Leftover Recipes - Work That Dinner Magic
When our meal is finished most of us just wrap the leftovers and forget all about them until we clear the fridge out and throw them away. With some planning and a little imagination, you can use leftovers to create whole new dinner recipes for your family without them feeling like they are eating the same old thing every night.
What turns us off is not eating the leftovers but eating the same thing for two days in a row. Here are some ideas on how you can use some typical leftovers to save time and money whilst still dishing up a great family meal:
You prepare a roasted pork loin and rice for dinner one night. The family wants something else for dinner the following night so the pork loin gets pushed to the back of the refrigerator which is where it normally stays until the fridge is cleared out! Not this time, let’s do something to keep that pork loin from going to waste.
Chop up the leftover pork into small pieces. In a large skillet or wok, stir fry the leftover rice with a bag of frozen veggies, an egg, and some of the chopped pork loin to make pork fried rice. Add a little soy sauce and you’ve got a whole new dinner for your hungry family.
This is just one way that leftovers can be turned into a new dish with a new flavor. The same can also be done using chicken, seafood, or beef. Let’s take a look at beef. If you have hamburgers left from dinner, chop them up until they resemble ground beef again. The meat can be combined with chili powder and taco sauce to make beef tacos. Or, add some beans, chopped peppers and tomatoes, and sauce to create a pot of chili.
With some imagination, there are an unlimited number of possibilities of what you can do with meats and side dishes from a previous night’s dinner. Using a little leftover magic can make one meal last for two, three, or even four more days. But, you don’t have to eat it all in the same week. Fix a new meal with the leftovers and freeze it until you are ready to have that particular meat again. On that day, dinner will already be made, all you’ll need to do is heat it up. Yes, it really can be just that simple.
Your family will be amazed at your ability to transform any meal into a new creation they will enjoy. Besides that, you will save money on your grocery bill and won’t be throwing it away in the trash can as spoiled leftovers. Try these and similar ideas to expand your family’s palate.
