Your best/favourite leftover recipes

[SlaveToDisney]

Evening all.

I have been meal planning and budgeting my food since january and I have seen such a reduction in my weekly spend but now i'm thinking I could save even more if I used leftovers.

I have never really used leftovers and I have had a google but nothing inspires me we are a family of good eaters and we aren't fussy.

So mumsnet what are your favourite meals that you make with leftovers.

Do you need to make a new dish with them? The microwave and some ketchup on the side does me....

What kind of leftovers?

Leftover Chilli :

Place heaped tablespoons of warmed chilli in the middle of a tortilla. Fold both sides to cover. Sprinkle the top with cheese. Grill till cheese bubbles.

Generally leftover dinners get eaten for lunch the next day. I love to make stovies with leftover pork, lamb or beef, especially if it wasn't as tender as hoped as it makes it much nicer.

I wasnt actually thinking of just reusing the same meal and reheating it that thought hadnt even crossed my mind . But yeah new meals that can be made I suppose adds more diversity to what we would eat in a week for example what would you make on a monday with the leftover chicken from sunday.

Left over chicken goes in a risotto. Any chicken not used goes in the freezer and will be used an a future risotto, perhaps with left over ham from a slow cooker ham and cola.

Fried rice with anything left in fridge (frozen peas/sweetcorn. peppers, tomatoes, courgette, anything really, plus ham, chicken, few frozen prawns). Add garlic and chilli - paprika gives a nice colour. Cheese on top if you like.

I make a beef shin & red wine stew in the slow cooker - I usually do a bit more than we'll eat and put a portion of the lovely tender-cooked beef away for later. I will add it to a tin of tomatoes, with some red wine, tomato purée & herbs & have it with pasta.

Fajitas
Thai curry
Thai beef salad
Puff pastry bake with chicken, cheese,stuffing,bred sauce,tomatoes etc

Risotto = Arrancini
Fish pie = fish cakes
Roast chicken = chicken pie / chicken noodle soup
Leftover veggies = soup or bubble and squeak
Bolognase = chili

We rarely waste anything at all in this house!

We've recently renamed shepherds pie or cottage pie as roast dinner pie! Anything and I mean anything that is left over from Sunday and even the odd left over sausage from weekend breakfasts go in it.

We just add a tin of beans and some frozen peas if there's not enough veg. Roast potatoes are chopped up and put in and the boiled veg gets mashed up for the topping. Finished off with any left over cheese sauce and a sprinkling of cheese.

That in turn, has been eaten last night and the rest divided into a couple of pots for the freezer. So spending £20 on a joint of meat has made 8 meals.

Ends of uncut loaves from the weekend, get cut into cubes and baked as croutons for soup or salad. Sometimes it's slices and made into garlic bread. Sometimes bread crumbs. All into the freezer.

Left over mash - freezer. Over ripe fruit, mashed and frozen for smoothies.

So many good ideas I will definitely try all of them at least once! I am shocked at how much food we are actually throwing away so hopefully this will help.

Usually serve sausage and bean casserole with wedges first day and then mix with pasta and top with cheese and bacon for pasta bake the second day.
Chilli gets turned into quasedillas

Shamelessly place marking. I am so keen to try budgeting! How did you go about it op?

We hardly bin anything. I usually just reheat stuff for lunch.

I deliberately cook too much rice when I want egg fried rice the next day. It's miles better with properly cold rice.

I love left overs!

I have young young children so am still able to buy mn magic chickens - if I make a roast chicken I can make up to four meals from it- risotto (make too much for arancini, chicken and stuffing pasties, chicken pie, fried rice, chicken and mushroom lasagne, chicken and salsa enchiladas, chicken soup etc ( not all of these from one chicken but just some things I make with leftover chicken)

Left over mash makes croequettas, fish cakes or ham and cheese cakes

Left over saucy meals- bolognese, chilli, stroganoff are frozen in the portion left to go on jacket spuds - we all pick a topping from the freezer and off we go,

Leftover ham like chicken (and turkey) have endless options- hash cakes with an egg, ham and cheese slices, pizza, quiche, soup, ham and leek pie etc

Leftover roast veg is great in soups, but also in tagines- make up a base sauce with any extra veg you need or chickpeas and add chopped roast veg at the end to heat through

Leftover fish pie makes fish cakes

Leftover roast pork makes great pork and cider mash topped pie.

