Five Meals You Can Make with Leftovers

When it gets to be more than 5 days since I've posted, I start to get twitchy. Yet I haven't been making many new foods lately. Why? Because I've been working my way through my fridge and freezer and trying to get things spring cleaned. I love having plenty of food stocked and on hand, but at a certain point it gets a little overwhelming. By overwhelming I mean that a) I open the freezer and hundreds of bagged or Tupperwared foods stare at me in a taunting way saying, "Did you remember to label me? Do you think you'll ever find a way to use me?" Or b) you open your freezer and things fall out onto your head, constantly threatening to concuss you and those nearest and dearest to you. At this point, it's time to put your leftover hat on. Today I thought I would help you out. 

Five Meals You Can Make With Leftovers:

1. Soup. Grandma did it, so can you. Here's how. Heat 2 Tbsp butter or oil in a pot on the stove. After it's melted, whisk in 2 Tbsp flour. Let it cook for 1 minute. To this add 2 C milk, cream, or chicken/veggie broth (or a combination of the three). (You can even get all crazy and add things like coconut milk here.)Add salt and pepper. Whisk the liquid in and stir until everything thickens just a bit. Then throw in whatever vegetables or meats you've got sitting in leftover land. If they are cooked, just heat them through. If they are raw, let them cook until they're tender (or you may want to saute them in butter before beginning the soup). If you've got raw meat you want to use, I recommend cooking it alone before adding to the soup. Even cooked meat with a bit of sauce can be added to a soup as long is its not a crazy weird flavored sauce. You can also throw in some plain cooked pasta or rice right just before your soup is done if you've got a bit hanging around that you want to use. When your soup is just about ready, taste it and add any seasonings that seem good. Be sure it has enough salt and pepper. 

Leftovers most easily used:

-Vegetables

-Meat

-random amounts of broth, milk, or cream that you have leftover from other recipes

-fresh herbs

-a bit of pasta or rice 

2. Casserole. This is a sort of counterpoint to soup--it uses more grains and (potentially less of the other stuff). It works best if you've got a bunch of noodles, rice, or other grain like that and then you have a few veggies or a bit of meat as well. And of course some cheese. Yes, I think most casseroles need a bit of cheese. Here's what you do. Mix your cooked noodles, rice, barley, or whatever with any vegetables or meat you've got. Add 1 C cheese--whatever kind. Add something saucy. This can be a sauce you already have from a dish or it can be a simple white sauce or it can be mayonnaise or cream cheese or it can even be a can of cream of something soup (although generally I'm opposed to those on principle--but that's just snobbery so feel free to ignore it if you wish). Add this creamy stuff, mix it all up. Put it in a casserole dish or 8x8, 9x13--whatever fits it. Top it with cheese and maybe some crumbled crackers, potato chips, or bread crumbs if you've got that hanging around. Bake at 350 until it's warmed through and the cheese is melted. 

Don't want to/have time to bake this? You don't have to. You can just mix everything on the stovetop or in a skillet and warm it that way, then add cheese to the top, let that melt and serve. I prefer it baked (just because), but this is a nice time saver. 

Leftovers most easily used:

-Grains: Pasta, rice, barley, farro, etc. 

-Veggies

-Meat

-Cheese--this is perfect if you get a collection of tiny nubs of different kinds of cheese that you don't know what to do with. 

-Old crackers, corn flakes, potato chips, or bread crumbs. 

3. Wrap it. What you do: Throw everything you've got in a skillet: veggies, meat, cheese, herbs, even toothsome grains like rice or barley. Add a bit of cream cheese, sour cream, mayonnaise, or even BBQ sauce (or a combo). Heat it. Put it in a tortilla. 

Leftovers most easily used: 

-Vegetables

-Meats

-toothsome grains--rice, barley, farro, etc. 

-fresh herbs

-random bits of sauces

-random kinds of cheese

4. Wrap it and bake it. This requires some bread dough--it can be homemade, but it's easiest with some of those tubed biscuits or croissants from the store (though even as I say that, I have to admit that homemade biscuit dough isn't that hard to whip up). What you do: Take meat, veggies, cream cheese, and regular cheese. Wrap it up in your bread dough. You can actually wrap it and make a sort of stuffed biscuit or croissant. Or you can put the biscuit/croissant dough in a muffin tin and then plop the fillings onto that. Either way, when it's ready you'll bake it until the bread dough is cooked--about 10-15 minutes at 375 or 400 degrees. 

Leftovers most easily used: 

-vegetables

-meats

-cheeses

5. Salad. We tend to get really boring with our salads so that they end up always looking (and tasting) like a McDonald's side salad--iceberg lettuce and a slice of out-of-season tomato if you please. But it doesn't have to be this way. We can have cold salads with veggies needing to be used in the fridge and then topped with cold meats and a dressing. Or we can make warm salads with things like butternut squash, potatoes, eggs, warm meats and then topped with a dressing. Nuts are also good in salads so this is good for that bit of whatever nut you didn't need. Salads are also more conducive to vegetables like avocados, artichoke hearts, or hearts of palm. I often use part of these in recipes and have an odd little amount left. For it to be a salad, I think the ingredients can be as crazy as you wish, but I think that the fact that it has a dressing is key. What you do: Toss your veggies (and meats/eggs) together. If you'd like a warm salad, heat this up and add a warm dressing. You can use a prepared dressing of course, but it's probably more fun and tastier to keep with our leftover theme by using a little oil, a little acid (lemon juice, vinegar, or even orange juice for a sweeter dressing), maybe a dash or two of sugar, salt and pepper, and then herbs. Shake this like you mean it and you'll have a delicious salad. (Here's a very basic dressing that you could use different herbs in. Here's another that is a honey mustard. I've only used cold, but am betting both would be good warm as well.)

Leftovers most easily used:

-Greens

-Other vegetables

-cooked eggs

-meats

-fresh herbs

-nuts

And a weird bonus idea if you're brave...

6. Patties. Our mothers and grandmothers would not even blink about this, but our modern food culture tends to balk at the idea of throwing all your old veggies, meats, grains together, adding an egg, then squishing them into a patty and frying (or cheat-frying by cooking in a skillet with just a bit of butter) them up. However, if you consider what a meat ball is you will realize that it is really just a leftovers patty with an egg thrown in and then maybe this won't see so crazy to you. My mom used to make tuna patties or salmon patties. What you do: Take your leftovers, chop them as small as possible. Mix them together. Crack an egg into them. Add some bread crumbs (or cracker crumbs, potato chip crumbs, whatever crumbs) if you have them. Flatten into a patty. Cook on a skillet with some butter or oil. To make this seem like something special instead of mashed leftover patty, have a sauce for dipping. Here's one I love with all my heart, but you can use whatever you like. 

Leftovers most easily used:

-Vegetables

-bread crumbs (or other crumbs)

-Meat (fish is especially conducive to this kind of treatment)