Amazing Meals From Leftovers

No Food Left Behind-Great Leftover Food Ideas

 

I think all of us have great intentions when we go shopping each week, that we will use everything we have bought and not waste any food. Food waste is a huge problem for climate change and starting in 2022 restaurants and groceries stores will need to start recycling their food waste because it’s such a landfill problem in California. I know many of you compost, but wouldn’t it be great for your budget if you didn’t waste any food each week?

I think many of us have some bad memories from childhood of meals made from leftovers that didn’t taste the best, this could cause an aversion to using leftovers, just kidding! On the fun side of this, you can get very creative with your cooking using leftovers. Since I write recipes for another client each month, I have come to love repurposing leftovers! Using what I have on hand or what is left over from a meal to create another tasty meal is a creative endeavor for me.

 

Mouth-Watering Meals from Leftovers

If you feel like it’s time for change and you want to stop wasting food, please read on. The tips we give you will not only help you stop wasting food, but they will also help you reduce your food costs. With food costs going up at crazy levels, the timing couldn’t be better for learning how to creatively use leftovers. I’ve put together a list of not only great ways to use leftovers but some not common facts on how to store food that will extend shelf life!

Let’s tantalize your taste buds with everything from Egg Nog French Toast to one of the best calzones you will ever taste! I suggest taking this on as a creative task, have fun with it, and take notes about what works and doesn’t, and what your favorite meals have been from your leftover stash.

 

Leftover Bread Ideas

Sometimes the bread you have on hand gets ahead of you and there are some great ideas about how to store or utilize leftover bread below:

• Make croutons out of leftover sourdough bread.
• Did you know that you can freshen leftover sourdough bread by spritzing it with a little bit of water and then putting it in a low-temperature oven for 10-15 minutes?
• Put any kind of leftover bread except bread with fruit or nuts in a food processor and make your own breadcrumbs. You can always add your special mix of seasonings to your breadcrumb mix also.
• A few-day-old French bread makes for great crostini, since it is toasted very well and slathered with your favorite fixings, it will come out just fine and make for a wonderful appetizer or companion to your soup.
• Try your hand at making bread pudding, it’s especially yummy on these cold winter days for dessert or a special treat for breakfast.
• Make French Toast and add leftover Egg Nog to your egg mixture for a real treat. A great way to use older bread and leftover Egg Nog.

 

Leftover Cheese Ideas

We share some great ideas for using cheese when it is nearing its pull date.

• Fondue is a great way to use up leftover cheese. There are many varieties of cheese that make tasty fondue, you just want to choose easy melting versions, such as swiss, gouda, Gruyere, Fontina, or Cheddar.
• Make up a batch of macaroni and cheese, either the stovetop version or the baked version.
• Avocado and grilled cheese sandwiches are filled with protein and are a great way to use up leftover cheese.
• Make eggs au gratin or any vegetable mixture with an au gratin sauce.
• Make a batch of blended cheeses, the French call it Fromage Fort, try blending your leftover cheeses with garlic, wine, and your best-loved herbs for a flavorful cheese spread.

 

Leftover Ham, Chicken or Turkey Ideas

After a holiday meal so many of us have leftover ham, chicken, or turkey that we don’t want to waste. We give you some inventive ideas of what to do with your leftovers below.

• Make chicken or turkey tortillas soup, it’s also a great way to get rid of extra tortilla chips leftover from appetizers.
• Make your favorite chicken or turkey soup recipe using leftover cuts from your meal or submerge the whole chicken or turkey in a big stockpot and let the boiling water do the job of removing the last of the meat from the bones plus giving you a really hardy base stock for your soup.
• Make chicken, turkey, or ham sandwiches. Our kids always want me to make extra rolls at the holidays so they can make mini-sandwiches from the leftovers.
• Make chicken or turkey enchiladas, this is one of our favorite day after feasts that is a regular tradition in our family.
• Make breakfast burritos from your leftover meat or burritos for lunch or dinner. Our kids feel any meal is a great time for burritos and it really lets you use leftover meat effectively.
• Make a stir-fry with your leftover meat from holiday meals and use up some of the leftover vegetables at the same time.
• Make chili with your leftover chicken or turkey.
• Leftover ham makes a great addition to mac and cheese and really increases the protein in the dish.

 

Leftover Rice Ideas

I don’t know about you, but many times I over calculate how much rice I need for a side dish at the holidays and then I’m left with lots of leftover rice. Here are some tasty ideas to put your leftover rice to use.

• One of my kids after holiday breakfasts is rice crullers. Rice crullers are a southern breakfast treat made from leftover rice. Since rice is one of the main ingredients you can use up a lot of rice this way and make a breakfast treat that everyone will love.
• Make rice pudding, you can use up both white and brown rice this way. You can make your rice pudding less sugar ladened by using maple syrup or honey as the sweetener.
• Vegetable fried rice uses up not only your leftover rice but also can make a clean sweep of your refrigerator of any vegetables that are nearing their pull time.
• Chicken or turkey and rice soup is a winter favorite and uses both your leftover meat and rice in one great filling soup.
• In the recipe book, I wrote for my kids I included the recipe for brown rice burgers. These are great warm or cold used in sandwiches after the fact and it uses a huge amount of leftover brown rice and they are good and good for you!
• Make sushi! Sushi is easy and a great way to use up leftover rice.

 

Leftover Vegetable Ideas

Leftover vegetables or vegetables nearing their expiration in your refrigerator can be used for a number of great-tasting dishes. Plus, we give you some storage ideas about avocados that you probably haven’t heard before.

• Did you know that you can freeze avocados? I didn’t know this till recently even though I have cooked for years and cooked and run two restaurants. When you don’t think you’ll be able to use your avocados, remove the pulp from your avocados and put it in a bowl, use an ice cream scoop to scoop up your avocado and put it on a cookies sheet, put it in your freezer till the avocado balls are firm, and then decant to a plastic bag for storage. Your avocados won’t turn brown and you can use the mixture when you need it with only a few minutes out on the countertop to be able to use the avocado in a number of dishes or on sandwiches.
• Make a vegetable smoothie from your leftover vegetables. Just add your favorite liquid, maybe a frozen banana, throw in some berries, and protein powder if you wish, and you have a great-tasting and good for you smoothie.
• Make vegetable soup. My grandma always had vegetable soup on the stove when I came over and would just add vegetables and other leftover ingredients as she needed to use them. Such a tasty soup and it uses up your leftover vegetables and gives them new life in a soup that warms you up on these winter days.
• I made my first spinach enchiladas this last week because I needed to use up spinach before the pull date and they were so yummy! So, give vegetable enchiladas a try for using up leftover vegetables.

I hope the ideas above inspire you to use up your leftovers and create some really wonderful leftover dishes this holiday season. Be sure to give us a call at 707-827-3316 to fill out our free quote form to set up house cleaning after the holidays to mop up from decorations being taken down and get the last of the tree debris cleaned from your home. We wish you the very happiest and healthiest of holiday seasons from all of us at Crystal Clear Home.