And this week, we're talking about using leftovers. We hope you'll share, too!
I have known people who boasted of tossing all their uneaten food, which I find shocking. They might as well boast that they occasionally set ten dollar bills on fire. I find nothing to admire about waste. After all, after the miracle of the loaves and the fishes, when Jesus turned five little loaves of bread and two fish into an abundant feast for thousands, He had his disciples 'gather the fragments.'If he wanted the fragments He created, I am not going to be too proud to reuse our fragments.
I think the ability to use up 'leftovers,' to gather the fragments of a meal and produce another meal is an elegant, clever, and useful skill to have.It's good stewardship.
Some of our stand-by meals which were created in order to use up leftovers have become such favorites that we now deliberately cook extra so we can have the 'leftover' meal later. Turkey enchiladas is one of these.
So is the more frugal tortilla stir-fry, which uses up the last two or three tortillas very nicely, even if they have gotten dry and stiff. And there are so many ways to use baked potatoes, delicious ways, that when we bake them, we bake extras for use in other dishes.
What do you need to use up? Spaghetti noodles? Pickle juice? The last bit of jam in the jar? Oatmeal? Rice? Try here- where I collected ten different ways of using leftovers that some wouldn't even think about.
About a dozen different ways to use up leftover BBQ chicken came to me in about 20 minutes- and, of course, you can make BBQ chicken with leftover cooked chicken.
This post on ways to use leftover roast beef has been one of the most linked to and most read posts on my blog pretty much since the day I wrote it.
Stale bread? I can help you with that.
How about leftover eggs?
Leftover boiled eggs can be:
eaten as is
sliced and diced over a salad
sliced and mixed with mayo and mustard for egg salad for sandwiches or crackers
Eggs Goldenrod (click on this picture- the recipe is on the bottom right)- basically boiled eggs, whites and yolk separated, whites mixed in with white sauce poured over toast, yolks sieved over the top and eaten while all is warm. There's also a vintage recipe for eggs goldenrod and one for 'escalloped eggs' here.
Served in this Savory Vegetable pie, which can also be made ahead and frozen.
Leftover Scrambled Eggs
great in tortillas with cheese and salsa- breakfast burritos!
Mix it into fried rice (made from leftover rice!)
Mix with some bacon, cheese, and have on an english muffin or a piece of toast
Your turn- share your kitchen alchemy in our link-up. The rules are simple:
Link to your post, not the blog.
Link back to one of the four of us in that post (and elsewhere just to be nice=))
Your post must be family friendly.
Or we can play Stump the Blogger: If you would like help trying to come up with a way to use some of your leftovers, leave a comment and I'll see what I can come up with!
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Fried rice, quinoa, couscous or other grains with leftovers chopped and folded. Add some tamari and sesame oil for completely different flavour. Left over lentils not only make delicious dhal but with other vegetables mashed through become tasty fritters or rissoles. Serve with salad. Carrot, beetroot etc can be added to bread or cakes.
ReplyDeleteLeftover potato can be mashed with a can of tuna and fishcakes result. Delicious.
I often make pies or pasties with leftovers. With some sauce like BBQ or chutney, they are a new dish altogether. Open vegetable tarts of leftovers can have olives, chopped tomato and feta cheese added. Bake till pastry is cooked. Again, different.
I make a scone dough of 2 cups SR flour, pinch salt and around a cup of milk. Or sometimes I use a pizza yeast dough if I'm making such stuff. Press out flat and cover with chopped vegetables, meat, mince meat etc. Roll long side up and slice into even slices about 2 cm thick. Place flat on baking tray, sprinkle with a bit of tasty cheddar or grated parmigiano , reggiano or similar and bake. Again, a totally different dish in the eyes of the consumer. I did this once when my son had someone staying with us who did not like a lot of what we ate. He ate a lot of these and asked what was in them as hey were the best meal he'd had while with us. He was very surprised when I told him but he'd already eaten and enjoyed and couldn't back down.
And of course, there's always soup. Make it creamy sometimes with a stick blender. Garish with spring onion or something else green or float a piece of toast with cheese for more protein.
I think the thing to do with leftovers is to have an element of surprise and difference to them. They are then different to the original dish, Dress them up a bit with a garnish and they usually go quickly.
There's only myself to cook for now and I still make enough for leftovers. Yesterday's baked chicken had chopped onion, garlic, chilli and mushrooms cooked. A tablespoon of cream and all was served over rice. Quite different from baked chicken and roast potatoes, carrots and eggplant. Bones will go into freezer till I have enough for stock.
none of the 4 (as far as i could tell) mentioned SOUP.
ReplyDeleteMom's method, was reheat for lunch the next day, freeze for use in other recipes and SOUP.
I use soup alot for the odds and ends of veggies and meats, and the broth made from the chicken carcass leftover.
There's a great Ethiopian dish that uses leftover hardboiled eggs- you chop them up and saute them with onions and spices and serve them on toast. I never would've thought of this, but it's delicious and worth trying.
ReplyDeleteThere's a great Ethiopian dish that uses leftover hardboiled eggs, chopped and sauteed with onions, garlic and spices, eaten wrapped in flatbread. I've had Thai dishes with hardboiled eggs deep-fried- these are called son-in-law eggs. These aren't things I would have thought of, but they are delicious and definitely worth trying.
ReplyDeleteSweet Potatoes!
ReplyDeleteI have sweet potatoes I need used up :)
Mommy Lydia:
ReplyDeleteI like sweet potatoes sliced thin (with a vegetable peeler) and fried quickly at high heat- they are so yummy this way, almost candy themselves.
You can dice them and use them anywhere you would use cooked carrots.
they are good diced, tossed with butter or oil and seasonings and roasted.
If you like the idea of a pumpkin shake- almost like a pumpkin custard, pumpkin shake- so good and refreshing when chilled.
You can cook and mash sweet potatoes and use them anywhere you would use pumpkin.