Got leftovers? Don’t just want to reheat them? Try one of these recipes for leftovers that will have you wishing you made too much food last night.
It happens to all of us. We overestimate how much food to cook. Someone doesn’t show up for dinner. Or appetites aren’t what you expected. The end result?
You’ve got extra food.
What do you do with the leftover food at home?
One of the biggest ways that we can save money on groceries is to prevent food waste.
It’s said that in the US 30-40 percent of the food supply is wasted. Since this number includes food waste in the field, the processing plants, and restaurants, it’s hard to know exactly how much is being wasted on a consumer level.
That said, if you’re throwing a way food at home, you’re throwing away money. It’s in your best interest to eat those leftovers and not let them go to waste.
Sometimes, it’s a dish that you’re ready to call dibs on straight out of the oven, like these Poblano Chile Enchiladas. Other times, you need to get a little more creative to make leftovers palatable.
Sometimes, you just don’t want to reheat the same old, same old from yesterday. Or maybe there isn’t enough leftovers to feed the whole family a regular meal. That’s where these seven recipes come in to save the day.
What can I make with leftovers?
Recipes for leftovers do a great job using up small portions of leftover meat, vegetables, legumes, or grains and transforms it into something a little bit different.
Stretch leftover turkey into a pot pie, stir up a fried rice with last night’s rice and chicken, or combine a few different ingredients into a delicious soup.
You’ll be pleasantly surprised with how you can give leftovers new life!
Recipes for Leftovers
I’ve rounded up 7 great recipes for leftovers that rank as major crowd pleasers. They are budget-friendly, quick to prepare, and help you make the most of what you got so that you don’t waste perfectly good food.
This simple soup recipe was a brainstorm to use up some leftover rice and beans that we had had for dinner the night before. Most of these ingredients are pantry staples, making it an easy emergency supper as well. If you’ve got leftover rice and chicken, you can easily transform them into a great meal of Chicken Fried Rice. These enchiladas are a great way to use up leftover turkey from a holiday meal, but you can use cooked chicken or pork as well. You could even fill the enchiladas with rice and beans or just cheese. Whatever you like will work. The sauce comes together quickly with regular pantry staples. If you’ve got leftover chicken, these chicken salad wraps are even easier to prepare. Its chock full of fruit, veggies and nuts, and because it is is served in cabbage leaves instead of bread, it’s a low-carb, yet filling meal. This is the perfect meal to repurpose leftovers from a large turkey or chicken dinner. If you’ve already got vegetables, meat, and gravy, all you need to do is whir up the crust in the food processor and slide this baby in the oven. To make it even simpler, I used a bag of frozen stir fry vegetables, but you can easily use whatever leftover veg you have on hand. This pasta dish came to be when I had some leftover spaghetti from the night before as well as the Easter ham that I sliced frozen. With a few additional ingredients, I came up with a yummy pasta. This recipe for Stone Soup is a general formula for you to tweak based on what you have on hand. The only trouble with this soup is that it’s never the same thing, unless you absolutely recreate all your add-ins. It doesn’t matter, though, it’s pretty foolproof and yummy. Just be sure to choose ingredients and seasonings that complement one another.7 Great Meals That Start with Leftovers
Bean and Rice Soup to Help You Eat Well & Spend Less
Chicken Fried Rice
Creamy Turkey Enchiladas
Chicken Salad Lettuce Wraps
Homemade Chicken Pot Pie Recipe (Freezer-Friendly)
Creamy Noodles with Ham and Tomatoes
Soup is Good Food (or How to Make Stone Soup)
Stephanie M. says
My husband and I are huge advocates of not wasting any food. With the prices of food these days, it seems criminal to throw anything away. We are both also not adverse to eating leftovers. I know some people that are. I can’t say that I have a favorite way to change one meal into another because I do this quite frequently, especially if I have a leftover roast of some kind. To me, a leftover roast is always a clean pallet for a new meal. One of the ways I use up leftover roast chicken or turkey is to make chicken/turkey tetrazzini and when I make this, that also yields a few days of leftovers as well. This weekend, I am making a pork roast. It is rather large so we will eat it the first day with the sides that I make and then that way again the second day. If there is still some leftover, since I roast the pork in the oven and make the gravy separate, I will probably cut it up in tiny pieces, add some mayo and celery and make pork salad sandwiches for lunch. Sometimes, I’ll make a stir fry or pork fried rice out of that. One time, I bought a ham around Easter and actually made 17 meals out of it! Everything from the original dinner to ham chowder, to ham and noodle casserole to ham and cheese omelets and finally, whatever little bit was leftover after all that, was given to the hounds! 🙂 And each one of those meals made several meals as well. I just froze the ham in different bags for each meal.
