The easiest healthy meal is one that’s already cooked. Cook enough for two meals on purpose, and tomorrow’s lunch is sorted before you’ve thought about it.
Pick dishes that keep
| Good the next day | Best eaten fresh |
|---|---|
| Curries, dals, stews | Crisp stir-fries |
| Chilli, bolognese | Anything fried or breaded |
| Soups | Dressed salads |
| Traybakes | Poached or soft-boiled eggs |
Rule of thumb: saucy, spiced or slow-cooked usually keeps well.
Plan portions, not recipes
If two of you eat dinner together and take lunch to work, a recipe that serves four covers tonight’s dinner and tomorrow’s lunch. A week can look like this:
- Monday: big chilli, leftovers for Tuesday lunch.
- Tuesday: quick dinner.
- Wednesday: big curry, leftovers for Thursday lunch.
- Thursday: quick dinner.
Two big cooks, two quick ones, a working week covered.
How Carroty handles it
In Carroty, each recipe has a number of servings and each meal has a number of people eating. When a recipe makes more than one meal’s worth, the extra portions roll into the next days on their own. Change how many people eat a single meal (one to six) and the shopping list scales to match. Swap a meal and its leftovers are swapped with it.
Store leftovers safely
From UK government food safety guidance:
- Fridge at 0–5°C. Get cooked food into the fridge within one to two hours.
- Eat fridge leftovers within 48 hours, or freeze them.
- Label what you freeze. Meat is usually best eaten within two to three months.
- Defrost in the fridge, then use within 24 hours.
- Reheat until steaming hot all the way through. Once cooked food has been frozen, reheat it only once.
- Rice is stricter. Chill it within an hour, keep it in the fridge for no more than a day, and never reheat it more than once.
Sources
- GOV.UK: How to chill, freeze and defrost food safely
- GOV.UK: Home food fact checker (rice and reheating)
- Love Food Hate Waste: storage tips and recipes for using up leftovers