Dealing with leftovers after a party
 

I had a barbecue on Friday night with about a dozen friends, and while we had a great time, at the end nobody wanted to take any food home that they had brought. So I ended up with leftover hamburgers, hot dogs, cookies, baguette, chips, etc. and proceeded to try to eat some of this stuff "before it went bad" all weekend, and then got to move my ticker back up to 175 this morning. :stress: It's my own fault for eating it, but I was wondering how you all deal with ending up with food you know you shouldn't eat.

I live by myself so trying to get anyone else in the house to help isn't an option. And friends are insistent on not taking anything home with them. One idea I did have was to ask other people to bring more of the main course to my next barbecue (for the last couple I have purchased burgers/dogs/buns/condiments/chips/salsa/veggies/hummus), so that we don't end up with an excess of food AND then I don't end up with such a big dent in my wallet from buying food that goes uneaten.

But I'm sure this won't be the last time people leave me with food I shouldn't eat. Apparently my will power has really gone out the window this time around. :( Any tips?

throw it out. i always check with my husband to see what he would eat, and the rest of it, if i know it is a temptation, i keep one or two servings and the rest goes in the trash.

i know it feels like a "waste" but at least food is biodegradable. it will do more harm being unecessarily ingested.

I'm not a fan of wasting food at all but it would be better to throw it out than to over eat it! Or is there a homeless shelter or anything like that near you that you could donate the food to? Ask your friends to bring less food and buy less yourself. If you're short on anything I'm sure someone could go to a shop to pick it up.

if i was in that situation, i would take the food to work and let them eat it...i know you said you were by yourself, but me i'd pack it in school lunches etc...it i was by myself, i'd just take it to work

throw it out or freeze it, depending on whether you can have it in moderation or not

I make healthy foods no matter what the occasion, then if I have extras and they can be frozen, I do that and eat them over the next few months. Burgers, and breads can be easily frozen.

If the 'real' food, ie, hamburgers are still good, you can freeze them in small containers and use them in sauces, etc. Anything else you should throw away. If it's junk food, no body needs it. Granted, it's wasted money, but you asked your guests to take it back and they didn't.

You can keep a list of what you need for the bbq and have people sign up for what they'll bring - this way you won't have huge amounts of extras.

Some things can be frozen. I'd try to save any meat by freezing individual servings. Next time, cook less. Burgers and dogs only take a few minutes if someone wants one and there are none cooked. Then you really can freeze what isn't used. Throw out the chips and stuff or give to a neighbor.

I like the idea of everyone contributing to the "main meal" type foods. Make a list of what is needed and cross items off as people volunteer. No one wants to run out of food, but we really do tend to over do at things like this and that's part of why we have a weight problem to begin with.

My group has a pretty strict rule that if no one else wants the leftovers, the person who brought it has to take them home. Try enforcing that if possible. And I guess if you were willing to send the stuff home, you should be willing to throw it away. Wasteful, yes, but probably healthier.

Lin

Portion out the leftovers and use what you can. Throw out other things.

Any meat can be used to make lunches and dinners, for example. Leftover chicken, ham or other meats from dinners is often used in wraps for lunch for my brother and I during the week. Leftover veggies are thrown in as well.

Thanks everyone. I did throw out most of it this morning just to prevent myself from getting tempted. I have a bag of chips that didn't get opened and should stay good until my next party, so I put them away high in a cabinet so I won't see them and be tempted to open them earlier. I think I may be able to return one bag of buns that didn't get opened either; Trader Joe's is awesome about letting you return food.

Next time I will plan better and ask others to bring things that we'll need instead of just buying it all myself. Most people were nice and asked me in advance if they could bring anything, but since I had already picked up a lot of food, I couldn't give them any suggestions. Maybe I will leave it up to them to decide what they want to bring, too, instead of suggesting unhealthy stuff myself - if people want to bring some healthier options then I certainly wouldn't be complaining.

Well, another week, another fresh start… I'm going shopping for myself after work to get some healthier things in my house for the rest of the week. And I'll make sure to have dinner first if I'm hungry when I get home, so I don't shop hungry - we all know what happens when you shop hungry… ;)

That's a tough one. At my 50th birthday party we had a Belgian chocolate fountain. After the party we were left with a couple of BRICKS of the yummiest chocolate on earth. Guess who polished them off in a couple of days? I think that episode was a key contributor to my downward spiral (or more accurately, upward spiral) that year.

If I had to do it over again, I would serve myself a small portion of the chocolate and just throw the rest away, wasted money and food be damned. Freezing it or saving it for the office wouldn't work for me -- not with top-quality Belgian chocolate.

F.

Yep, that's what I'd do if I was alone. I have started to view extra food/calories that add to my already more than adequate fat stores as just as wasted as food that goes directly into the trash, with the added disadvantage of having to eat less and move more to get rid of them.

In my reality, I live with 5 food eating machines, so leftovers of any sort would not last long. :p

And the beauty of this equation is that it makes it clear that you are not a garbage can.

Really, when that's the choice--what does it make you when the alternative is trash?

Freeze the healthy stuff for later, throw out the junk!

When I have parties, I tell people they'd better take the leftovers or I'm chucking them! They usually do.

I figured it was common - in this area, everyone takes their own dishes and food home, or we combine and make plates of leftovers to send home instead. It is actually rare that food is left and yes, it often is stuff like open chip bags. I tell them to take it or it hits the trash, and that often prompts people to take them if the lid is open right then and there ;)