Salvaging Leftover Food Creatively

Having leftover food is, a lot of times, simply unavoidable.  An illness may have caused loss of appetite.  An unexpected overtime at work may have left you too time-pressed to even reheat foods and all you could do is to eat out.  Overestimation for a party is also an all-too-common reason for leftover food, as is overzealousness in shopping.

So that leftovers could have destinations other than the garbage bin, it makes sense to arm oneself with ideas and recipes for using up leftover food in such a way as to not only make them edible but palatable as well.

Reheat with a twist.

The idea is to not just reheat but to reheat and tweak at the same time.  The goal is to make a slightly new taste, texture, color or consistency.  A case in point is when you have way too much mashed potatoes after a holiday meal and you either add in bacon strips, a dash of dried herb or more cheese.

Freeze for the future.

When your leftover food is causing you taste fatigue, seal the dish up in a plastic bag and deep-freeze for later use.  The following week or two, when you’re hit with a craving for the dish, simply remove from the ref, reheat and relish.

Make sandwiches.

Leftover meaty dishes need not go to waste.  Chop them up and throw into your sandwich filling.  Depending on how the meat was prepared—whether steak, grilled, baked, fried or stewed—meats are still delicious additions to the usual fare of sandwich greens and dressings.

Use to extend other dishes.

Leftover vegetables can be tossed last into your stir-fried veggies.  Leftover ham or meat can increase the meaty portion of your vegetable stir-fries.  There is still hope for freezer-toughened meats as they can regain their meaty tender selves when dropped into soups and stews.

Make into entirely new dishes.

It takes some creative thought to transform leftover food into entirely new dishes which do not bear any semblance at all to the original dish.  For instance, you can fry mashed potato into fritters or bake into pancakes.