Five Leftovers Better Than Restaurant Food

So it's January and maybe you're poor. All that festivising can be a little hard on the wallet. But chances are you probably also have a refrigerator/freezer full of weird odds and ends--a little ham in the freezer from Christmas, some ugly old yams sitting in the pantry, probably with a half-used box of crackers. Then there are the nubs of cheese, a few random veggies, and 1/2 C of dip from New Year's Eve, And there's always that random tub of mashed potatoes that just seems to be there in your fridge (at least if you are us--somehow I never ever make our mashed potatoes match our meal; always too much or too little). So your fridge is kind of stuffed, but you tell yourself you have to go shopping anyway because you're sick to death of those foods already, or maybe you just have no idea what to make with them. And you might maybe need to go shopping, but if you do, it might help to do it with all those pesky leftovers in mind. What, after all, could you make from those things that wouldn't taste like the same old ham dinner or chips with dip. Below are some of my favorite leftover ideas that not only revisit leftover foods, but revise them so it feels like you're eating something entirely new. 

Stone Soup. This is great for using up leftover bits of veggies (cooked or not) and meats (cooked or not). Stone is optional.
What you need: butter (or oil in a pinch) and flour for a roux, then milk or broth or a combination of both for a sauce. Then some random veggies, random meats
What you do: Melt butter. Cook any veggies that need cooking. Add flour (equal to the amount of butter used or a little bit less). Add broth/milk/combo of both and whisk in until simmering and broth thickens just a bit. Then add any cooked veggies or cooked meats. (Any uncooked meats you'll want to cook separately).

Potato Soup. This is my favorite way to use up leftover mashed potatoes.
What you need: a bit of cream cheese, chicken broth, salt and pepper, and a bit of grated cheese (use up those random cheese nubs) for the topping.
What you do: Heat the broth (I'm going to guess a cup for every cup of mashed potatoes, but you can adjust this if you want your soup thinner), add in the mashed potatoes and mix. It'll be a little weird-looking and you'll be like, "This is gonna be gross" but have faith. Now you're going to add a bit of that cream cheese. Add a little if you've just got a little soup and a lot if you've got more. Taste, adjust seasonings, and be prepared to be amazed. Then add those cheese bits to the top. Yum

Stuffed Mushrooms. This is great if you've got random leftover veggies or cheese or even a meat like ham or bacon.
What you'll need: Whole mushrooms with the stems removed, cheese (and I like it even more if you have at least a bit of cream cheese to use as a base to hold it all together, but you don't have to have cream cheese), veggies (optional)--chopped tiny
What to do: Remove stems from mushrooms and put them on a baking sheet. In a bowl, combine cheeses and tiny tiny chopped veggies (again some cream cheese is nice for holding everything together, but not absolutely necessary). Add dollops of the cheesy part to the insides of the mushrooms. Bake at 375 until the mushrooms release some liquid onto the pan (you'll see a little kind of puddle around the mushroom) and are tender.

Fried Rice. Great for veggies, meat, and that cursed leftover rice that can dry out and be weird, but it doesn't matter for this recipe, which can totally resurrect dried out rice. This is also good for those little nubs of ginger or maybe that half of a lemon or lime you've got hanging around. Or some leftover scrambled eggs.
What you'll need: Cooked rice or some type of rice-like grain (barley, quinoa, or farro could totally work here), veggies, meat (optional), oil, and soy sauce.
What to do: Heat oil in a skillet. Cook veggies and meat (if not already cooked)--add some soy sauce to them if cooking. Remove from skillet. Add more oil--several Tbsp. If you've got it, add a little ginger or some onion (powders work too) to the oil. Then add the rice. Put some soy sauce in (enough to color the rice, but taste as you go because if you get it too salty you can't go back). And stir fry that rice in your oil. Plum sauce and oyster sauce are nice additions, but you can make a perfectly respectable fried rice with just oil and soy sauce. Then add in the vegetables and meats. If you've got an egg and want to add it, go for it. Add a bit of lemon or lime juice (or zest) if you wish.

Wraps. This is nice if you've got beans or random bits of grains (couscous, rice, quinoa, farro) lying around, but not a whole lot (cause seriously, what do you do with 1/2 C of leftover farro--chances are you throw it out, but if you've got a few more things it can really kick butt in a wrap). It's also a great place for cheese nubs and random sauces or leftover dips that you've got. A wrap can also be a good home for a few pieces of shrimp of a half a fish fillet or that random leftover chicken leg.
What you need: Some type of tortilla or wrap, cheese or veggies or beans or grain or sour cream or shrimp or fish or meat or sauce or some combination of those things.
What you do. Warm the stuff you're adding to the wrap. I'd encourage you to be sure you have something creamy in the mix--cream cheese or sour cream or a bit of leftover dip or even a bit of ranch or BBQ sauce, but creamy is nice to keep it from being too dry. Anyway, mix up the stuff you plan to shove into this wrap, be sure there's a creamy element to it. Then warm your wrap and add those fillings to it.

An idea for dessert:
-Try a "dump" cookie--make your favorite chocolate chip cookie dough and then dump in whatever random leftover nuts, coconut, chocolate chips, butterscotch chips, mints or marshmallows or whatevers you would like. (Be a tiny bit mindful of what might be gross together--like coconut and mint, but otherwise, go nuts.) Bake as you would a chocolate chip cookie.

