by Akemi

Created on: May 30, 2008   Last Updated: August 02, 2010

Have you ever experienced throwing away leftover food? Sadly I think we have all done it numerous times, and we wonder why we can't cut our spending on food! I personally like to plan my menu for the whole week before I go grocery shopping. The trick is to think ahead when you plan your weekly menu and stick with the menu so you won't create more leftovers. For example, if I made soup on Sunday, and made steak & mashed potatoes on Monday, my plan for Tuesday's dinner would be potato croquette with soup. So I created my Tuesday menu using Sunday and Monday leftovers. Using your leftovers to create another new menu is what you want to do. You will save a lot of money and a lot of time! Here are some of my favorite leftover food ideas!

Grilled steak leftovers?
You can make a steak sandwich, Burrito or maybe steak salad. My favorite steak sandwich is a homemade cheese steak.

Grilled or roasted chicken leftovers?
Same as steak leftovers, you can make a sandwich, Burrito or salad. You can be much more creative than just throwing the chicken on top of a green salad. Shred the chicken into small pieces. Thinly chop up some celery (better with the leaves) and combine it with the same amount of chicken. Add mayo and mix it all up. This will make a nice side dish, and if you have this chicken celery salad still leftover for the next day, you can make a sandwich! If you are not a celery fan, you can mix the chicken with raisins, mayo, and curry powder. You will be surprised how many people love this dish. If you wish to make these chicken salads from scratch, I would recommend boiling the chicken or steaming it with white wine in the microwave. Then shred it for the salads.

Baked potato leftovers?
Save it even if you only have half the potato left. You can make a vegetable omelet for breakfast the next day. If you have a big potato left you can slice the potatoes, sprinkle some cheese, and pop it in the oven for a side dish.

Mashed potato leftovers?
You can make potato croquette by simply adding grilled ground beef and onions with the leftover mashed potatoes. Press them into small patties with your hands (get the kids involved), then put the patties in the fridge for two hours. Take the patties out and batter them with flour, egg, bread crumbs, and simply fry them. The ground beef could also be leftover from meatballs, meatloaf, or hamburger steak.

Rice leftovers?
Make fried rice! Or simply wrap it tight in saran wrap and freeze it for the next time you want to eat rice.

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