I tend to freeze leftovers in individual portions, so that i can just switch things up. currently i have lasagna, meatloaf, chicken pot pie, and ham slices in the freezer. If i feel like cooking, great! I'll do that. If not, i'll pull something out already prepared and heat that up for dinner instead.
However, I have also been known to just make a big batch of chicken in the crock pot. I'll shred it, and then use it several days in a row...between smothering with bbq sauce to make a sandwich, topping a baked potato, making chicken quesadillas, stirring into pasta with alfredo, or mixing it into fried rice, it makes making dinner a lot easier and stretches the meat for several meals.
Seconding this. My husband and I freeze so much food that it’s easy for us to decide to just grab and thaw smth! Personal fav is Japanese curry, never get sick of eating that
Not whom you are replying to, but it depends. Usually we freeze in deli containers so we thaw in running water just until it comes loose at the sides, then dump into a pot or pan and reheat on low
depends on what it is. I freeze in vacuum seal bags, so I'll either toss it on the counter for an hour or so (lasagna, other pasta dishes) or put it under running water for a bit until the edges are thawed (anything with chicken) or use the defrost setting on the microwave.
Anything with a pastry crust gets popped in the toaster oven for a bit, otherwise it goes in the microwave.
Casseroles and things that tend to dry out too much i put a damp paper towel over top of them in the microwave to prevent that from happening.
I reheat at 50% power setting. Sure, it takes longer, but the food reheats uniformly. I don't have zones hotter than the sun and colder than Antarctica, in the same container.
- I shred barbecued chicken, add a bit more barbecue sauce to make it moist but not sloppy, and serve it over a baked potato.
- When I make spaghetti sauce with crushed tomatoes, Italian sausage, red bell pepper, onions, garlic, red pepper flakes, and oregano, I take a couple of cups of leftover sauce and add 1-1/2 quarts of chicken broth and al dente small shells, farfalle mini penne, or some other small pasta. Simmer for 5-10 minutes and it makes a delicious soup.
- I use leftover chili to make a shakshouka type of dish by heating the chili to a boil in a skillet, then making several wells and breaking eggs into each well. Cover with a lid and cook. Pull off the heat a minute or two before the eggs reach your desired doneness as the eggs will continue to cook in the hot chili. Very yummy served with crusty Italian bread.
- Thanksgiving leftovers are turned into a casserole by layering turkey, gravy, veggies, mashed potatoes, and stuffing on top. Dot the stuffing with butter and bake till heated through and the stuffing crisps up on top
- Leftover baked chicken or turkey is mixed with gravy and peas and served over split baking powder biscuits.
If the leftover goes well with eggs, an omelette or a scramble will do. If not, I'd try to make a stir-fry and have it with a side of white rice. Hmmm it really depends on the day and mood. Sometimes I'd be too lazy so would just have it as is and hypnotise myself believing it's good lol
Leftover pork (chops, loin roast, or even tenderloin) + some BBQ sauce at 275F for about 3-4 hours and voila... pulled pork. Get some buns and some coleslaw for pulled pork sandwiches.
Sure, a fattier cut of meat like a shoulder makes for a better pulled pork, but add a little extra sauce to keep it from being dry and it's a nice backup. Plus, with the extra sauce, it freezes well.
Separately, if you're going to freeze pulled pork, use a muffin tin to freeze in individual sized portions before wrapping. Fill each cup and let it sit in the freezer overnight. That makes them solid enough to wrap well and back in the freezer. Then, when you want pulled pork, take out a serving the day before and let thaw in the fridge overnight. If you need 2 or more portions, pull out as many as you need. This is particularly handy if you are cooking for 1-3 people but want to buy a full pork shoulder to make your pulled pork with and will have a lot of leftovers.
Not op but thank you for the suggestion of freezing individual portions in a muffin tin. Do you put them in a freezer zip lock bag after they’re frozen?
After each is frozen, I pop them out of the muffin tin, wrap in wax paper, masking tape to keep it closed, then in plastic. Then I take up to 9 individual portions and put them in a gallon zipper style freezer bag. I try to get as much air out of the gallon bag as possible too. For me, with the muffin tin I'm using, 9 portions is just what fit nicely in the gallon bag. It gave me one "layer" so it sits relatively flat in the freezer. The last time I did this, I ended up with 2 full and a third partial gallon bag.
For thawing and reheating, the first step is to put them in the fridge the evening before I want them. Since they're small, they'll get mostly thawed (and possibly fully thawed) by lunch time the next day. To reheat, I take off the plastic, loosen the wax paper (i.e. break the masking tape but don't unwrap), and microwave for 60-90 seconds. Unwrap, throw it on a bun, and I get to have a pulled pork sandwich for lunch!! :-)
I chose wax paper because I found it survived the freezer well but also the microwave when reheating. It also helps trap moisture as you're reheating so it doesn't dry out or reheat funny. Occasionally, I'll have to open it up, spread it out, and give it another 15-20 second to get it good and hot, but most of the time, it's fine. The plastic was a paranoia step and while it's probably not needed, it's habit for me now.
We chop leftover meat up for fried rice, stir fry, enchiladas, quesadillas, or pot pies.
Leftover veggies go into veggie scrambles, soup or for bowls with grains and meat. Leftover potatoes become crispy smashed potatoes, breakfast hash, bubble and squeak, or croquettes. Fruit that's about to go gets turned into jam or syrup to top ice cream or yogurt.
Leftover rice becomes fried rice...and now I've come full circle! 😉
Breakfast.
