bound to lead us to the mold-ridden graves of food long forgotten, or if you’re in the US, the Thanksgiving Leftover’s that are finally ready to meet their doom in the deep grave that is your garbage can. Throw Out Your Leftovers Day reminds you that a clean fridge is a place where healthy food can live.

The most remarkable thing about my mother is that for thirty years she served the family nothing but leftovers. The original meal has never been found.

Calvin Trillin

History of Throw Out Your Leftovers Day

Throughout the year there’s an epidemic, an epidemic of food being stored in the fridge and forgotten as it rots away in its plastic containers and saran wrapped plates.

How it came to pass that leftovers started suffering this fate is multi-leveled and starts with poor shopping and food preparation habits. Preparing the right amount of food for your family or a group of people is a challenge that we’re not often taught to meet, leaving us overcompensating to make sure there’s enough for everyone. When we instead wind up with too much, we store it in the fridge and forget about it.

The next component is the idea that it’s now ‘old food’, and that it is no longer truly good for consumption or at the very least isn’t as good as ‘fresh food’ made that day. This is obviously a fallacy, just take a look at pizza! It’s the best tomorrow food leftover ever! Throw Out Your Leftovers Day is the perfect opportunity to not only get rid of the old food stashed in the back of your refrigerator, and the habits that led to it being there, to begin with!

How to celebrate Throw Out Your Leftovers Day

Start out with the obvious, clear out all the old food from your refrigerator and start with a clean slate. Once you’ve gotten this process in order it’s time to start changing out old habits. Look out for habits involving buying food in bulk, there’s nothing wrong with getting a deal but when it comes time for preparation take steps to ensure you don’t make too much. Think about how much you have left over in most cases, and reduce your preparation by a related amount. This will help eliminate leftovers as well as saving you in food costs!