16 Ways to Get Creative with Leftovers

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“Leftovers… again?” Are you sick of whiny voices dissenting from your dinner decisions? Don’t get me wrong: I like leftovers, most of the time. I think of them as “free” dinners or lunches in my weekly meal plan!

But nobody wants to eat the same thing for a week straight. Transforming your leftovers into a different dish can be quite simple, and it can really liven up your leftover chicken and rice, or whatever you happen to have around. Here are 15 creative ideas to get you started!

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Salads

• Mix leftover cooked fish, poultry, or ham with mayonnaise (or plain yogurt), chopped vegetables, and seasonings, and you have a delicious salad to serve over greens or on a bun.
• Add leftover pasta, and you have pasta salad.
• Leftover ground beef plus taco seasoning, cheese, tomatoes or salsa, lettuce, and tortilla chips becomes taco salad.
• You can make a different kind of salad with cooked quinoa or rice, vegetables, and meat if desired.
• Leftover grilled meat or fish-hot or cold-served atop a bed of fresh greens makes a filling lunch or dinner. Add some fruit and cheese or marinated veggies and a vinaigrette, and you have a fancy dish indeed!

Sandwiches

Sandwiches are well suited to using up leftovers because each one requires only a small amount of ingredients. Toasting bread for hot sandwiches also rescues day-old bread from going stale.

Hot sandwiches from leftovers:

• meatballs, pasta sauce, and mozzarella
• pot roast with gravy; roasted vegetables and cheese
• fried eggs on a toasted bagel
• mini pizzas: bread, bagels, or tortillas topped with sauce, cheese, and pepperoni
• BLT if you have a few slices of bacon lying around
• Got a hot dog or sausage? Top it with that little bit of chili, baked beans, or coleslaw from last night’s supper.

Cold Sandwiches from leftovers:

• cheese, lettuce, and mustard
• cold roast chicken, lettuce, and butter or mayonnaise
• roasted beets, sauerkraut, greens, and mustard

Quiche

Quiches can be dainty and elegant, or down to earth. Fill a traditional pastry shell with eggs, milk, and whatever combination of protein, vegetables, and herbs you have on hand!

The beauty of quiches is that a little bit of cooked fish or meat goes a long way: I made a lovely quiche the other day with about half a cup of flaked smoked salmon, some sauteed onion, and herbs to taste.

Vegetable quiches are also nice; a bit of cheese on top adds extra flavor. For a heartier version, you can make a crust out of leftover cooked rice or other grains. Make sure you butter the pan well for this kind of crust, as it is decidedly stickier than pastry.

Breakfast Strata

My mother makes a strata, or “egg bake” as we always called it, nearly every week. She uses leftover cooked broccoli, green beans, potatoes, greens, stale bread, and sometimes ham or bacon.

These are quite simple to make, even though they look fancy.

• Butter a casserole dish or baking pan.
• Place a layer of bread cubes in the bottom, then a layer of vegetables, then a layer of meat or other protein if desired.
• Whisk together some eggs (10-12 for a 13×9″ pan) and a half cup or so of milk.
• Season with salt, pepper, and herbs; pour over the vegetables and bread.
• Top with shredded cheese.
• Bake in a moderate (350-degree) oven until the center tests done (45-55 minutes for a 13×9″ pan). That’s all there is to it!

Bread Pudding or Rice Pudding

Whenever I have part of a loaf of bread that’s getting old, I slice or cube it and pop it into the freezer. Then, when I’ve saved 4-5 cups of bread cubes, it’s time to make bread pudding!

You can use any type of bread: store-bought, homemade, baguette to whole grain to sourdough. A combination of different breads makes it more interesting!

All you need for a basic bread pudding is bread, milk, eggs, and a bit of butter and sugar. Spices are nice, and so is dried fruit.

My favorite recipe is from The Farm Journal Cookbook, but there are dozens of other wonderful recipes online and in old cookbooks.

Rice pudding is a very similar concept, and it makes a tasty breakfast treat as well as a protein-rich dessert. Stir in some cinnamon and raisins for an old-fashioned aroma and taste!

