Repurposing Leftovers

Repurposing leftovers is a great way to use food that might only make it from the fridge to the trash can. It can save on extra cooking too!

Last week I talked about cutting down on food waste. This week, I thought I’d get specific on some ways I repurpose leftovers.

REPURPOSING LEFTOVERS TO MAKE SOMETHING COMPLETELY NEW

Making Soup or Salad

Since we’ve got all of this yummy bone broth and stock in our freezer now, making soup with leftovers is easy. If you have some leftover roast chicken, a beef roast, even shrimp, you can make a quick soup. Start with some base veggies. Most people make a mirepoix: onions, carrots, celery and sweat them in a pot, add your broth and meat and cook through. Toss in some beans you have prepped in the freezer to make it a little more hearty if you need to.

In the summer, we eat a ton of salad. My children are pretty stuck in their ways with what they put on their salads. Hubby and I are not. We’ll go through the fridge and pull out all the mason jars I have in there and build a great meal. Many times we’ll have as many toppings as we do lettuce. There’s no food waste and everybody gets what they want.

Topping A Pizza

We make homemade sourdough pizza every Friday night. I’ll have that recipe up soon too, I promise. Taking a couple slices of Canadian bacon, a little leftover breakfast sausage and some cheese I previously shredded earlier in the week can make for a great pizza. You can use some shredded chicken, hot sauce and a couple of spoonfuls of ranch dressing and make a buffalo chicken pizza. It’s just up to what’s in your fridge.

Egg Muffins

I made these for breakfast today. I had two slices of bacon, 1/4 of bell pepper, a little sliced beef, a little jar of chopped onions, and shredded cheese from dinner last night. After chopping everything up and adding a dozen eggs we had some yummy egg muffins! Easy, quick breakfast. Zero food waste.

Stir Fry

Can’t get any easier than a stir-fry! It’s one of those meals you make when you don’t actually want to make dinner. Throw some rice in the instant pot or cook up some noodles. Make a quick sauce and toss your meat and veggies in a hot skillet. Dinner is ready in a few minutes.

Homemade Hot Pockets

This is one of those monthly meal prep ideas I use. I’ll get this recipe up soon too. Essentially, you buy or make some pie crust and make homemade hot pockets. Fill them with leftover taco filling, sloppy joe filling, sliced meat, whatever you have that’s already a “mixed” food that works for sandwich fillings.

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