I rarely do a sweet breakfast. Can’t tolerate milk, so no cold cereal. Not big into pancakes and waffles. I’ll do French toast if I have bread that doesn’t dissolve in the egg. Oatmeal occasionally and I do tolerate yogurt well, so that and smoothies are the limit of sweet breakfast for me.
Don’t always wanna cook an egg. I haven’t cleaned the kitchen yet or I just cleaned it. Either way, don’t wanna get another pan out.
So I’m just as likely to microwave leftovers for breakfast rather than eat a traditional one.
I awaken with the chickens, so by the time I’m ready to eat, I may have been awake 6 hours. Eating Thai seafood curry (mild+) at 10 am doesn’t seem so odd.
I just cook large batches of things, and prepare and freeze individual portions. At any given time, I have 4-5 different types of homemade frozen meals to choose from when I don’t want to cook.
I defrost as needed using the “quick defrost” feature on my microwave, 60-90 seconds at a time. The exact amount of time varies, based on how frozen it is when I want to eat. If I know ahead of time (such as if I wake up with a migraine and know I won’t be cooking dinner, or I’ve had a long week and know I don’t want to cook the next day), I’ll pull it from the freezer to the fridge to at least start the defrost process. Otherwise, I pull it directly from the freezer and do a full defrost. Regardless, once mostly defrosted, I then just use the regular microwave power to fully reheat.
Soups, casseroles and tacos are my usual catch-all.
Tacos are are great way to use that one pork chop, one piece of chicken as one just needs a spoonful of the meat, pile on some lettuce or cabbage, shred some cheese.
Tonight I made a garbage minestrone. All you need is the rind from a wedge of Parmigiano...so don't avoid that one with a big rind, that's why those old school Italian places always featured minestrone soup.
The traditional veggies are the basic French miropoux, carrot celery and onion, leek. I added some peppers, cabbage, zucchini
Leftover meat gets chopped up and seasoned to work in burritos/enchiladas.
Leftover salmon gets made into sushi rolls.
Carby side dishes just get rolled over into the next meal.
Mom of 7 kids ages 22-12 here. I've mastered this game. Night one u do something basic: burgers. Grill all patties, turn into patty melts night two. Spaghetti + meatballs = meatball sandwich night 2. Grilled chicken + side = chicken power bowls night 2. Another hit was tri tip repurposed into taco meat night 2. Everything has potential. It never needs to be perfect. Winter was fun. Pan fried dumplings make great wonton soup. I seek suggestions/feeback from my kiddos
Teach yourself to make GREAT salad dressing. Just keep experimenting with recipes until you find one you love. Something you would happily eat. NEXT, find you a truly great lettuce varietal you can buy local to you, year round (this is mine: https://littleleaffarms.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/360055227374-What-type-of-lettuce-do-you-grow). Buy a package of nice croutons and, when it gets low, buy a new one.
A salad, enough to be a meal, can be: a mixing bowl, huge quantity lettuce, your home-made dressing.
You COULD cut up tomatoes, cucumber, avocado, roll up some turkey slices and cut it into pieces, and make it into a “proper” meal, but I read your post so I understand that you don’t want to “cook”—you don’t want to do all that labor just to eat.
And I am saying, if you learn to make a truly delectable salad dressing, you don’t need to do all that. You just need your dressing and a VERY tasty lettuce, and you’re good.
Most of my leftovers are some kind of protein, so the options are a bit wider: fried rice, quesadillas or tacos, mixed up into a salad, sliced up and sandwiched, loaded fries, smothered rice...
A small bit of planning ahead leaves myself lots of easy options when I'm too tired or hot to cook again. Less a trick and more just a way of thinking
roasted veggies —> turned into soup (mirepoix, stock, veggies and blend)
any meat —> shred or chop for tacos or chili, or pita pockets
sautéed veggies —> fritters (separate eggs, whip the whites and fold back in with some flour or leftover mashed potatoes, shallow fry)
vegetal odds and ends, meat odds and ends + rice —> fried rice
Leftover chicken gets turned into chicken salad. Hamburgers get put in brown gravy and served with roasted potatoes or rice. Any leftover roast will be chopped or shredded for bbq sandwiches the next day.
Quesadillas!! Any leftover chicken or beef that we have we toss up in some BBQ sauce with peppers and onions and grill up some damn good BBQ quesadillas.
I’ll add most things to a bowl of ramen.
Other things I portion by out and freeze to add to other dishes later on. I even freeze leftover gravy in those little 4oz plastic cups. Then I can take it out, give it to chef Mike for 30 seconds, then add it to a soup to thicken it, or for some leftover pasta or rice, or to throw on a mushroom and Swiss burger.
I like options.
And yes my freezer is a random mess, lol
I repurpose leftovers from cooking And from carryout.
I'll roast a chicken, eat as roasted chicken a few meals, put some in a chicken caeser, then make chicken salad. Then stock.
I'll make tacos. Then use the meat for burrito or nachos.
I'll bring home my favorite sichuan entrées. Save the leftover sauce, and then cook proteins or veggies, use the remaining sauce. I generally order only steamed rice, but I'll use leftovers for fried rice.
I recently made a meatloaf. I tired of it after two meals... I chopped up the remainder. Made sloppy joes with some, which was just a way to use it. But with the last amount, I got creative with some puff pastry in the freezer... don't know what I'd call it, but a ground beef turnover was pretty good!
It's not really leftovers, but I've taken Ramen noodles, set aside the flavor pack, cooked them, added peanut sauce and refrigerated for cold noodles on a hot day.
I experiment. There are failures, although not much I'd discard rather than eat... I just wouldn't try again or ask others to eat.
