Family Budget

Family Budget Tips - What do you do with Leftovers?

If your are like me and don';t like to waste food, then what do you do with those slices of roast turkey or steaks from last night's grill? You can store them in the refrigerator and then throw out the leftovers when the mould starts growing. If you live by 'waste-not, want-not' then these suggestions may help use up your leftovers and cut your budget!

Leftover Roast Meat

Chop up finely and make into fritters, add an egg white, enough milk to make mixture spreadable with some finely chopped onion and some all purpose flour to hold mixture together. Alternatively, use meat in either a curry or add a can of soup and frozen vegetables for a quick easy dinner.

Leftover Baked Vegetables

Cut into large chunks, add to a salad for a roast vegetables salad or combine with cous cous and salad dressing for a tasty salad.

Leftover Barbeque Meat

Slice steak thinly, then in a small pan, fry some onion and mushrooms together, add a little barbeque sauce then fold in the sliced steak and combine. When meat is hot place between 2 slices of bread or in a bun or for leftover sausages, slice them and place into an onion gravy and serve with mashed potato and vegetables.

Leftover Mashed Potato

This can be used to make salmon rissoles. Add a can of drained pink salmon, add sliced green onions and a little lemon juice. Panfry until browned on both sides.

Leftover Barbeque Chicken

You know that no-one is going to eat it because the best bits have been eaten, so use leftovers in a curry or mix with a can of chicken soup, add some vegetables, chopped onion and a little dried tarragon. Serve with either 2-minute noodles or rice.

Raw Ground Beef

What do you do with a handful of left over raw ground beef that was not needed for a recipe? Make into a patty and have it for lunch with salad. Alternatively, pan fry raw beef with some diced tomato, onion and tomato paste, a little water and a sprinkle of dried basil and you have the start to tacos, nachos or spaghetti bolognaise for one.

Bolognaise, Curry or Stew

Often you will have a small serve of bolognaise, curry or stew leftover so stuff in a jacket potato the next day for lunch or an easy dinner.

Freezing Leftovers

You know that freezing leftovers is another option. Just make sure you write on the container what it is and the date frozen so you know what you are defrosting.

Pasta and Rice

Do you always have too much rice or pasta at the end of a meal and never know what to do with it? Either it gets put into your pets meal or put into the fridge hoping that it will be used later only to be thrown out weeks later. Here are some tips that may help use up your leftovers -

Left over pasta can be used to make a delicious pasta salad. Use low fat mayonnaise and any vegetables you have such as carrot, onion, corn, peas, green beans, mushrooms or bell peppers. Alternatively, throw a can of tuna into the pasta and make a tuna pasta bake. Add a couple of eggs, low-fat shredded cheese and vegetables such as the veggies I had previously mentioned to go with the pasta salad and add a can of creamed corn if you have one handy.

Extra boiled rice can be made into either fried rice or a rice salad, which would be similar to the pasta salad above. You can also make tuna/salmon rice patties, just add an egg and grated vegetables and all purpose flour to hold the mixture together. If you make some home made soup then use the left over cooked rice in the soup or sprinkle a little sugar and nutmeg over cooked rice, add milk for a quick dessert.

Leftover Butternut Squash

While we're on the topic of soup, if you have butternut squash left over, boil some carrot and onion with bouillon granules. When these are cooked, add in the cooked squash, add a pinch of nutmeg and you have some delicious homemade soup.

Leftover Chicken

Left over chicken can be diced and mixed with low fat mayonnaise. Toss in some finely diced salad ingredients such as bell peppers, green onions, celery and tomato to make a delicious sandwich filling. You can also add some curry powder to the mayonnaise and have curried chicken and lettuce sandwiches. I also think left over chicken can be made into an easy meal by adding a couple of sachets of cream of chicken cup-a-soup, some creamed corn, mushrooms and onion and a little bouillon – yum! Add tarragon for a little extra flavour.

Stale Bread

If bread has gone stale then use as breadcrumbs by placing on a flat baking tray, bake in the oven until browned and dry. Once cooled place into a food processor until finely crumbled. You can also make croutons, which can be stored into a well-sealed container to go with Caesar salad or sprinkle over soup.