We only make a Sunday roast so we can have bubble and squeak on a Monday. Fry all of the leftover veg and meat together with extra roast potatoes and some steamed kale until crunchy and serve with lashings of gravy.

Left over lamb fried all crispy in a ginger and garlic stirfry.

Meatballs in pitta bread with salad.

Try and make too much roasted veg so can use in frittata.

Leftover mash use in fishcakes.

I cook a ham sometimes just to make ham and black lentil soup...

Chicken soup from chicken carcass, lentils, spices and microscopic quantities of chicken.
Leftover casserole, bulked out with veggies and used to fill a pie.
A spoonful of a curry or a tag ime with lots of crunchy lettuce in af wrap or a pitta.
Leftover pasta with mayo, grated cheese or cold meat and salary bits in packed lunches.
We don't really do food waste in our house.

Leftover pulled pork makes amazing special fried rice.

My favourites are chilli, I love when it's freezer food week and I find a portion of chilli. Same with bolognese and curry.

I always make chicken and mushroom risotto with leftover chicken. If we have roast beef the next day it's beef, fried onion and cheese ciabatta melts with fries and coleslaw.

I always make more mash than I need and freeze portions, when it's gammon steak night I'll defrost the mash, cook some (frozen) Savoy cabbage and I'll either have fresh spring onion or a bag of cut up frozen spring onion for bubble and squeak.

I always have frozen bags of off cuts of meat like chicken, ham and even bacon if it needs using up which I use for pizza toppings as cheese pizzas are always the cheapest. I always put a handful of peppers, onion and sweetcorn in little individual portioned bags for this as well.

You have got to make chicken broth/stock! Always buy a whole chicken, and even if you roast it, you can still make stock from the carcass. I make mine in the slowcooker overnight ( I put it in the garage as I don't like waking up to the smell of chicken stock). You can freeze it in soup bags (or used ice cream tubs), although I rarely do that, as it is one my most used ingredients. I often make soup (usually leek and potato soup) or pilaf rice, and it's also a great base for gravy. It's incredibly healthy of course, but mainly it just makes everything (well, almost everything) taste fantastic.

You can do the same with beef bones, just ask your butcher for marrow bones/ dog bones. Roast them in the oven for 30 min and then simmer in the slowcooker. Again, great base for gravy, soup, stews etc. and incredibly healthy.

My favourite leftover i rice, I love fried rice, and it's full of resistant starch, which is very healthy - good for your gut bacteria - and also less fattening: www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-29629761

Left over veg makes soup
Over ripe bananas make banana bread
Left over dinner is my lunch at work the next day.
Bread is blitzed to make breadcrumbs

I think that PP's have covered all the usual useful ideas.I use all the withered grotty veg/herbs in the trivet with the roast to make gravy or turn them into a veg sauce(adding passata)handy for pasta/pizza etc(freezes well).I also keep leftovers of garlic bread which I then blitz and use for pasta bake toppings or a coating for making chicken kievs.
Re:leftovers it depends on the meat,chicken=pie,curry,risotto,fried rice,pasties,sandwiches or frozen for another roast dinner.
Beef=Rarely not finished..but sandwiches or extra frozen!
Lamb=Shepherd's Pie or curry or frozen.
Pork IMHO isn't great for an extra dinner unless it's pulled pork,a roast never seems to taste that great after freezing.Ours always stays in the fridge for rolls & wraps.

I usually make chicken and use it for a curry on a Monday night

Pork chops - I Cook double the amount on a Sunday and use the meat in sweet and sour pork or stir fries