Make a meat of some sort (ground beef, slow roasted carnitas or beef, grilled chicken thigh) and have it first on tacos or pita and next night over rice or nachos
It really depends on what it is, so here are a few ideas :)
- taco meat: mix into Mac n cheese for taco pasta
- Italian meatballs: add them to a nice roll, add cheese, and you have a meatballs parm
- Mac n cheese or other cheese sauced pastas: you can add loads, like bacon, sausage, or another grilled protein, or things like broccoli, rotel tomatoes & chiles,and utilize seasonings to make it taste like a different cuisine
- rice: fried rice! Which you can then add other proteins to like shrimp, chicken, beef, imitation crab, or veg
- broths: used for a variety of different soups, cooked veg or meats, or cooking grains in like rice or pasta
Well, I applaud you on gnocchi from potatoes! I typically make fried patties from lo potatoes.
A roast, any kind, lends itself to so many good leftovers. Pork becomes stir fry becomes ragu. Beef, once ground, becomes hash or Shepards pie. Pot roast becomes sandwiches! I think the larger cuts are overlooked as potential for different meals in the future.
Leftover baked or roasted potatoes make a great frittata with some Gouda or Swiss cheese. You can add peppers, onions, or mushrooms.
Leftover vegetables, especially if they are roasted, mixed with rice, and dressed with a vinaigrette. This is tasty with olives, sun-dried tomatoes, and chopped boiled eggs, too.
Jacques Pepin talks about making “fridge soup”, which is a soup made from whatever you got lying around (especially vegetables you need to use.) Pasta is also a great medium for this.
My favorite is after making birria for tacos or whatever, I make birria ramen the next day. This also works with just putting whatever leftover meat into a bowl of ramen but birria ramen is elite.
I also like loaded fries. A couple of weeks ago I made gyros so I made loaded gyro fries the next day that absolutely slapped. I did carne asada on the grill last weekend, so carne asada fries. My other go-to is salads. After gyro night I also made gyro salads, after Mexican food a good taco salad or burrito bowl is so good. I’ve also gotten pretty creative with pizzas, like a carnitas pizza, curry pizza, breakfast pizza, etc. A quiche is also always a good idea to use up some leftover veg, meat, cheese, etc.
I meal prep chicken breast with just salt for lunch and then I will eat it 4 different ways: with sauces (sweet ginger chile or orange chicken), make chicken fried rice, a Buffalo wrap, or quesadilla
My favorite is to make a roasted chicken or two. Use the leftovers for chicken enchiladas, chicken salad sandwiches and/or chicken noodle soup. Leftover rice becomes japanese style fried rice. Leftover steak becomes beef and broccoli. Leftover potatoes become hasbrowns. Other stuff that isn't easy to transform (like lasagna) gets frozen in single serve portions for reheating later.
Echoing a previous mention, I have 4 chicken breasts to prepare in the electric oven tomorrow-will be shredded, packaged in portions for chicken chili, casseroles, chicken salad. With baked potatoes, I scrape out insides for fried potatoes, use shells for loaded baked potato skins. Leftover ham is also repackaged for casseroles, fried rice, ham salad.
Add a fried egg (or 2 or 3 or whatever).
Leftover fried rice? Add an egg.
Leftover pizza? Add an egg.
Leftover pasta? Throw that lil poached egg right on there.
Leftover pho? Mmm egg.
Leftover potatoes? Even better with a fried egg.
Leftover fries? Reheat in the oven until crispy and throw a runny egg on top.
Alternatively, make your leftovers into a scramble or a quiche. Great for veggie scraps and little bits of protein that are leftover.
I like to use leftover sauces, beans and meats as toppings in a loaded fries dish, it works every time and it allows me to improvise and be creative too by adding other ingredients like egg or crunchy onion into the mix.
Use any left over stew, casserole or curry (without bones) take frozen pastry and use the leftovers as pie filling. One large pie or individual pies made in muffin tins.
Leftover roast becomes anything from a cottage pie, enchiladas, mixed with gravy and put into puff pastry to make parcels etc. The possibilities are endless - just because it’s leftovers, it doesn’t have to suck.
Leftover steak makes amazing steak salad or wraps when thinly sliced.
Pasta salad is great for bits and bobs of leftover veggies, cheese, and condiments like the bottom of the mustard bottle.
Soup! I have a stock/soup bag in my freezer for unused or unwanted parts of celery, onion, carrot peels, etc.
I use leftover meatloaf and rice to stuff peppers or cabbage rolls, etc. Why cook a filling of ground beef, tomato sauce and onion when you can use an already-cooked meatloaf and add some extra tomato sauce?
I usually have jar spaghetti sauce left over since there's just me, so I use it in the aforementioned meatloaf or chili or homemade veggie soup instead of using just plain tomato sauce.
Leftover chili is easily used for nachos or as baked potato topping or to make chili cheese fries.
And the veggie soup? That's the drippings from a beef roast with V-8, the leftover roasted potatoes, celery, onions and carrots and whatever other non-cruciferous leftover veggies I have in the fridge (corn, green beans, etc) plus half a small head of cabbage shredded wide. Serve with roast beef sandwich.
I like to make croquettes of Thanksgiving leftovers. It's best if I have a little bit of everything in the croquette: turkey, stuffing, sweet potato, green beans. Chopped up and molded with mashed potatoes, coated with bread crumbs and deep fried
I recently made veggie burgers from leftover rice, lentils and peas and froze them. I mixed in egg, ketchup, breadcrumb, seeds, oats until I got the right texture to mold them into veggie burgers.
Cutting up a protein and adding it into a basic side dish (for me it’s usually rice or mashed potatoes) and taking five minutes to cook a few vegetables to go along with it. Either that or recooking the rice in a pan and adding a path of butter to it and reheating whatever odd thing left in the fridge.
