How do you glorify your leftovers?
How do you glorify your leftovers? What ways do you turn your leftover food into something other than it was to begin with? Example, the small amount of thick chili left after three days of reheating the leftover soup becomes wonderful chilidogs. A bowl of soup is now a sandwich. A delight we had today was the three day old casserole of make ahead mashed potatoes. On top of the potatoes, I arranged the left over link breakfast sausage and reheated in the oven. My husband added picante sauce to his serving of this weird shepherd's pie and called it sensational. What are dishes you create with your leftovers?
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20 Comments:
Not to beat a dead...turkey, but I'm craving it since I didn't get it this year. When I hear the word "leftovers" the first thing that pops in my head is turkey tetrazzini, heavy on mushrooms, sherry and parmesan. Yum.
MaresyDotes at 12:31AM on 01/04/09
Well...I don't really have a problem just reheating and eating. I dunno...I don't usually feel that they need glorifying before they are good to eat again.
wunami at 12:39AM on 01/04/09
Mash has many uses (when I manage to convince my OH it needs to be used, that is. he could just have it as is for many, many days and not ever get tired of it) - from croquettes to bubble and squeak to cottage pie to filling (usually, mixed with spinach) for pierogi or puff pastry.
Leftover roast often finds its way into some kind of meat pies/pasties. Another use for leftover roast is to mince it, sautee with onions, garlic and herbs and mix with cooked macaroni - it becomes macaroni & beef.
I made about 100 egg rolls for the New Year's party and had some leftover filling - I tossed it with noodles today, added a touch more soy sauce and sesame oil, some garlic and scallions, and it made a really nice dinner.
Another NY's party leftover - I made smoked sausage, onion & pepper stuffed puff pastry bites and had some leftover smoked sausage and caramelised onions & peppers. A couple of homemade rolls, some tomato sauce -- and we had a fantastic sausage, onion & pepper sandwiches for lunch yesterday.
Huh, I never gave it too much thought, but apparently I revamp my leftovers all the time! Once, I even made hummus pancakes (somehow had way too much hummus), and they actually weren't bad;-).
brooke29 at 12:42AM on 01/04/09
@wunami - you and my OH, both:-). This is exactly why I sometimes have to fight him for leftover mash - he is adamant about it being "very good just the way it is". Me, I want to use the opportunity to make something else I may not make otherwise - I probably won't cook a pot of mash with a sole purpose of making a cottage pie. But I can purposely make extra mash so that I have some leftover to use in a cottage pie! (and I happen to love me some cottage pie...) Same goes for mac & beef and some other stuff. Some things just beg to be "reinvented" - I didn't feel like eating that leftover egg roll filling on its own, for instance, so mixing it with noodles was a really good solution.
brooke29 at 12:55AM on 01/04/09
I got hooked on bubble and squeak after reading on this site.
When I was a working mom I made spaghetti sauce served over pasta with salad the first day. Then the next day with some chili powder and cumin and the sauce became chili for frito pie.
Well known trick to grill a few extra chicken breast. I use in quesadilla or chicken tortilla soup.
vickiee at 1:03AM on 01/04/09
Really depends on the leftovers are; sometimes I'm perfectly happy with reheating as-is, and sometimes the leftovers are a big part of the reason I make the thing in the first place. Like when I make a pork roast with the intentention of making cuban sandwiches afterwards.
A lot of things end up in soups. I just made a pot of cream of cleaning the refrigerator soup that included mashed potatoes, carrots, celery, chicken stock, chicken, and the rest was pantry items like onions and some spices. Oh, and rice.
Leftover meat might be sandwiches or tacos.
If there's not enough of something for it to be another meal for 2 people, then usually it ends up as my lunch.
dbcurrie at 1:31AM on 01/04/09
I either just reheat leftovers or :
Leftover veggies and rice generally become fried rice. Leftover meat generally either goes into a sandwich or into the fried rice also. I eat a lot of fried rice If I have leftover fish, I toss it. Leftover mashed stays as either that (a food of absolute perfection), or rarely, as the topping for shepherd's pie.
chisai at 4:23AM on 01/04/09
if i have leftover vegetables -- they always go into a fritatta....meats, i'll probably make soup, or if it's a piece of pork, i'll save it for when i make meat sauce.
otherwise, the dogs love leftovers and we have chickens, so they also love leftovers.... they've all learned to love different foods, but they especially love pasta.
pooch at 8:51AM on 01/04/09
My basic rule about leftovers is - transmogrify them to look as little like the first run as possible. BF is not a big fan of leftovers and I'm the daughter of a Depression baby so NOTHING goes to waste. By the time my mother was finished with a chicken, the cats didn't want the bones.