Jessica Fisher says
Yes! Love your strategies.
Allie Z says
I try to keep rice in the fridge specifically for fried rice. We don’t always have extra chicken or meat. When that’s the case, we use extra eggs. Works like a charm.
Karen J says
Fried rice here too. I keep leftover rice in the freezer then reheat in the steamer.
Another favorite is to use leftover chopped meat, add veg (frozen or otherwise), gravy, then top with cheese and mashed potato. Easy shepherd pie type dinner.
My main way to use leftovers is to portion out lunch for the next day to take to work.
Jessica Fisher says
I wish my people loved Shepherd’s Pie as much as I do.
Angela Gilmore says
I agree that some days I just don’t want to eat the same old leftovers from the day before, or even worse for three days in a row. Last night I toyed with making my own corn flour tortillas and used leftover beans, rice, cheese, and corn to make impromptu tostadas. They were definitely interesting, and it helped me almost finish up the leftover corn in the fridge!
amy says
Love this post! I also use leftovers for fritattas or add leftover meats and veggies to pasta. Leftover pot roast is good for sandwiches with BBQ sauce, on top of baked potatoes. I also save my ham bones for ham and bean soup.
Laura @ Prairie Sewn Studios says
Love this post! My partner doesn’t like leftovers, so I’m always trying to figure out what to do with them to make them into something he will eat!
M says
My biggest challenge with leftovers is usually not the meals themselves, but the leftover ingredients – for example there’s a yummy fish dish we like that calls for half a can of tomatoes. We never end up using the other half of the tomatoes before they grow mold in the refrigerator. I finally solved that by just adding double the tomatoes to the dish – we like it and eat it all up. Sometimes I try to be more strategic in planning 2 meals that each use half a bunch of green onions, rather than letting the second half wilt. Another ingredient I struggle with is the smallish amount of half and half or heavy whipping cream called for in some cream soups. (We are not coffee drinkers.) I decided I might just as well go with heavy whipping cream and turn the leftovers into whipped cream.
Jessica Fisher says
Great ideas!
Jo Ann says
If I only need to use half a can of something, I freeze the rest in a glass jar (just don’t fill it the whole way to the top to leave room for expansion). Be sure to write the contents on a piece of masking tape and attach to the jar!
Jessica Fisher says
Great tip! Also, you can mark the jar with a sharpie if you want. Eventually it washes off
Marci says
We ate quite a bit of stir fry when we were kids, maybe that was my mom’s way of using up our food. I need to go back to that. We are rice eaters so definitely fried rice is a regular thing at our house. We have way too much leftovers today- due to a impromptu family gathering last night- so I decided to freeze some for meals later in the next month.
Jessica Fisher says
Great plan. Cold rice is like money in the bank!
Angela says
I made ‘Stone Soup’ this month and it was a huge hit.
However, I also had to throw away half a carton of organic strawberries that Hubs requested but did not eat while I was gone last week. :/
It drives me nuts to throw out food!
Jessica Fisher says
So glad you liked it! It’s my go-to soup recipe when I’ve got randomness in the fridge.
Juls Owings says
We mix leftovers with eggs or pasta or rice.. Maybe a casserole or soup. Hubby eats it a lot as lunch or for his late meal when he doesn’t get in by dinner time. I have started cutting pork loin in half length ways and making half it in to pork tapas using different spices.
Jessica Fisher says
Sounds great!
Anita Looney says
I slice potatoes, carrots and onions and layer them adding a layer of leftover meat. I repeat the layers until my pan is full ending with potatoes. I take a can of cream soup add a can of water mixing then together then pour over casserole. Cover and microwave for about 35 minutes. Makes that small amount of meat go a long way.
Jessica Fisher says
Sounds yummy! What temp would you bake it if you didn’t want to microwave?