Leftover French Fries

I’m always amazed at wives and moms who tell me that they don’t feed their families leftovers for dinner.  These are real women, with busy lives and average grocery budgets.  These special girls deserve a round of applause for their creativity and hard work.  At our house, leftovers are a menu staple.  I don’t even try very hard to disguise them as something else for the second go-round.  Sometimes, tacos will magically become quesadillas, but that’s about as clever as I get.  I make my meal plan on Friday or Saturday for the following week, with leftover days strategically planned on the two days I work.  It usually looks something like this:

Sunday: Poultry or fish, vegetable, starch

Monday: Casserole, soup, pasta, or other one dish wonder, fruit or green salad

Tuesday: Leftovers

Wednesday: Another casserole, soup, pasta, or one dish wonder, another salad

Thursday: Leftovers

Friday: Salad, sandwiches, or baked potatoes 

Saturday: Something grilled or takeout

Here’s what got me thinking about leftovers today:  Yesterday we went out to a grill for lunch and the waiter brought Katie regular fries instead of the sweet potato fries she had ordered, so she ended up with two orders of fries and LOTS of both kinds leftover in a doggie bag.  Avery loves the sweet potato fries, so I tried reheating them to go with her lunch today.  I hadn’t tried to reheat French fries since graduate school or earlier and had forgotten an important kitchen truth:  Fries of any variety do NOT work as leftovers.  They become sad, limp strips of mushy, flavorless  grease.  So this is where I draw the leftover line: French fries.  I’m so curious about others’ policies on leftovers.  Are most like my awe-inspiring, non-leftover-serving girlfriends, or are many of you quietly serving up round two of chicken spaghetti?  Let's find out.