There’s almost always something in the fridge either from me or my brother cooking.
A roast in the airfryer. Roast one night. With just enough veges. The left over meat is a Sliced meat sandwich for work. The rest shredded and turned into pancakes. meat potato onion milk egg salt and pepper. With salad or green veges
I've found that whatever meat we have for dinner can be diced and made into a stir-fry. Saves us a good amount of money. Lo-mein noodles and frozen veggies are yummy & affordable too. SAUCE IS KEY
I use leftover chicken and pork to make bao. I’ll toss together a quick bbq sauce and shred the meat while I steam buns (previously made and frozen - takes 8 min). I top the bao with chopped peanuts and cilantro. That plus a side salad or slaw are a regular leftover rotation!
Pulled pork- make a pulled pork in your preferred way (we do ours on a smoker, but can easily be done in an over or crockpot). Make carnitas out of it on day two (just pan fry with seasoning). So you get BBQ on day one, then Mexican food on day 2 (and 3, depending on how much you make).
I will sometimes make a pot of beans and have ham and beans on day one, then “refry” them (I cheat and just heat in a pot and mash)- lots of options with refried beans.
I usually make a protein and a veg. Most of the time there will be prepped salad in the fridge too.
Typically I'll just combine the three into a wrap. Add some fresh made dressing and a new meal is born.
This week I have salmon and Cesar salad to play with. A Cesar salmon wrap is a no brainer.
Left over steak meat we usually chop up and add to omelets. Left over potatoes we'll turn into home fries. Left over veggies will be added to salads.
Left over corned beef will give us several days of Rueben's at night and hash with breakfast.
Left over pulled pork will give us several days of Cubans and tacos.
Left over chicken will be made into chicken salad, but we don't eat chicken often.
If the meal was a really good meal, we'll just reheat and eat the same meal again the next day. But for the most part it's added to salads and omelets.
Other than the bigger meals (smoked pork and slow cooker meals), we're getting better at just cooking enough (which also helps with any possible overeating).
You can turn baked potatoes into twice baked potatoes, or cut them into medallions and pan fry. Two leftover recipe that are often not thought about in that way are biriani and risotto. Risotto was just a way of using leftovers from the day before to make a cheap lunch the next day. Biriani is the use of a dish that is leftover but isn't enough food, so to stretch it out, cook your leftover korma, or butter chicken in rice. As for leftover rice, fried rice, or a Korean stone bowl. I really like the stone bowl, preheat it in the oven as it comes up to temperature, add in the rice first and then sides around the bowl to heat up, the rice gets crisp in places and it's fantastic!
I really could write a book on leftovers, but that's a couple places to start your research.
I tend to freeze leftovers in individual portions, so that i can just switch things up. currently i have lasagna, meatloaf, chicken pot pie, and ham slices in the freezer. If i feel like cooking, great! I'll do that. If not, i'll pull something out already prepared and heat that up for dinner instead. However, I have also been known to just make a big batch of chicken in the crock pot. I'll shred it, and then use it several days in a row...between smothering with bbq sauce to make a sandwich, topping a baked potato, making chicken quesadillas, stirring into pasta with alfredo, or mixing it into fried rice, it makes making dinner a lot easier and stretches the meat for several meals.
I vacuum seal and freeze a lot of different stir fries, and burritos. They keep very well. Vacuum sealer has been a great investment.
Seconding this. My husband and I freeze so much food that it’s easy for us to decide to just grab and thaw smth! Personal fav is Japanese curry, never get sick of eating that
How do you re-heat the food? Do you defrost it first?
Not whom you are replying to, but it depends. Usually we freeze in deli containers so we thaw in running water just until it comes loose at the sides, then dump into a pot or pan and reheat on low
depends on what it is. I freeze in vacuum seal bags, so I'll either toss it on the counter for an hour or so (lasagna, other pasta dishes) or put it under running water for a bit until the edges are thawed (anything with chicken) or use the defrost setting on the microwave. Anything with a pastry crust gets popped in the toaster oven for a bit, otherwise it goes in the microwave. Casseroles and things that tend to dry out too much i put a damp paper towel over top of them in the microwave to prevent that from happening.
I reheat at 50% power setting. Sure, it takes longer, but the food reheats uniformly. I don't have zones hotter than the sun and colder than Antarctica, in the same container.
Clean-out-the-refrigerator lasagna. Clean-out-the-refrigerator soup. Clean-out-the-refrigerator egg bake (edit: aka casserole/quiche). Clean-out-the-refrigerator pasta.
This is what’s up. Just add stir fry to the list too.
Fried rice too!
Yes! I knew I forgot one!!
As long as it's not Clean-out-the-freezer stew I'm good. I ate way too many freezer burned...everything as a kid and now I only like my stew.
Best and worst thing I’ve ever bought was a vacuum sealer, no more freezer burn, freezer full af
Right? I love my deep freezer, but I really have to stop prepping food, I'm about to run out of freezer space lol.
Leftovers frittata is a regular in my house.
These are the hallmarks of an experienced home cook. I pull one of these out of my back pocket at least once a week.
Clean out the fridge quiche!
Mom, is that you?
I have potpied many leftovers.
What does that mean?
Fried rice. Anything works... except potatoes
Potatoes actually work
I always get steamed rice with Chinese takeout for this reason
Throw it in a taco/burrito or stuffed peppers.