Stir Fry

Why is stir fry on this list, you ask? I’m not suggesting you throw leftover cooked carrots and broccoli in with your crisp, fresh bok choy and kale.

However, stir fry is a great dish to make when you have some fresh vegetables sitting around in your fridge that need to be eaten: cabbage, celery, pea pods, carrots, bell peppers, greens.

Maybe you needed half a cabbage for one meal, but don’t know what to do with the rest. Perhaps peppers were on sale and you loaded up, but inspiration never struck, and now they’re looking a little sad.

Throw them into a skillet with oil and some seasonings, make a fresh pot of rice, and you’ve just made a quick and fresh-tasting meal before those veggies go to waste!

Fried Rice or Noodles

Noodles and rice are two foods that commonly inhabit refrigerators as leftovers. Perhaps you made a pasta dish, but all the sauce got eaten and the pasta didn’t.

(Even if there is leftover sauce, you can still save pasta for this purpose. Just put any leftover sauce in a separate container, freeze it, and add it to soups later.)

Anyway, fry up some noodles or rice in butter or oil, throw in some cooked veggies, seasonings, and maybe some meat, and that leftover rice or noodles will start to smell appetizing in no time!

TIP: If you’re frying rice, throw in an egg or two at the end of the cooking time. It will help everything stick together.

Hand Pies or Calzones

At first glance, hand pies and calzones may seem like two very different meals. (They do to me, anyway.) One is Italian, and the other has been a Western European staple since medieval times. But they both involve a type of bread filled with various meats and vegetables, and baked.

Hand pies have short crust or pastry, and can be filled with anything from beef, pork, mushrooms, peas, and root vegetables with savory gravy to sweet fillings like apples or blueberries.

Calzones, on the other hand, are usually made from yeast-raised dough and filled with Italian-style meats, vegetables, cheeses, and sauces.

The fillings for both of these pocket pies are cooked before they are wrapped in a crust, so it’s a good place to put leftovers!

If you served sausages with bell peppers and onions last night and have some left over, make calzones! If you’re left with a bowlful of stew, make hand pies!

Pizza

Even if you’re a staunch pepperoni fan, pizzas can be topped with just about anything. Pizzas generally use fresh ingredients, so this is a good option if you need to use fresh vegetables before they wilt, or if you’re left with half a jar of some specialty ingredient in your refrigerator and can’t think how to use it.

Gourmet pizza varieties abound:

• arugula, olives, and goat cheese
• leftover potatoes au gratin? Top your pizza with those potato slices, crumbled bacon, cheddar, and a base of Ranch dressing! (That one is an Idahoan specialty. It’s really very good!)
• crumbled hamburgers, pickles, cheese, and onions with special sauce
• the remains from taco night: taco meat, cheese, tomatoes, and taco sauce

Pizzas are also a great way to use that last bit of sauce from the bottle: pasta sauce, barbecue sauce, pesto, salad dressings, buffalo sauce, or honey mustard can all be used as pizza toppings!

Nachos or Quesadillas

This is my go-to lunch when I have a little taco meat or refried beans left over. If you have one lonely tortilla or the end of a bag of tortilla chips, you can make this! Melt some cheese on top, and you’ve made a tasty new meal with leftovers.

Quesadillas are even more flexible, because you can stuff them with more varied ingredients:

• meat and vegetables from fajitas
• beans and rice
• veggies and cheese
• or just plain cheese!

If you want to use unseasoned meats or vegetables, throw in some taco seasoning or chilies to keep that Southwestern flavor!

Hash

What is hash? Leftovers. Literally. You don’t make hash from fresh ingredients; you make it from what you had for dinner last night. Hash is fried cooked vegetables, sometimes with meat and/or eggs.