Roast chicken becomes chicken enchiladas.
Leftover seafood from my Christmas Eve feast became Risotto.
Anything and Everything can be soup (well...almost).
Anything and Everything can be combined with tomato sauce and macaroni and become a casserole.(That's me channeling my mother.)
Certain morsels of cheese or meat get reborn as quiche.
Anything (practically) can become a pizza or calzone.
therealchiffonade at 9:00AM on 01/04/09
we're usually pretty good about making the right amount of food, so leftovers aren't usually a problem. But sometimes we miss them. So we will actually plan to have leftovers. Like when we make chili, we know ahead of time that later in the week we will have chili cheese fries. Or if we're craving refried bean tostadas, we will have bean soup the night before.
blankplate at 9:36AM on 01/04/09
The fritatta is a standard in our house, especially since we are cheese-obsessed and always have something interesting to throw in with leftover meat and veg.
Lately we have been on a home-made pizza kick. I guess because it is winter, we seem to have a lot of casserole/one pot leftovers that spread easily on pizza dough. In the past few weeks we have had chili verde pizza, beef stew pizza, chili pizza, and my husband's favorite, chicken tikka masala pizza. A wide assortment of cheese in the house is also key to the success of the random pizza generator.
KTempesta at 10:55AM on 01/04/09
Definitely frittata, quiche, bread pudding.
An egg custard will re-do all kinds of leftovers.
Nonny at 11:33AM on 01/04/09
I threw all of mine in the garbage today because the fridge is out.
When I was single I used to do all kinds of things with leftovers, omelets and frittatas, of course, or stuffed veggies, soups, pastas, etc. I loved to order mu shu pork because I could it eat it for days in different forms.
These days, the husband is not such a fan of leftovers (and his appetite doesn't usually leave much). So now I'm a fan of simple re-heating, and generally, if it's something that doesn't work well as leftovers, I just make less. What a boring answer.
renzata at 12:13PM on 01/04/09
i actually like my leftovers as is but codl right form the fridge. a couple weeks ago i made meatloaf, amshed potatoes, and red cabbage. i think i liked it moe the next day right out of the fridge. same with chinese delivery. i'll order 2 boxes crab rangoon just to have some cold ones.
coolname at 5:08PM on 01/04/09
my mashed potatoes make an encore appearance in a pastelon w/ hummus or with fried eggplant. I also have used them to make these tostada stacks.
My soy picadillo that I eat over brown rice also work well as a filling for a lasagna, in a latin version of macaroni or as a filling for a pastelon or a topping for a baked potato too.
My veggie party dip is re-purposed as a sandwich filling or to mix with a twice baked potato.
I made too much Muhamara Dip the other day and re-used the extra dip as a sauce for my Romesco Pasta.
Madelyn
KarmaFreeCooking
MadelynRodriguez at 10:39PM on 01/04/09
With:
Leftover steak and roasted veggies I make shepherd's pie, cornish pasties, a meat pie, a frittata, whatever mood hits me..
Leftover chile I make a casserole with cornbread topping, nachos or taco salad.
Leftover pork chile verde makes enchiladas, or burritos.
Mashed potatoes makes burritos with any meat, cheese and egg....or the topping for aforementioned shepherd's pie.
Leftover roasted pork makes BBQ pork sandwiches, pork fried rice.
Leftover spaghetti sauce goes into manicotti or lasagna rolls.
Leftover spaghetti noodles is made into a spaghetti and veggie frittata.
lamora at 12:45AM on 01/05/09
Chicken stock...it seems to bring everything back to life. LOL I meant taste.
chardonnay at 9:57AM on 01/05/09
I'd love to find out how "a bowl of soup is now a sandwich"....must be a pretty soggy sandwich! :o)
juliebugsmama at 11:01AM on 01/05/09
I enjoyed reading all the great comments above. To answer Julie's question, a chilidog can be a soggy sandwich and sometimes needs to be eaten with a fork. It is a nice surprise to find out how good a hot dog bun tastes after it has soaked up the chili.
Suzzanne at 8:39PM on 01/05/09
I do a bad job of trying to spice up my leftovers. Most of the time they are relived as their original selves and I don't really think about modifying them a little bit.
FrostyGhost at 1:56PM on 01/06/09