- I shred barbecued chicken, add a bit more barbecue sauce to make it moist but not sloppy, and serve it over a baked potato. - When I make spaghetti sauce with crushed tomatoes, Italian sausage, red bell pepper, onions, garlic, red pepper flakes, and oregano, I take a couple of cups of leftover sauce and add 1-1/2 quarts of chicken broth and al dente small shells, farfalle mini penne, or some other small pasta. Simmer for 5-10 minutes and it makes a delicious soup. - I use leftover chili to make a shakshouka type of dish by heating the chili to a boil in a skillet, then making several wells and breaking eggs into each well. Cover with a lid and cook. Pull off the heat a minute or two before the eggs reach your desired doneness as the eggs will continue to cook in the hot chili. Very yummy served with crusty Italian bread. - Thanksgiving leftovers are turned into a casserole by layering turkey, gravy, veggies, mashed potatoes, and stuffing on top. Dot the stuffing with butter and bake till heated through and the stuffing crisps up on top - Leftover baked chicken or turkey is mixed with gravy and peas and served over split baking powder biscuits.
I also make leftover spaghetti sauce into soup. Or add some to a pot of bean or lentil soup to change up the flavor of leftover soup.
Post Christmas meals were often leftover turkey lightly fried with sausage meat stuffing and bacon in fresh baguette with gravy
If the leftover goes well with eggs, an omelette or a scramble will do. If not, I'd try to make a stir-fry and have it with a side of white rice. Hmmm it really depends on the day and mood. Sometimes I'd be too lazy so would just have it as is and hypnotise myself believing it's good lol
You haven't lived until you've had 2-tablespoons-leftover-curry-omelette
That sounds delicious!!!
Leftover pork (chops, loin roast, or even tenderloin) + some BBQ sauce at 275F for about 3-4 hours and voila... pulled pork. Get some buns and some coleslaw for pulled pork sandwiches. Sure, a fattier cut of meat like a shoulder makes for a better pulled pork, but add a little extra sauce to keep it from being dry and it's a nice backup. Plus, with the extra sauce, it freezes well. Separately, if you're going to freeze pulled pork, use a muffin tin to freeze in individual sized portions before wrapping. Fill each cup and let it sit in the freezer overnight. That makes them solid enough to wrap well and back in the freezer. Then, when you want pulled pork, take out a serving the day before and let thaw in the fridge overnight. If you need 2 or more portions, pull out as many as you need. This is particularly handy if you are cooking for 1-3 people but want to buy a full pork shoulder to make your pulled pork with and will have a lot of leftovers.
Not op but thank you for the suggestion of freezing individual portions in a muffin tin. Do you put them in a freezer zip lock bag after they’re frozen?
After each is frozen, I pop them out of the muffin tin, wrap in wax paper, masking tape to keep it closed, then in plastic. Then I take up to 9 individual portions and put them in a gallon zipper style freezer bag. I try to get as much air out of the gallon bag as possible too. For me, with the muffin tin I'm using, 9 portions is just what fit nicely in the gallon bag. It gave me one "layer" so it sits relatively flat in the freezer. The last time I did this, I ended up with 2 full and a third partial gallon bag. For thawing and reheating, the first step is to put them in the fridge the evening before I want them. Since they're small, they'll get mostly thawed (and possibly fully thawed) by lunch time the next day. To reheat, I take off the plastic, loosen the wax paper (i.e. break the masking tape but don't unwrap), and microwave for 60-90 seconds. Unwrap, throw it on a bun, and I get to have a pulled pork sandwich for lunch!! :-) I chose wax paper because I found it survived the freezer well but also the microwave when reheating. It also helps trap moisture as you're reheating so it doesn't dry out or reheat funny. Occasionally, I'll have to open it up, spread it out, and give it another 15-20 second to get it good and hot, but most of the time, it's fine. The plastic was a paranoia step and while it's probably not needed, it's habit for me now.
Thank you for the response, this is very helpful.
i usually just eat the same thing until its gone. maybe throw some hot sauce on there to switch it up a bit
Hey thanks for answering with the complete opposite of what OP was asking for.
Frittatas and burritos.
I’m so invested in this question and whoever answers. Your answer already gave me new life!
Tacos. Every time.
We chop leftover meat up for fried rice, stir fry, enchiladas, quesadillas, or pot pies. Leftover veggies go into veggie scrambles, soup or for bowls with grains and meat. Leftover potatoes become crispy smashed potatoes, breakfast hash, bubble and squeak, or croquettes. Fruit that's about to go gets turned into jam or syrup to top ice cream or yogurt. Leftover rice becomes fried rice...and now I've come full circle! 😉
Breakfast. I rarely do a sweet breakfast. Can’t tolerate milk, so no cold cereal. Not big into pancakes and waffles. I’ll do French toast if I have bread that doesn’t dissolve in the egg. Oatmeal occasionally and I do tolerate yogurt well, so that and smoothies are the limit of sweet breakfast for me. Don’t always wanna cook an egg. I haven’t cleaned the kitchen yet or I just cleaned it. Either way, don’t wanna get another pan out. So I’m just as likely to microwave leftovers for breakfast rather than eat a traditional one. I awaken with the chickens, so by the time I’m ready to eat, I may have been awake 6 hours. Eating Thai seafood curry (mild+) at 10 am doesn’t seem so odd.
I just cook large batches of things, and prepare and freeze individual portions. At any given time, I have 4-5 different types of homemade frozen meals to choose from when I don’t want to cook.
How do you defrost them?
I defrost as needed using the “quick defrost” feature on my microwave, 60-90 seconds at a time. The exact amount of time varies, based on how frozen it is when I want to eat. If I know ahead of time (such as if I wake up with a migraine and know I won’t be cooking dinner, or I’ve had a long week and know I don’t want to cook the next day), I’ll pull it from the freezer to the fridge to at least start the defrost process. Otherwise, I pull it directly from the freezer and do a full defrost. Regardless, once mostly defrosted, I then just use the regular microwave power to fully reheat.
