Frugal Fridays: The Ultimate Frugal Lunch

I started this week off by falling down on the way to work, and hurting my ankle pretty bad. I spent two days at home, one stuck on the couch, but finally made it back to work on Thursday. To avoid putting unnecessary stress on my ankle, I decided not to eat out for this Frugal Friday, but to instead do what I do every other day of the week to save money: Eat Leftovers.

Today's leftovers were from the Oven Baked Apple BBQ Chicken we made on February 4th. They've been sitting safely in our freezer in a Lock & Lock container for almost 2 months. Usually, my lunch is leftovers from the day before - but we've built up a bit of a backlog, so I dug into the freezer this morning and grabbed this container.

It's no secret that leftovers are an economical choice for lunch - but it can be hard to ensure you always have leftovers. With just two of us in my household, we find that most recipes (which are usually designed for 4 or more) yield at least one day of leftovers. Lasagna gives us two days of leftovers, whereas some dinners only result in one or none (like Caesar salad). One of the side benefits of cooking for leftovers is that we mindfully question our portion sizes, and sometimes find we're putting less on our dinner plates as a result - preventing over eating. We also upsize recipes pretty regularly, tossing in extra beef or chicken, or making up some extra pasta, so that the recipe will stretch.

Since I eat leftovers 4 days a week for lunch, I've found that the day-after leftovers usually warm up more evenly than frozen, and that frozen dishes you can stir half way through (like curries or paella) are more successful than those you can't (like, say, Oven Baked Apple BBQ Chicken . Also, for frozen leftovers, I find that microwaving on half-power for a longer time is more effective at getting the dish heated through than blasting it on full power for a couple minutes. This is because of the way microwaves work:

From what I learned reading What Einstein Told His Cook: Kitchen Science Explained, full power means it's bombarding your food constantly, heating up the outside constantly. This can lead to an overcooked outside with a frozen center. Any of the partial power settings on a microwave actually mean it's cycling on and off, heating then not heating. Those non-heating periods allow the heat that's built up in the outer portion of the food to radiate inward. So the outside heats, then heats the center without getting overheated itself. The defrost function is the extreme end of the spectrum, with full power on the other end.

No big revelation this week, but it's hard to argue that leftovers aren't a frugal lunch option. Maybe the ultimate would be to get the special at Cafe Zum Zum (for under $5), and put aside half of it for lunch the next day.



(Frugal Fridays is a weekly series dedicated to finding Seattle lunch spots where you can walk in with a $5 bill and walk out with a fulfilling, preferably healthy, lunch. If you have suggestions of places in the Seattle area with a great lunch for under $5 after tax, post a comment - I'd love the help.)