A lot of people eat leftovers for lunch. When you think about it, meal prepping is intentionally making a lot of leftovers to eat throughout the week.

Would you be upset if your spouse ate leftover meat and vegetables without adding rice to the meal?

That’s the situation the couple in today’s story is dealing with. One spouse seems to think leftovers need to be stretched, and the other spouse thinks it’s fine to eat leftovers as is.

Is one of them wrong, or do they need to agree to disagree? Let’s read the whole story to decide?

AITA for eating my own leftovers “wrong”?

I’m a 39-year-old trans woman (AMAB), married to a 33-year-old cis woman.

Being trans isn’t new in our relationship and isn’t really part of the issue, but I’m putting it out there in case people think it’s relevant.

The problem? Apparently, I eat leftovers the wrong way.

She made a great meal, and there were plenty of leftovers.

Yesterday, I smoked 4.5 lbs of lamb (7 hours!) and grilled several ears of corn.

We shared some with couple friends (enough for them to make a full meal when they made a vegetable side), gave the dogs some scraps, we each tasted a little, and then I left so my wife could host a lamb-and-corn dinner with a friend.

There were leftovers.

She packed them into a few containers—two with lamb and corn together (smaller portions), and three larger ones with just lamb.

Leftovers are perfect for lunch.

Today, I forgot my lunch, so I came home during a work break and grabbed one of the small lamb-and-corn containers.

It was a modest lunch: about half a cob’s worth of corn and a few thin slices of lamb.

I ate it, got back to work, and didn’t think anything of it.

It started with what seemed like a simple question.

Later, my wife asked what I had for lunch.

I told her: lamb and corn.

She asked if I made anything to go with it.

I hadn’t, and said so.

That was apparently the wrong answer.

That’s when she got upset.

She said I should’ve made rice or a grain to stretch it more and that I’d wasted it by not doing so.

I asked whether she wanted me to eat more food (add rice to what I ate) or eat less lamb and corn and supplement that with roce.

She didn’t want to talk about it after that, shut down, and told me to leave (we had been about to go on a walk before I left for an evening out with friends).

They actually argue about leftovers a lot.

This kind of tension over leftovers isn’t new.

Sometimes it’s about how much I eat, but more often it’s about how I don’t add something to it—usually rice.

She’s also told me she doesn’t like when I eat leftovers for breakfast.

I get that there may be cultural elements at play—she’s Indian, I’m Black—and I do try to be mindful of cultural differences. But these aren’t Indian meals.

She feels like she can’t win.

Most are things I cook (like the lamb) or leftovers from eating out—Chinese, Thai, Ethiopian, etc.

I didn’t grow up eating rice with every meal, and in my household, meat or stew often stood on its own.

We’re not low on food. We’re not tight on money. It just feels like no matter what I do, I’m not eating “right” in her eyes, and it’s honestly draining.

So, Reddit, AITA for eating lamb and corn for lunch without adding rice?

It sounds like they really need to communicate about this before dealing with leftovers again. They need to agree to disagree about how to eat leftovers or set ground rules about how the leftovers can be used and agree on these rules.

Let’s see how Reddit reacted to this story.

There’s no reason to stretch the leftovers.

As long as someone eats it, it’s not wasted.

This person calls the wife controlling.

Apparently this is an Indian thing.

Not every culture eats rice with every meal.

If you enjoyed this story, check out this post about a daughter who invited herself to her parents’ 40th anniversary vacation for all the wrong reasons.