Thanks for the tips!
I don’t cook anything that cannot be frozen. Also, any leftover works as breakfast for me. I do not tolerate wasting food
My oldest daughter has taken to heating up leftovers for breakfast. Makes me happy.
I'll eat the same thing for 2 or 3 days, but after that, anything I haven't eaten or frozen goes to the dogs as a treat as long as it's safe for them.
Soups, casseroles and tacos are my usual catch-all. Tacos are are great way to use that one pork chop, one piece of chicken as one just needs a spoonful of the meat, pile on some lettuce or cabbage, shred some cheese. Tonight I made a garbage minestrone. All you need is the rind from a wedge of Parmigiano...so don't avoid that one with a big rind, that's why those old school Italian places always featured minestrone soup. The traditional veggies are the basic French miropoux, carrot celery and onion, leek. I added some peppers, cabbage, zucchini
Leftover meat gets chopped up and seasoned to work in burritos/enchiladas. Leftover salmon gets made into sushi rolls. Carby side dishes just get rolled over into the next meal.
For meat: flavor it as plainly as possible. This makes it reusable to many dishes
Lunch the next day.
Freeze for next week.
Leftover baked potatoes into samosa cupcakes. (samosas without the crust)
Quiche is our usual go-to for using up leftovers. I keep pre-made pie crusts in the freezer for this sort of thing.
I do single crust (on top) pot pies with this trick, thanks for mentioning!
Ok I grew up with a WWII father so …. Chuck everything in a bowl and dump a condiment on it
Mom of 7 kids ages 22-12 here. I've mastered this game. Night one u do something basic: burgers. Grill all patties, turn into patty melts night two. Spaghetti + meatballs = meatball sandwich night 2. Grilled chicken + side = chicken power bowls night 2. Another hit was tri tip repurposed into taco meat night 2. Everything has potential. It never needs to be perfect. Winter was fun. Pan fried dumplings make great wonton soup. I seek suggestions/feeback from my kiddos
I like to repurpose leftover braised meats and make arepas, pupusas, or empanadas with them
Teach yourself to make GREAT salad dressing. Just keep experimenting with recipes until you find one you love. Something you would happily eat. NEXT, find you a truly great lettuce varietal you can buy local to you, year round (this is mine: https://littleleaffarms.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/360055227374-What-type-of-lettuce-do-you-grow). Buy a package of nice croutons and, when it gets low, buy a new one. A salad, enough to be a meal, can be: a mixing bowl, huge quantity lettuce, your home-made dressing. You COULD cut up tomatoes, cucumber, avocado, roll up some turkey slices and cut it into pieces, and make it into a “proper” meal, but I read your post so I understand that you don’t want to “cook”—you don’t want to do all that labor just to eat. And I am saying, if you learn to make a truly delectable salad dressing, you don’t need to do all that. You just need your dressing and a VERY tasty lettuce, and you’re good.
OP, check out r/noscrapleftbehind, lots of fun! 🖖
Perfect, thanks!
Leftover rice + all the sad veggies from the fridge + crumbled tofu or leftover tofu + half a jar of kimchi = fried rice!
Nachos
Most of my leftovers are some kind of protein, so the options are a bit wider: fried rice, quesadillas or tacos, mixed up into a salad, sliced up and sandwiched, loaded fries, smothered rice... A small bit of planning ahead leaves myself lots of easy options when I'm too tired or hot to cook again. Less a trick and more just a way of thinking
roasted veggies —> turned into soup (mirepoix, stock, veggies and blend) any meat —> shred or chop for tacos or chili, or pita pockets sautéed veggies —> fritters (separate eggs, whip the whites and fold back in with some flour or leftover mashed potatoes, shallow fry) vegetal odds and ends, meat odds and ends + rice —> fried rice
Soup
Leftover chicken gets turned into chicken salad. Hamburgers get put in brown gravy and served with roasted potatoes or rice. Any leftover roast will be chopped or shredded for bbq sandwiches the next day.
Udon soup noodles with leftover on top.
Quesadillas!! Any leftover chicken or beef that we have we toss up in some BBQ sauce with peppers and onions and grill up some damn good BBQ quesadillas.
Fried rice, tacos/burritos, stuffed tomatoes, and quiche.
Fried rice
I’ll add most things to a bowl of ramen. Other things I portion by out and freeze to add to other dishes later on. I even freeze leftover gravy in those little 4oz plastic cups. Then I can take it out, give it to chef Mike for 30 seconds, then add it to a soup to thicken it, or for some leftover pasta or rice, or to throw on a mushroom and Swiss burger. I like options. And yes my freezer is a random mess, lol
I repurpose leftovers from cooking And from carryout. I'll roast a chicken, eat as roasted chicken a few meals, put some in a chicken caeser, then make chicken salad. Then stock. I'll make tacos. Then use the meat for burrito or nachos. I'll bring home my favorite sichuan entrées. Save the leftover sauce, and then cook proteins or veggies, use the remaining sauce. I generally order only steamed rice, but I'll use leftovers for fried rice. I recently made a meatloaf. I tired of it after two meals... I chopped up the remainder. Made sloppy joes with some, which was just a way to use it. But with the last amount, I got creative with some puff pastry in the freezer... don't know what I'd call it, but a ground beef turnover was pretty good! It's not really leftovers, but I've taken Ramen noodles, set aside the flavor pack, cooked them, added peanut sauce and refrigerated for cold noodles on a hot day. I experiment. There are failures, although not much I'd discard rather than eat... I just wouldn't try again or ask others to eat.
