I must admit I am not a huge fan of leftovers. With my family I never know who is gonna eat like there is no tomorrow or who is just not hungry that night. So, sometimes I am stuck with lots of leftovers. Here are a few ideas of what you can do when you need to tackle those leftovers in your fridge.~Combine leftovers to make soups, wraps or omelets. Have a little bit of chicken left? You can make chicken wraps with lettuce, tortillas and dressing. I had about 2 servings of roast beef left last week. I hated to eat it again so I pulled it all apart, added some BBQ sauce to it and made a pulled BBQ beef sandwich. It was delicious and nothing was wasted.
~Overripe fruit can be made into breads or muffins. You can use overripe apples to make applesauce. I just threw some overripe bananas into the freezer to use later to make bread.
~You can make your own broth and stock from meat and vegetable trimmings. You can go here to read this wonderful post about making homemade broth.
~Freeze leftover or stale bread to use in making bread pudding or homemade croutons. We also save it and feed the birds with it sometimes!
It is important to clean out your fridge about once a week to make sure nothing is close to expiration. If you have lots of leftovers, take a night off from cooking and just eat whats left in the fridge.
How do you utilize leftovers? For other ideas on what to do with meat leftovers you can read this post.
Linked to Tackle it Tuesday at Five Minutes for Mom and Talk about Tuesday at The Lazy Organizer.
I have always loved leftovers because it means I don't have to cook again! My family doesn't get as excited about them as I do though. Great tips!
ReplyDeleteGreat ideas!!! Thanks for visiting my blog and commenting! :)
ReplyDeleteleftovers are my saving grace!!!! I can always count on them for lunch and a night off!!!!!
ReplyDeleteThis is very good advice. I try to eat up our leftovers especially when my husband is on a trip.
ReplyDeleteI just posted a brunswick stew recipe for leftover meat. Check it out here:
ReplyDeletehttp://couponteacher.blogspot.com/2009/05/brunswick-stew-recipe.html
Thanks for the tips, this is something I really need to get better at, I throw so many moldy leftover containers away!
ReplyDeletei use leftovers to make my own "frozen dinners". if you go ahead and package them up after the first dinner, freeze them, then you can pop one in the microwave a couple of weeks later, it's new again!
ReplyDeleteGreat tips, Sara! Leftovers are a great budget reducer too! :) We just had a leftover makeover meal last night! :)
ReplyDeleteMost of the time I do not have a problem using up my leftovers because hubby will take them as is in his lunch. However, there are times that I don't get them all used up like yesterday when I had to throw out some strawberries that got moldy before I could make them into muffins!
Check out my posts here about what I do with my leftovers! :)
I'm with you! I hate eating leftovers, even if it was great the first time. Sometimes it takes some brain power to reuse them but saving money is great!
ReplyDeleteGreat Tips!
ReplyDeleteGreat tips!! I need to start to come up with leftover dinners!! Popping by from Tackle it tuesday.
ReplyDeleteWe usually have left overs once a week but there are plenty of times that we've had to toss. I need more imagination to utilize food the second time!
ReplyDeleteI'm inspired to do better with my leftovers!
ReplyDeleteWe also use stale bread (blended and frozen) for crumb coatings; fruit chopped up and frozen for quick smoothies!
Funny you should mention this...I absolutely MUST clean out my fridge today, because I have NOT done a good job this week of dealing with leftovers. :-( All good ideas!
ReplyDeleteI love to cook big meals where I have enough for left overs. The leftovers will usually equal at least one more meal, and that means one less meal I have to cook. With summer coming, at temperatures getting above 100 degrees, I don't want to cook more than I have too.
ReplyDelete