Welcome to the Eat This Not That Podcast. I'm John Hammond, and this is Megan Murphy.

Hi, everyone. And this week, we're going to help make life easier for you because who doesn't

want life to be easier, right? Because there is nothing easier than pulling leftovers out of the

fridge for delicious, ready in a few minutes, lunch or dinner, or breakfast, depending on the night

before, I guess, right? What are your thoughts on leftovers? Are you, are you, do you use

leftovers properly or? You know, I like to think that I properly use leftovers because I hate

wasting food. Right. But sometimes, you know, they get lost in the fridge or, you know,

maybe I'm not really in the mood for it the next day. But I hate wasting leftovers. That's my point. So I try. I try very hard. What about your? Same here. It's like, I always think like, oh, my God, this is going to be so good tomorrow or the next day. And I seal it up and put it in the fridge and like tuck it away. And that's the problem is like tuck it away.

Yeah.

And then two, three days later, I forget about it. And then a month later, I'm cleaning stuff out of the fridge. I'm like, what the hell is this? Yeah. Then you don't want to open a container. Not so fresh and delicious anymore. It's a science project at that point. That's not so good. And I think that's, you know, that's what happens to a lot of us.

And we have the best intentions. That's not so good. And I think that's, you know, that's what happens to a lot of us.

And we have the best intentions.

And also, like, we don't want to waste the food.

That's my thing is I always feel bad when I do discover it finally and realize that I probably should have eaten this, you know, a couple days after I made it.

That's why I put it away because, you know, 50% of the food that we buy actually goes to waste, which is just crazy. It's horrible. And leftovers is, I would have to guess it's a pretty good portion of that. Absolutely. Because of things like we just talked about, like either, you know, set it and forget it, set it in the fridge and you forget about it and there it goes, or you just didn't put it away properly. So then when you go take a look at it, it just doesn't feel right. You know, they get dried out. Like sometimes you got to reheat it and just like dry and nasty. And, and that's the thing. It's like all too often, we actually ruin them by making common mistakes that either makes the dish unpalatable.

And in some cases, actually makes them really unhealthy. Like, creates bacteria that will make you ill if you do decide like, oh, whatever, it's probably not that bad. I'm going to go ahead and eat this. And then two days later, you're like, oh, I don't know, I don't know why I feel like this. I didn't need anything unusual, you know, because you didn't eat what you ate like probably a week ago.

Right.

But... I don't know, I don't know why I feel like this. I didn't eat anything unusual, you know, because you didn't eat what you ate like probably a week ago. Right. But now it's kind of loaded with bacteria and not flavor. Yikes. So, so we're going to have some tips to help you fix that, right? Yeah. I mean, the truth is, like you said, sometimes leftover food will go bad in the fridge because it wasn't properly stored or it was left in the appliance you cooked it in too long. But sometimes the truth is,

it just won't taste as fresh as it did the first time you bite into it. And so today, hopefully,

we will come up with some common tips for you to keep that food as fresh as possible. So you want to enjoy it. Right. And we, look, we, we're guilty as charged. Right. So we had to, like, we went to the experts here. This is not like, hey, this is, this is how I avoid, like, wasting my leftovers because I've proven that I can't do that. Like, I waste them just like everybody else. So, you know, we actually turn to to a pro here. And,

and again, because we wanted to get the insights as to, you know, how damaging this can be to

you if you don't store them properly. Yep. To help you out today, we turn to Meredith Carruthers

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