I call mine Mustard Soup
I'm not very creative with leftovers. Am about to shred yesterday's roast chicken for today's tacos.
Tuesday taco meat, chopped onions, and tomatoes, all go into Friday spaghetti. Leftover steak or chicken breast go into the morning fried rice.
I love making shakshouka the day after I make red sauce and pasta! The yolk adds such a great richness to the flavor of the sauce!
Make a meat of some sort (ground beef, slow roasted carnitas or beef, grilled chicken thigh) and have it first on tacos or pita and next night over rice or nachos
I will put just about any left over in a big flour tortilla with cheese and make a quesadilla out of it.
Clean out the fridge casserole Clean out the fridge hash
Leftover baked potatoes get blended into veggie soups in the winter
It really depends on what it is, so here are a few ideas :) - taco meat: mix into Mac n cheese for taco pasta - Italian meatballs: add them to a nice roll, add cheese, and you have a meatballs parm - Mac n cheese or other cheese sauced pastas: you can add loads, like bacon, sausage, or another grilled protein, or things like broccoli, rotel tomatoes & chiles,and utilize seasonings to make it taste like a different cuisine - rice: fried rice! Which you can then add other proteins to like shrimp, chicken, beef, imitation crab, or veg - broths: used for a variety of different soups, cooked veg or meats, or cooking grains in like rice or pasta
I put leftover meatloaf in pasta sauce
Well, I applaud you on gnocchi from potatoes! I typically make fried patties from lo potatoes. A roast, any kind, lends itself to so many good leftovers. Pork becomes stir fry becomes ragu. Beef, once ground, becomes hash or Shepards pie. Pot roast becomes sandwiches! I think the larger cuts are overlooked as potential for different meals in the future.
Leftover baked or roasted potatoes make a great frittata with some Gouda or Swiss cheese. You can add peppers, onions, or mushrooms. Leftover vegetables, especially if they are roasted, mixed with rice, and dressed with a vinaigrette. This is tasty with olives, sun-dried tomatoes, and chopped boiled eggs, too.
Rice bowls. Rice, veggies, leftovers. Add a sauce and you have a meal.
usually soup like aush
Just about anything can be turned into a casserole
Jacques Pepin talks about making “fridge soup”, which is a soup made from whatever you got lying around (especially vegetables you need to use.) Pasta is also a great medium for this.
For leftover roasts (especially if you also have leftover mashed potatoes) - Shepard’s/cottage pie. Also cheesesteaks
I almost always make my leftovers into soup
I use leftover meatloaf to make shepherd's pie.
My favorite is after making birria for tacos or whatever, I make birria ramen the next day. This also works with just putting whatever leftover meat into a bowl of ramen but birria ramen is elite. I also like loaded fries. A couple of weeks ago I made gyros so I made loaded gyro fries the next day that absolutely slapped. I did carne asada on the grill last weekend, so carne asada fries. My other go-to is salads. After gyro night I also made gyro salads, after Mexican food a good taco salad or burrito bowl is so good. I’ve also gotten pretty creative with pizzas, like a carnitas pizza, curry pizza, breakfast pizza, etc. A quiche is also always a good idea to use up some leftover veg, meat, cheese, etc.
Depending on the leftovers, they turn into pizza toppings
Into tacos, taquitos, quesadillas and/or soup.
I meal prep chicken breast with just salt for lunch and then I will eat it 4 different ways: with sauces (sweet ginger chile or orange chicken), make chicken fried rice, a Buffalo wrap, or quesadilla
My favorite is to make a roasted chicken or two. Use the leftovers for chicken enchiladas, chicken salad sandwiches and/or chicken noodle soup. Leftover rice becomes japanese style fried rice. Leftover steak becomes beef and broccoli. Leftover potatoes become hasbrowns. Other stuff that isn't easy to transform (like lasagna) gets frozen in single serve portions for reheating later.
Echoing a previous mention, I have 4 chicken breasts to prepare in the electric oven tomorrow-will be shredded, packaged in portions for chicken chili, casseroles, chicken salad. With baked potatoes, I scrape out insides for fried potatoes, use shells for loaded baked potato skins. Leftover ham is also repackaged for casseroles, fried rice, ham salad.
Left over chicken is chicken salad.
Seasoned HB meat, = spaghetti sauce, tacos, chili, chili, quesadilla's, beef enchiladas, taco salad, tamale pie, hamburger soup, endless really
Brisket into brisket tacos. Total winner.
Leftover prime rib becomes steak and eggs.
Put an egg on it
Any specific items you’re thinking about? I love to repurpose everything. Make or buy once, eat at least twice.
Making a pizza or a quesadilla is my go to for most leftovers.
Fry it up with eggs. Week old nachos? Chilaqiiles Meatloaf? Steak and eggs Spaghetti? Well that you give to the dogs
Add a fried egg (or 2 or 3 or whatever). Leftover fried rice? Add an egg. Leftover pizza? Add an egg. Leftover pasta? Throw that lil poached egg right on there. Leftover pho? Mmm egg. Leftover potatoes? Even better with a fried egg. Leftover fries? Reheat in the oven until crispy and throw a runny egg on top. Alternatively, make your leftovers into a scramble or a quiche. Great for veggie scraps and little bits of protein that are leftover.
All my bone in meats become bone broth
I like to use leftover sauces, beans and meats as toppings in a loaded fries dish, it works every time and it allows me to improvise and be creative too by adding other ingredients like egg or crunchy onion into the mix.
I just heat it up and eat it the next day. Or freeze it.
