by Tierney O'Hara

Created on: September 16, 2009   Last Updated: June 11, 2010

Think of leftover foods as "cooked" ingredients that can be easily incorporated into a new recipe.

There's no reason to waste a drop of food anymore since freezers will keep our leftovers fresh until we decide to use them. Every home cook who is concerned about waste should keep a large plastic container in the freezer labeled soup ingredients. Then whether you have a tablespoon of peas, one rib of celery or one-half potato, it can go into the container until you are ready to make soup.

If you chop the ingredients before you freeze them, all you have to do is dump your soup container into a crock pot, add in 4 cups of stock and you'll have soup for supper.

Make your own stock by simmering the bones from your roast turkey, ham, chicken or beef until the liquid has reduced and you have a flavorful broth. Then either freeze the strained stock or create a delicious soup with the stock and the frozen leftovers that you saved.

If your family is not fond of eating the same food for two nights in a row, freeze the leftovers for another night. If you don't have enough leftovers for the whole family, set out casseroles with warmed up leftovers and let your family sample each item, smorgasbord style.

Another way to make sure you "want not" is to take the bits of leftovers from a meal - let's say one slice of ham, 1/4 cup of green beans and 3 slices of American cheese - and cut it up into small pieces. Heat one teaspoon of butter and one teaspoon of vegetable oil in a small pan and cook the beans and ham until heated through.

Whisk two eggs with a few tablespoons of water, milk or cream and pour on top of the vegetables. Season with salt and pepper and sprinkle the cheese on top. Let it cook on one side before you turn it over and you have a wonderful omelet made with ingredients that might have gotten thrown out.

Stale breads can be used for crostini, croutons, bread salad or bread pudding. Or put a stale slice of bread in the bottom of your soup dish and ladle in your hot soup on top. Talk about an inexpensive meal that was all made with leftover foods.

Last night's baked potatoes can be this mornings home fries; mashed potatoes can turn into a topping for a small pot pie, potato-dinner rolls or cheese croquettes.

(Take a tiny bit of leftover cheese cover it with cold mashed potatoes in the form of a small "thumb" shape. Dip the potato croquette in flour, then beaten egg then bread crumbs and fry. This is too good to be called a leftover!)

Usually there are no leftover desserts, but if you do have some stale cookies, when crushed, they become a great topping for ice cream; leftover fruits like apples, pears and berries can be cooked over a low flame with butter and sugar and turned into a sauce for pork chops, chicken or ham.

Think of leftovers as part of a new recipe and you won't get bored creating new meals from your leftover foods.

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