Leftovers can help me how? We are all there, making lunches while cooking breakfast. Getting the snacks for snack day for each kid’s class. Then, what is left? What in the world am I going to cook for dinner? How much is food for home going to cost this week? How much money is left in the bank? See, with you all the way! Here is a list of five smart strategies for using leftovers to save time, money, and maybe a little sanity.
1. Buy the BIG Meat
Get the pork loin, buy the whole turkey, and if it is near a holiday weekend, look for briskets and hams on sale. Buy one big meat item for the week, cook it on Sunday like the Domestic God or Goddess, you know you are, and eat it until it is gone! Waste nothing. A great example could be finding chicken breast on sale in the giant value pack. Roast them all in the oven, serve whole chicken breast on the first day, then use the others to make sandwiches the next day. Dice a few of the cooked breasts up for a quick way to make Chicken Alfredo night easy and homemade, wraps in lettuce with some crunchy apples and mayo, or even chicken salad! Another great thing about having your protein already sorted out for the next night or two is that it takes the anxiety out of cooking dinner.
2. Make Chili with Beans
Yes, I said it, with BEANS! On a normal day, with normal grocery prices, sure, pick a side. To chili with beans, or chili without, that is the question. But we are making leftover masterpieces here, on a budget! You can easily double your chili recipe just by adding beans. This way, you can use the leftover chili the next day for chili dogs, Frito pie, or as a sauce on enchiladas. Wrap cheese and onions in a corn tortilla, line them up in a glass baking dish, top with the chili and more cheese, and bake in the oven until all the cheese is melted. Total win!
3. Define “Stuffing”
Stuffing has a predisposition for being a bread-like side dish you drown in gravy. It can be so much more! Keep all your leftovers, no matter how little is left. You can turn 3 breakfast sausage links, a serving of corn, and day-old bread into a fancy stuffed bell pepper that’ll look like you took this recipe out of a cookbook! Get creative with finding veggies on sale and use your weekly leftovers to make a stuffing to bake inside. Zucchini, tomatoes, any pepper, depending on your love of spice, and squash all make great ‘stuff and bake’ dishes.
4. Vegetable Soup is Your Friend
Boil your favorite broth and clean the fridge! Seriously, take the half of an onion you have not used all week, the leftover green beans, and the half bag of baby carrots nobody is fighting over, and turn it into a Soup du jour! This is another great place to use the leftover BIG MEAT you might still have. Revamp all the meal parts and pieces into a brothy goodness good for your soul and budget! Add creme fresh, heavy cream, or evaporated milk for a creamier-based soup worthy of a loaf of fresh-baked bread.
5. Pizza Party
This is a wonderful leftover meal to prepare with the kiddos! Grab your favorite pizza crust, French bread, crescent roll dough, whatever your easy and affordable go-to for pizza crust is, grab that. Gather the mix and match collection of cheeses you have in the drawer, any leftover lunch meats and sausages, and the veggies you have that go great on your favorite pizza. Slice, dice, and chop all the ingredients and set up an assembly line on the kitchen counter. Call in the kids and preheat the oven! The pizza party is about to begin! Having artistic freedom with multiple vegetables and cheeses might just prompt your picky eater to try new things! That makes this leftover meal idea a win, win, win!
With a little frugal shopping and allowing yourself to be creative in the kitchen, you are going to find some free time and extra pennies. The bonus is really in the dishes you will come up with that your family will ask for again and again! In our house, it is definitely the enchiladas! Everyone knows chili night means cheese enchilada night is coming next! Best wishes to all of us getting back into the grind, struggling to make sense of everything on our plates, and struggling to find what’s going to fill the empty plates, too!