Summer Fried Rice

So we had this lovely spring--cool and wet-enough-but-not-too-wet and green. And then Wednesday it was 95 degrees. Naturally that was the day I signed up to help at my son's scout camp. By the end of the day I was ready to kick the camp announcer/director guy in the shins. Judging from the way he made the entire camp stand on a shade-less hill for 20 minutes waiting for the flag ceremony to begin at the devilishly hot hour of 3:00, and and then gave 20 more minutes of announcements after that, I'm guessing he'd spent most of the day in the air conditioned scout building. Seriously, if I hadn't been about to faint away, I might have marched right up and given him a piece of my mind. When Mark and I got home, we ate ice cream. And let me tell you--it was not cold enough for me.

And then I had to make dinner. I made a simple one--fish, rice, corn on the cob, and watermelon. And I was glad I did because eating a nice, light, 20-minute meal felt better and more restorative than lying on the couch and hooking myself and my kids up with IV's of peanut butter (not that there's anything wrong with that).

But all that isn't really the point of this post (tell me you're shocked). The point of this post is to say that we had a couple of cooked fish fillets left over, a bit of rice, and a cob of cooked corn leftover. Now, I don't know about you, but I can't stand day-after fish. And cooked and reheated corn on the cob isn't really my thing either. You know, now that we're confessing things, I'm going to have to say that plain old leftover rice doesn't exactly rock my world either. And I couldn't pawn any of it off on Kip for lunch the next day.

So today I whipped out a frying pan, heated oil, and threw everything into it with some soy sauce (and some fresh chives that were sitting there on my windowsill). I thought it would be decent, but it was awesome. I could have been more creative or colorful  or healthy. I could have chopped up a few more vegetables or herbs. But I didn't need to. It was delicious. It was light, fairly healthy, and wonderfully satisfying. No nasty day-after-fish taste. No wrinkled, sad corn on the cob, no dry rice. It was that same light summery fish meal, but refurbished. You should do this too. In fact, you might even want to cook extra fish, rice, and vegetable one night just so you can have a (quite literally) five minute dinner of awesomeness the next night. I double dog dare you. And you don't even have to spend seven hours in 95 degree heat to deserve it.

Summer Fried Rice--a template of sorts
serves 4 (lightly)
Prep time: 1 minute
Cook time: 5 minutes
Cost: $6.50 (or about $1.60/serving)
fish: 5:00, rice: .50, corn: 1.00

Note: This can, of course, be made from scratch; and would be well worth it and still be a 30-minute meal. However, if you just make a little more one night when cooking fish (yeah, any fish) and rice, you can have a butt-kicky five minute meal the next night (or even the night after that). Also, fried rice is always a little better with leftover rice.

4-6 fish fillets (I used tilapia)
2-4 C cooked rice
2-4 cobs corn, cooked (or not--it'd work either way because they'll cook quickly in the pan)
1-4 Tbsp oil
soy sauce
chives (optional, but dang good and gives a little color)

For Leftover Meal:

Put oil in a pan and heat till shimmering. Add rice and toss with a spatula so that the oil gets on the rice. Add soy sauce (not too much; you can always add more; I'm sorry I didn't measure it; I didn't know this meal would be so awesome).

Chunk up your fish and add that. (Your fish, if already cooked is also already seasoned and that keeps the meal from needing too much extra seasoning.)

Cut the corn off the cob and add that.

Add a bit more soy sauce. (Garlic, ginger, etc. would also be lovely contributions, but mine was simple and still delightful.)

Snip in some chives if you can.

Remove when it's all hot and awesome. Eat.

Serve a salad on the side if you'd like to over-achieve.

For From-Scratch Meal:

Add 2 C rice to 4 C water. Cover. Bring to a simmer. (Note: I use less rice than this (about half), but if you like a lot of rice in your fried rice, then go for it.)

As rice cooks, heat butter in a skillet. Add fish. Season with celery salt, dill, and pepper.

Remove corn from husks. (Just use a sharp knife and cut down the sides.)

When rice and fish are cooked, remove fish from skillet and chunk it. Throw corn into skillet for 1-2 minutes. Add a bit more oil to skillet. Throw in 2-4 C rice (I prefer less, so I have more meat, corn, etc). Stir to coat with oil (by which I don't mean 'coat' as in get every piece of rice doused in oil, but to get more than just the bottom level of rice so it has some oil on it). Add soy sauce. Cook, stirring occasionally for a couple minutes. Add fish and stir. Add chives or whatever seasonings you want. Taste, adjust seasonings. Eat.

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)

When You Buy a Head of Cabbage

You might buy it because you need a portion of it in a specific recipe. You might buy it because it is hugely on sale. You might buy it because March is approaching and you don't drink so you need to get in touch with your Irish roots on some other level. Whatever the reason you may find yourself with all or part of a head of cabbage hanging about your refrigerator, looking winsome and lonely. Or at least lonely. You did not grow up eating cabbage. Or if you did grow up eating cabbage, you ate it boiled and your parents made you sit at the table till you'd eaten it and you'd just as soon forget about those times, okay. Yes, yes, okay. Do forget about those times. Because cabbage is actually a perfectly love-able vegetable. You just have to get to know it in the right situation first.

Here's how.

1. Make this really delicious borscht. Q: What is borscht? A: When two generally unbeloved vegetables get together and make a beautiful thing.

2. Roast it. I love this recipe from Kalyn's Kitchen.

3. Saute it. A little oil, some chopped cabbage, salt, pepper. Saute until tender and brown on the edges. Then add a good squirt of lemon juice at the end. Do not omit the lemon juice. Without it, this is fairly bland and uninteresting (not gross, mind you, but bland and uninteresting), but the lemon changes all that. It's kind of like putting on mascara.

4. Make vegetable soup. It's very healthy and pretty tasty. It can be varied in a lot of ways or dolled up if that's your thing, but I eat it simply and like it just fine.