Mum Washes Son's Leftover Pasta To Reduce Waste

Let’s face it, groceries aren’t exactly cheap right now, so making the most of our meals is a must. But is washing and reusing pasta going a step too far?

A US-based mum has shared her ‘waste not, want not’ tip for repurposing her son’s leftover pasta, and it’s left the internet divided.

“OK I need you guys to settle a debate for me,” she explains at the start of her TikTok video. She explains that she wanted a different pasta dish to the one her son had for his lunch. Given that he didn’t touch his pasta, she decided to reuse it.

“I decided to save the pasta by rinsing off the sauce and then creating the pasta I wanted to have.”

@myplantbasedfam I feel like I’m about to have my feelings hurt posting this ???? #plantbased #plantbasedfood #marriedlife #plantbasedmom #pasta #debate ♬ Just a Cloud Away – Pharrell Williams

The mum is seen rinsing the pasta off in a colander in the sink, removing most of the sauce. Then reusing it to make her own pasta dish.

“But my husband thinks that it’s really weird that I did this. Was looking at me like I was crazy while I was rinsing off this pasta. So I gotta know is it weird or is it a good way to reduce food waste?”

Could you stomach washed pasta? Let us know in the comments below!

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41 Comments

- - mom453848 said
  - 03 Jul 2022
    6:01 pm
Pasta in Australia is really quite cheap so if you were from here I’d say it’s more of a waste to wash it, the water is more important but I’m unsure of the costs involved in America so it may be cost effective but I probably still wouldn’t do it. But each to there own

- - Zmijka86 said
  - 29 Jun 2022
    12:52 pm
Sorry but that is a bit to much.

- - mom461384 said
  - 14 Jun 2022
    12:41 pm
If there is enough for a meal it is frozen if not its passed to our pig of a dog ????

- - mom169154 said
  - 04 Jun 2022
    10:06 am
Doesn’t really make sense to me! A lot of effort when she could have freezed it

- - Ordinary mum said
  - 30 May 2022
    2:56 pm
Weird, definitely weird. Pasta is fairly cheap. I probably would have eaten it as is. I mean if the meal was good enough for your child, why isnt it good enough for you. Failing that I would have either left if for the next day or given it to our lucky dog.

- - mom486391 said
  - 27 May 2022
    10:04 pm
I don’t understand!

- - tessie said
  - 27 May 2022
    3:56 pm
Pasta is fairly cheap so no, I wouldn’t rewash and use it again. I’d rather give it to the chooks

- - ~Loui~ said
  - 26 May 2022
    12:43 am
Pasta isn’t expensive and it always tastes better the next day anyway. I’d just cook up some more.

- - rovermum said
  - 25 May 2022
    11:00 am
Ew. No, I don’t think I would do that. It feels a bit weird.

- - cassy26 said
  - 25 May 2022
    8:42 am
Honestly if you want to be really frugal I’d freeze the pre made pasta and reheat at a different time and cook a new lot of pasta for herself. You can buy dry pasta for under $1 a pack which is probably less than the cost of the sauce she washed away. Plus its much simpler.

- - mom265671 said
  - 24 May 2022
    11:44 pm
The way she washed it and then re used it i found a bit weird.

- - Forgetful Mumma said
  - 24 May 2022
    9:52 pm
We reuse leftovers all the time. Depending on if it’s been touched or not. I wouldn’t wash it tho. I would reheat it and add it to something else.

- - BellaB said
  - 24 May 2022
    6:59 pm
It’s a bit weird, but if it didn’t bother her it’s really not a big deal.

- - mom478232 said
  - 24 May 2022
    4:26 pm
Maybe she ran out of more pasta to cook up a new meal. Very odd thing to do, she could of tweaked the child’s pasta to be more to her liking
- mom466087 replied
  
  24 May 2022 , 10:44 pm
  Yeah that’s a good idea. I wouldn’t do what she did but each to their own right?
- - mom462038 said
  - 24 May 2022
    12:46 pm
I wouldn’t wash to re use. I’d freeze the leftovers to re heat another day. But it’s not that gross, it is a waste of the sauce though