Favorite Things to Make with Common Leftovers

Image from: Rachel Levit

Reducing food waste is a really crucial step in managing a grocery budget and helping to better care for our resources and planet. Below, I've listed some recipes and ways we use common leftovers up in our house. Thanks to Stephanie for the post idea :)



Spaghetti- Store leftover spaghetti or noodles in a separate container from any leftover sauce. Sauce can be used for english muffin pizzas for lunch, regular pizza for dinner, or an easy dish of eggs baked in tomato sauce for breakfast or a quick lunch. Use leftover noodles/spaghetti to make a  delicious pasta fritatta. The best thing about a fritatta is that it is the perfect vehicle for using up really any small bit of ingredients--feel free to add leftover cheese bits, chopped veggies, or meat.

Rice- I personally try not to keep leftover rice in the fridge for more than a night, as I once read somewhere it is a food that spoils quickly...so usually, the next day after having rice, I make one of two things. If we didn't have the rice with an Asian themed dish the night before, either Mike or I will make fried rice. If fried rice doesn't sound good or was too close to the previous meal, I'll usually add the rice to a soup OR I will make crispy rice cakes. Somehow, I always think the kids will like these for lunch. Somehow, I always end up eating tons of rice cakes that they won't touch. A kid friendly thing my mom used to serve us was leftover rice heated up with a bunch of shredded cheese stirred in. Comforting and easy.

Fruit (especially bruised or slightly mushy fruits)- I freeze bananas after peeling them for use in smoothies. Same with other fruit after it is washed and cut, like berries or nectarines/peaches. I also like to take imperfect fruit and use it to make a simple sauce to put over pancakes or waffles. You can hide bruised fruit in muffins or a cobbler/crisp as well.

Herbs- use leftover herbs to make a green sauce, add to a marinade for meat, use in your juicer (parsley especially), or blend them with olive oil and freeze in ice cube trays. Once they are frozen you can pop them out and store in a Ziploc for later use in meals. Also, don't forget, with lots of herbs, the stems are perfectly edible! Don't waste them!!

Leftover Chicken- I absolutely love roasting chicken and if I need some shredded chicken quick for a recipe, I'll buy a whole rotisserie chicken instead of chicken parts (it is cheaper around here). This always results in leftover chicken. Some of my favorite things to do with leftover chicken are: make chicken salad, chicken packets (an old Once a Month Cooking Meal my mom used to make...so you can freeze them! And kids love them! We never used croutons on them growing up, but I have made them that way, as well as using crushed Ritz crackers instead. Both were tasty), making soup in the winter, and throwing it into quick chicken quesadillas.

If this was helpful at all, I'd be more than happy to write up a "Round Two" with some more common leftover ingredients. These were just the top items that came into my head as things we are good about re-purposing.



Oh...and before I sign off:

An AMAZING book that talks about using what you have to make delicious meals & figure out what to do with "scraps" is An Everlasting Meal: Cooking with Economy and Grace by Tamar Adler. I would highly recommend buying or renting a copy. The book isn't your typical cookbook, but more of a helpful navigation tool and is beautifully written (the link here is NOT an affiliate link. I don't have any idea how to even do those).