Leftover Magic

 

If you use a little creativity, leftovers can be fun, tasty, inexpensive meal starters. By camouflaging the leftovers from meal to meal, even your pickiest eaters will have trouble recognizing the roasted chicken from dinner two nights ago in today’s pasta salad luncheon.

The first thing you should know about leftovers is the correct way to store them. Follow these tips to keep you and your family safe:

• Refrigerate or freeze unused food within two hours after cooking.
• Wash your hands before handling leftovers.
• Place leftovers in small, shallow containers with a secure cover. This helps the food cool down quickly.
• If a stored leftover seems questionable, throw it out.
• Remove stuffing from cooked poultry before storing.
• Don't keep leftovers for more than four days.

         Beautiful Buffets

Plan one meal each week that uses up the assorted leftovers accumulating on the refrigerator shelves.  It’s like getting a free meal every week.  After accumulating about half a dozen containers of leftovers, reheat them in the microwave and portion out a little bit of everything onto each person's plate.  The variety of items gives it the look of a full plate after you have gone through the buffet line.  Toss some crackers, sliced cheese, and fresh cut veggies into the mix, and you have an easy, tasty dinner for next to nothing!!

Sandwich your leftovers into savings

A favorite use for leftovers is to make sandwiches for lunch or dinner.  Rolling leftover meats and veggies into a cold flour tortilla with a bit of cream cheese and a pickle is also a delicious way to add some variety to the typical sandwich presentation.

Stretch the Bird

Chicken and turkey are dreams come true if you want to stretch one meal into several others.  For a family of four, you can usually stretch at least three meals from each chicken purchase:  a roast chicken dinner meal with drumsticks, thighs, and wings; a casserole, stir-fry, or skillet meal prepared with the cut breast meat roasted the night before; and a hearty, homemade chicken soup made from any leftover meat and bones.

Don't Toss the Salad

Mix leftover salad in a blender with olive oil, vinegar, salt and pepper, and garlic or herb seasonings for an amazingly good salad dressing.  Also, process leftover salad in a blender with ½ cup chicken or vegetable stock.  Pour into saucepan, stir in another ½ cup stock or more to suit your taste.  Season, add meat or vegetables if desired, heat thoroughly and enjoy!

For more information, follow the links below:

Tracy Barr at http://www.dummies.com/how-to/content/how-to-use-leftovers.html
http://recipes.howstuffworks.com/fresh-ideas/easy-dinner-ideas/10-meals-to-make-from-leftovers.htm
Mary Hunt at www.DebtProofLiving.com

Colleen Carman
Finance/HR Director