Do you eat them?

yeah we throw away way too much food that way unfortunately. I try not to cook too much for that very reason, though that leaves our pre-teen complaining that there's no seconds sometimes. My mother-in-law comes over, cooks for the red army, leaves the leftovers and cheerfully tells me we can eat them later. I tell her there's a 90% chance it will all get thrown in the trash. And that's usually true.

I used to do the same thing... put them in the fridge, knowing full well I'd never eat it and then end up throwing it out. Though, usually I didn't get to the "throwing out" part until there was a light film of something green or white and fuzzy! (Hey, don't blame me... I'm still a college student and this is perfectly acceptable behavior! Haha!) Anyway, I think the reason we do it is because we feel bad throwing it out. We know we shouldn't, that there are people out there who could use this food, etc. What I've started to do is cook smaller meals and if there is still something left over, I send it with my boyfriend the next day as his lunch. :) This usually happens to me the most when we go out to eat and you're always served about 3 times more than you could really eat and feel bad sending a half full plate of food back with the waiter! Lol!

Why do you put them in the fridge, knowing you won't eat them? Probably because your mother (or Grandmother) did. You grew up doing that. The difference is that they probably took them out and made something else out of the leftovers so they weren't just heating them up. Leftovers can make a very tasty dinner if you use a little creativity combining them to make a totally different meal. The older generations were very frugal about leftover food.