• Potatoes, bacon, mushrooms, and onions are a traditional combination. (There’s a great recipe in An Unexpected Cookbook: The Unofficial Book of Hobbit Cookery!)
• Leftover kielbasi, peppers, and potatoes? That works too.
• Or try a different flavor with yams or sweet potatoes as a base. Lauren from Delicious Little Bites adds bacon, maple syrup, and cinnamon for a sweet and savory treat!
• I grew up eating a hearty breakfast dish known as German Farmer’s Breakfast, which was basically leftover potatoes, bacon, and eggs all cooked together. You’re welcome to add eggs to any of the above combinations if that’s the way you like your hash!

Smoothies

While we’re on the subject of breakfast, let’s talk about smoothies. They’re not all just fresh fruit and ice! You can put all sorts of things in smoothies: any kind of milk or yogurt, nut butters, ground flax seeds, wheat germ, or nutritional yeast, and lots more.

As for fruits, they can be fresh, frozen, or canned. You can also throw in veggies and fresh herbs if you like. Green smoothies pack a lot of nutrients into your drink!

You can come up with your own combination of ingredients and make your drink exactly how you like it. However, there are also hundreds of great smoothie recipes out there if you’re intimidated by putting green things in a smoothie!

Pancakes

Pancakes don’t have to come from a mix. You’d be surprised at what you can put in a batch of pancakes: potatoes, applesauce, canned corn, oatmeal, even cooked pumpkin!

• Boxty on the Griddle is a pan-sized potato pancake topped with bacon. It’s a great use for leftover mashed potatoes! Again, my recipe is from An Unexpected Cookbook.
• You can also make smaller potato cakes with vegetables or meats mixed right in.
• When it comes to flour-based pancakes, think outside the box and substitute cooked fruits or vegetables for part of the liquid in the recipe. Remember, they don’t have to be sweet! Corn pancakes cooked in bacon fat are delicious!

Soups

You can make soup from nearly anything: meat, fish, legumes, grains, bread or noodles, vegetables, and all kinds of herbs. Not only that, but you can make your own broth from leftover bones and vegetable scraps!

I know some people who keep leftover meats and vegetables in the freezer until they have enough to make a big pot of soup. If you would rather avoid mystery meals, just use one or two leftovers, and coordinate the rest of your ingredients to match them.

For example, chop up some cooked beef or pork and add it to a pot of vegetables and broth. Throw in some leftover rice or barley, and you have a cohesive soup instead of a mishmash.

Or puree a mixture of roasted vegetables and make them into a bisque by adding stock and cream. Nobody will even guess they’re eating leftovers!

Casseroles

Ah, the infamous casserole. I saved this one for (almost) last because it frequently gets a bad rap. However, putting your leftovers to work in casseroles doesn’t have to be boring or unappealing. You might already do this without realizing it.

• Turn leftover spaghetti and sauce into baked spaghetti or spaghetti pizza pie with the addition of some peppers, onions, mushrooms, and pepperoni.
• Leftover cooked vegetables, mashed potatoes, and meat work very well in shepherd’s pie.
• Cooked pasta can be mixed with tuna or salmon, cooked vegetables, and a white sauce for a tasty fish casserole.
• You can even make a breakfast version: french toast casserole uses up bread that’s going stale and turns it into a dish your family will ask for again.

Crack an egg over it!

Have you read through all the above ideas and still have some leftovers that just don’t look appetizing? Top them with a fried egg.

If you’re staring at some lackluster meat or vegetables and nothing else sounds good, try putting an egg on top! It may sound strange, but eggs have a curious way of making leftovers tasty again. (I’ve found this particularly helpful for game meat that was a bit too gamey.)

• Put a fried egg on top of a BBQ moose or beef sandwich, and it becomes a whole new experience.
• One lonely burger without a bun looks sunny again with an egg on top.
• Do you have a few pieces of pepperoni or ham and a bit of cheese? Scramble a few eggs into the mix, and you’ve got yourself a protein-packed meal.
• Leftover rice and veggies transform into fried rice in minutes with an egg.

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Well, there you have it: 16 ideas for giving your leftovers a second shot at fame and glory. I hope this list inspires you to get creative in the kitchen! For more about cooking with leftovers, read How to Use Leftovers and Prevent Food Waste.

Happy cooking!

~Kimberly