Leftovers

Remember when I said I was deleting my other blogs and would be moving some of the posts here? Well, this is one of those posts.

One of the biggest budget busters in my house was throwing food away. Each week I would end up throwing away leftovers that had been pushed to the back of the refrigerator. To solve this, I have picked up a few tips here and there and now rarely throw leftovers away.

Storing Leftovers
First of all, all leftovers are stored in Tupperware or Gladware and put on the top shelf of the refrigerator or freezer. (Depending on what it is.) That way, nothing is pushed to the back and only remembered when the smell knocks you out.

Clemson University Cooperative Extension Service has some great information on safely handling leftovers.



Leftover list
I keep a list on the fridge of all leftovers, an estimated amount and the date.
It might say something like:
Brown rice 2 cups 1/13 Refrigerator
Steamed broccoli 1/2 cup 1/13 Freezer
Steamed kale 1 cup 1/15 Refrigerator
Vegetable broth 2 cups 1/15 Freezer
Stir fry 3 1/2 cups 1/16 Freezer

When something is used, it is crossed off the list.

Smörgåsbord/Buffet night
Once the list gets too long, or the day before grocery shopping day we sometimes have a "pick your own" meal. We look at the list and everyone picks what they want for lunch or dinner. A meal might be small servings of a meatloaf "muffin," some stir fry, ranch beans and apple puffy pancake.

Soup
Some of my best soups were made from leftovers. Thaw the vegetables you want to use and toss them into a crockpot with some vegetable broth. If you have frozen leftover beans, toss those in. If not, soak some beans the night before. Or add some barley. Or pasta. Or brown rice. Whatever you have that needs to be used up.
If you need some more guidelines, try this crockpot soup recipe.

Leftovers for lunch
Heating up leftovers takes less time than a trip through McDonalds drive through. If you will be spending lunch time away from home look for a lunch box or insulated bag at the thrift store. I can usually find thermoses there, too.

Stir Fry
One of these sauces would turn leftover vegetables and rice into stir fry or fried rice.

Hash
Not a true hash, but close enough. Mix whatever cooked vegetables and meat you have with diced potatoes (you can even use the frozen hash brown potatoes) and fry in a little olive oil or broth. Add a diced onion, a garlic clove or two and your favorite seasoning blend (I like Mrs. Dash.) You can either leave as is or when done mix in some brown gravy.

Planned-Overs
It is easy to eat from a pot of soup for a few days. On day one we will eat the soup as is. Day two, I might add some potato chunks or dumplings and make it more like a stew for a filling lunch. Day three might see it made into a shepherd pie.

Using just a few of these ideas can help you control your leftovers, and get more out of them than another science experiment.

(Photos courtesy of flickr)