Extending the Life of Leftovers

Guest Author - Rhonda Cliett

With the rising cost of groceries, reducing your food expense can be critical to your overall financial health. There are many methods of reducing your food costs including: buying in bulk, reducing restaurant and fast food meals, buying generic brands, and more. Utilizing any or all of these methods will make a big impact on your total bill. One method that I depend on often involves extending the life of my leftovers. In fact, I like to think of myself as being rather gifted when it comes to my “leftover magic.” Unfortunately, my daughter feels that my “leftover magic” is more of a nuisance than a gift. If she were paying the grocery bill, she might feel differently.

Many people simply heat their leftovers and eat them again the next night. I am rarely successful at convincing my daughters that food eaten on the second night is just as good, if not better, than it was on the original night. As a result, I had to learn the art of “leftover magic.” This is how it works. Let’s say I make a meatloaf for dinner one night. We enjoy the meatloaf, mashed potatoes and green beans on night one. Then on night two I might crumble up the leftover meatloaf and mix it in spaghetti sauce and serve with pasta. Then on night three I might take the leftover meatloaf-spaghetti-sauce and spread it over a pizza crust and top it with cheese. On day four we would eat the leftover pizza for breakfast (because that is what teenagers like to do).

I am so gifted that I can do this with virtually any leftover. The only problem with this, as my daughter very lovingly pointed out, is that there are times when we would be hard pressed to identify the origin of the leftover. For instance, using the meatloaf scenario, when it gets to the pizza night, do we really remember that it all started with a meatloaf two nights ago? This concerns me somewhat because I know that food has a refrigerator life so I make a concentrated effort to keep track of the origin of my leftovers. I am happy to report that to this day, no one has been injured as a result of my “leftover magic.”

Other ways to use leftovers:

1. Leftover lunches. Whether you brown bag them or eat them at home, a hot meal at lunchtime is a welcome alternative to the standard sandwich.
2. TV Dinner Leftovers. Purchase the microwavable plastic containers with compartments and fill with your leftovers. Label and date the contents and then place in your freezer. These will be most welcome when the cook takes a night off and leaves the family to fend for themselves.

Think you are ready to create your own leftover magic? If so, here are some more ideas from my kitchen to yours.

• Leftover Magic with Ham
• Leftover Magic with Chicken

Share your own methods for extending the life of leftovers in our Home Finance Forum.