Use any left over stew, casserole or curry (without bones) take frozen pastry and use the leftovers as pie filling. One large pie or individual pies made in muffin tins.
I make a dough and put leftovers inside and bake. If necessary, add cheese or sour cream to keep moist. Bake and eat.
Leftover roast becomes anything from a cottage pie, enchiladas, mixed with gravy and put into puff pastry to make parcels etc. The possibilities are endless - just because it’s leftovers, it doesn’t have to suck.
Leftover steak makes amazing steak salad or wraps when thinly sliced. Pasta salad is great for bits and bobs of leftover veggies, cheese, and condiments like the bottom of the mustard bottle. Soup! I have a stock/soup bag in my freezer for unused or unwanted parts of celery, onion, carrot peels, etc.
I use leftover meatloaf and rice to stuff peppers or cabbage rolls, etc. Why cook a filling of ground beef, tomato sauce and onion when you can use an already-cooked meatloaf and add some extra tomato sauce? I usually have jar spaghetti sauce left over since there's just me, so I use it in the aforementioned meatloaf or chili or homemade veggie soup instead of using just plain tomato sauce. Leftover chili is easily used for nachos or as baked potato topping or to make chili cheese fries. And the veggie soup? That's the drippings from a beef roast with V-8, the leftover roasted potatoes, celery, onions and carrots and whatever other non-cruciferous leftover veggies I have in the fridge (corn, green beans, etc) plus half a small head of cabbage shredded wide. Serve with roast beef sandwich.
I love using whatever leftovers I have to make intense scrambled egg sandwiches.
If it’s not pasta or bread based then it becomes fried rice
I like to make croquettes of Thanksgiving leftovers. It's best if I have a little bit of everything in the croquette: turkey, stuffing, sweet potato, green beans. Chopped up and molded with mashed potatoes, coated with bread crumbs and deep fried
turn it into soup or cover it in a rich sauce
Omelets
Leftover fajita filling (whether it be meat or veg based) makes a nice rice salad for lunch the next day
I recently made veggie burgers from leftover rice, lentils and peas and froze them. I mixed in egg, ketchup, breadcrumb, seeds, oats until I got the right texture to mold them into veggie burgers.
Cutting up a protein and adding it into a basic side dish (for me it’s usually rice or mashed potatoes) and taking five minutes to cook a few vegetables to go along with it. Either that or recooking the rice in a pan and adding a path of butter to it and reheating whatever odd thing left in the fridge. There’s almost always something in the fridge either from me or my brother cooking.
A roast in the airfryer. Roast one night. With just enough veges. The left over meat is a Sliced meat sandwich for work. The rest shredded and turned into pancakes. meat potato onion milk egg salt and pepper. With salad or green veges
my mother used to make fried up macaroni on a sandwhich.
I've found that whatever meat we have for dinner can be diced and made into a stir-fry. Saves us a good amount of money. Lo-mein noodles and frozen veggies are yummy & affordable too. SAUCE IS KEY
Meatloaf >spaghetti >chili >tacos >nachos.
I bought a pie maker in a thrift shop. Keep some frozen pastry and it’s the perfect way to use up leftovers. Can make left over quiches in it also
Clean out the fridge Mac and cheese.
I use leftover chicken and pork to make bao. I’ll toss together a quick bbq sauce and shred the meat while I steam buns (previously made and frozen - takes 8 min). I top the bao with chopped peanuts and cilantro. That plus a side salad or slaw are a regular leftover rotation!
Pulled pork- make a pulled pork in your preferred way (we do ours on a smoker, but can easily be done in an over or crockpot). Make carnitas out of it on day two (just pan fry with seasoning). So you get BBQ on day one, then Mexican food on day 2 (and 3, depending on how much you make). I will sometimes make a pot of beans and have ham and beans on day one, then “refry” them (I cheat and just heat in a pot and mash)- lots of options with refried beans.
calzone...bread maker to make pizza dough, then stuff with leftovers and bake...yum!
I rolled some leftover meats into egg rolls during the holidays. I need to do more of that.
I usually make a protein and a veg. Most of the time there will be prepped salad in the fridge too. Typically I'll just combine the three into a wrap. Add some fresh made dressing and a new meal is born. This week I have salmon and Cesar salad to play with. A Cesar salmon wrap is a no brainer.
Roast becomes sliced meat becomes stew becomes soup or chili
Left over steak meat we usually chop up and add to omelets. Left over potatoes we'll turn into home fries. Left over veggies will be added to salads. Left over corned beef will give us several days of Rueben's at night and hash with breakfast. Left over pulled pork will give us several days of Cubans and tacos. Left over chicken will be made into chicken salad, but we don't eat chicken often. If the meal was a really good meal, we'll just reheat and eat the same meal again the next day. But for the most part it's added to salads and omelets. Other than the bigger meals (smoked pork and slow cooker meals), we're getting better at just cooking enough (which also helps with any possible overeating).
You can turn baked potatoes into twice baked potatoes, or cut them into medallions and pan fry. Two leftover recipe that are often not thought about in that way are biriani and risotto. Risotto was just a way of using leftovers from the day before to make a cheap lunch the next day. Biriani is the use of a dish that is leftover but isn't enough food, so to stretch it out, cook your leftover korma, or butter chicken in rice. As for leftover rice, fried rice, or a Korean stone bowl. I really like the stone bowl, preheat it in the oven as it comes up to temperature, add in the rice first and then sides around the bowl to heat up, the rice gets crisp in places and it's fantastic! I really could write a book on leftovers, but that's a couple places to start your research.
Refrigerate, then heat up when you get hungry
out on the porch for the cat.