Chili, as everyone is saying.

Gumbo, and also oxtail stew, I won’t even serve them the first day, they are so much better after a rest in the fridge.

Not cooking but any time we get pizza hut pizza I get a pan pizza to reheat - all that extra fat in the crust crisps up, it is so good reheated and not good the first day.

Any big hunk of meat is good because the first day it can be meat, rice, and beans, then tacos, then nachos or soup/chili or enchiladas.

Also if you don’t like cooking (I do but have competing priorities) a big Tupperware of salad made in the weekend can help throughout the week.

Chili (I modified the “Joy of Cooking’s” McCleod chili recipe with fresh chilis and roasted red peppers)

Julia Child La Beouf Bourguignon (This actually gets better the longer it sits in the fridge).

Baked Ziti (Cooks Illustrated)

Chicken Tinga (Bon Appetite recipe)

I love doing Pulled Pork for lunches and dinner. Great for a meal and then it’s great to put in other dishes. Nachos and quesadillas for lazy days and then great in soup

Do you make your cottage pies with minced beef?

For some reason I find the beef fat takes on an unpleasant flavor/texture when chilled and reheated. Maybe I’m doing it wrong.

Pizza is one of my favorite ledtovers, though. Cheese is good warm or cold.

Chili. Almost any stew, really. They only get better when they sit longer.

Lasagna

Curry always tastes better the next day.

Any stew type thing is generally easy to scale up and usually follows the “better the next day” character. Goulash, curries, thick soups (beef barley is my favorite), and chillis.

There’s no change in texture from reheating, which I think is key to good leftovers. Anything baked is going to dry out yet not be crisp, and anything fried is going to be soft and sad. Applying these principles to other things, and you come across things like lasagna as well.

For stuff that is baked, grilled, or pan fried, if it’s something you can cook a bunch of, but pull most of it when it’s 80% done, you can sometimes reheat that ok. We’ll make 4 burgers out of a pound of meat, and either cook up 2 and just leave the other 2 for tomorrow, or say, pull 2 off when they’re pretty rare, and cook the ones we’re eating to medium. Then the next day, by the time the patties are heated through, they’re to the right doneness.

Two of my favorites are one-pot chicken riggies and baked ziti

Bolognese and chilli are awesome. They usually taste better the next day since the sauce had time to soak in all the flavours from the spices we use.

Soups are also really good and full of flavour. Our current favourite is a coconut milk rice noodle soup with lemongrass and curry paste in it. Tastes really fresh, a little spicy, and the rice noodles add a nice consistency to the meal. Top it off with some fried, marinated tofu and you’re golden

Chilli con carne + rice
Spaghetti bolognese
Lasagna
Spinach & ricotta canneloni
Slow cooked braised beef & penne
Thai green curry + rice
Slow cooked butter chicken + rice
Slow cooked lamb korma + rice
Soups (pumpkin, potato & leek, pea & ham, etc)

Also we tend to freeze batches of leftovers without pasta/rice as it saves a lot of space in the freezer and throwing some fresh rice or pasta is little effort while the frozen meal container defrosts (fresh rice & pasta is much better, but frozen does work for a true reheat-only meal)

Baked beans.

Super easy to make, not hard to make delicious, taste just as good the next day, freeze really well.

Rice and beans yumm

Anything rice-based reheats well

I don’t like leftovers. I prefer when it gets made into something else.

Roast chicken becomes soup, tacos, or enchiladas.

Grilled steak or chicken gets chopped up and put in the freezer to make quesadillas.

Chili becomes chili dogs or chili con carne on cheese enchiladas.

My mom used to cook a couple pounds of ground beef and then season bits as needed for tacos, sloppy joes, or spaghetti.