Leftovers - tell us what you do!

[Ace-T]

Dunno about you folks but I really don't like chucking away perfectly good food. So I try and make sure everything is eaten/frozen/stored etc. However ideas for leftovers would be useful, so please post your amazing leftover recipes!

I don't like the last third of the cereal packets where it consists of small and dusty bits (we call it shrapnel). So today I mixed up bran flakes, fruit 'n' fibre, porage oats, tropical fruit crunch, oat crunch, leftover dried fruit and nuts from Christmas with some warmed condensed milk. Pressed it into a baking tray and stuck it in the oven for 45 mins at 130 deg c. Cut it into squares and there you have homemade granola/oaty bars for snacking/quick brekky. Stole the original idea from Nigella's Breakfast bar recipe but with the cereal shrapnel I didn't have to buy any ingredients!

They are lovely too!

Trace

[grumbledoak]

Can't help with cereals, they all taste like dust to me!

Roast chicken -> chicken and <something> pie + frozen chicken stock is a good one.

[Glassman]

Depends what it is.

I try and recycle whatever I can, but the missus usually biffs anythhing leftover.

Some food just tastes better the next day.

[juice]

Veggies left over from a roast always go into a Bubble N'Squeak

[Pferdestarke]

left over roasted meats tend to get used over steamed rice with greens and a sweet soy dressing. I just tend to reheat veg and eat the next day.

Try using a bit less.

[Ace-T]

Pferdestarke said:

Try using a bit less.

Most of our meals are cooked with two or more days in mind (stews, curries etc) or I do enough for one meal (pasta). A roast is a perfect example of the kind of 'leftovers' I was speaking about but I also wanted to illustrate the point that anything could be 'leftovers' (e.g. cereal, cake gone a bit dry, etc). Your comment of 'using a bit less' was therefore strange in the context of the question. I guess I did not make it clear enough about what I was asking.

Trace

[Pferdestarke]

Ace-T said:

Pferdestarke said:

Try using a bit less.

Most of our meals are cooked with two or more days in mind (stews, curries etc) or I do enough for one meal (pasta). A roast is a perfect example of the kind of 'leftovers' I was speaking about but I also wanted to illustrate the point that anything could be 'leftovers' (e.g. cereal, cake gone a bit dry, etc). Your comment of 'using a bit less' was therefore strange in the context of the question. I guess I did not make it clear enough about what I was asking.

Trace

Okay, I see now. Well with things like bread I would blitz it in a mixer and add chorizo, olive oil, parsley, chili and seasoning and dry fry it until crisp. I then use it to top risotto or salads. Highly delicious.

Sounds like you've got it pretty well covered anyway, what with your cereal-based flapjacks There's only two of us so we only have the one cereal open at once.

[Don]

If you have left over meat Fricassee is good and as a recipe will cope with anything that might be a bit dry otherwise.

You need:

Left over meat.
A big onion.
Butter.
Some stock.

Fry off onions in plenty of butter in a pan to get them soft - not overly coloured. Sprinkle some flour over the butter/onions and mix well in. Now chuck in your meat chopped up fairly finely. Toss thoroughy in the flour/onions. Now start to add a little stock a few glugs at a time.

In due course you will get a thick sauce mixture surrounding chunks of your leftover meat. Serve with mashed potatoes and steamed green veg.

Easy, tasty, good.

[Ace-T]

Pferdestarke said:

Okay, I see now. Well with things like bread I would blitz it in a mixer and add chorizo, olive oil, parsley, chili and seasoning and dry fry it until crisp. I then use it to top risotto or salads. Highly delicious.

Now that I will try - thanks!

Pferdestarke said:

There's only two of us so we only have the one cereal open at once.

Ah...only two of us as well but both of us don't like the shrapnel and will open a new box without finishing the old one.

Trace

[Rude Girl]

Trace, you're going to hate my nerdiness, but you know that I leave the house at stupid o'clock and take my brekkie with me so...

When I get a box of cereals, I measure it in to portions and put each in a cheapo food bag. Reason is twofold - firstly so I can grab and go when I'm doing my packup, and secondly because Himself won't eat any cereal so by the time I get to the bottom of a box, they've gone stale if I don't tie them in bags.

Anyway, if you do that, you get much less shrapnel, because it's shaking the box every day that breaks up the bits. You do have to be a bit of a nerd to do it though

As for Sunday Roast leftovers, mash and veg get mixed up and frozen to make bubble for next Saturday's brekkie.

Pork: chop in to squares and fry in tempura batter and do with a stir fry and rice. Not diet food!

Beef: Mushrooms, potatoes, bit of onion and a suet crust. Not diet food!

Chicken: Shredded and mixed with mushrooms, peas or leeks and some creme fraiche and pasta. Or use it for a risotto.

Lamb: To be honest, the smell of cold lamb makes me heave, so I only do a lamb roast if we have guests and it's all going to get eaten first time round.

[miniman]

Rude Girl said:

Anyway, if you do that, you get much less shrapnel, because it's shaking the box every day that breaks up the bits. You do have to be a bit of a nerd to do it though

A **bit** ???

[missdiane]

Our leftovers get stored in some nice plastic tubs bought especially for storing leftovers, they get put in fridge to cool ready to go in th efreezer we bought down from the garage especially to freeze the leftovers,
Then 2 weeks later we find them in the fridge still, so they get binned
Well the thought is there

[Cotty]

My problem is I cook a roast with the best intentions of having a few slices of meat then having the rest left over for sandwiches............. then I eat the lot

I really should do something with chicken carcasses like stock or a soup etc

[Glassman]

Cotty said:

My problem is I cook a roast with the best intentions of having a few slices of meat then having the rest left over for sandwiches... then I eat the lot

I knew you would say something like that

[Cotty]

Glassman said:

I knew you would say something like that

I don't know what you mean

Edited by Cotty on Monday 5th January 21:21

[Glassman]

[Bob the Planner]

missdiane said:

Our leftovers get stored in some nice plastic tubs bought especially for storing leftovers, they get put in fridge to cool ready to go in th efreezer we bought down from the garage especially to freeze the leftovers,
Then 2 weeks later we find them in the fridge still, so they get binned
Well the thought is there

Di - What is t' efreezer ? Is this some sort of internet freezing device I have not come across that allows you to share meals over the web. Be fantastic if it is as I will be able to share the Aus barbies with the boyz/sheilas back here !

[TIGA84]

Cotty said:

Glassman said:

I knew you would say something like that

I don't know what you mean

Edited by Cotty on Monday 5th January 21:21

Jesus wept Cotty, what was the weight of that chicken?

[Pferdestarke]

I think it's more likely to be a Poussin, so probably about 700g including bones, so say 350g of actual meat.

Edited by Pferdestarke on Tuesday 6th January 09:12

[Don]

Pferdestarke said:

I think it's more likely to be a Poussin, so probably about 700g including bones, so say 350g of actual meat.

No no. That photo is famous. It's a whole (small) chicken.

Cotty is legendary.