Tricks for using up leftovers

Got lots of leftovers from dinner? Instead of throwing them away why not find exciting ways to use them?

Using your leftovers minimizes your waste production, which benefits the environment and enables you to live a more sustainable lifestyle.  live a more sustainable lifestyle. Plus, you'll save on the grocery bill because you won't need to buy as many new ingredients for future meals.

Here are some top tricks for using up your leftovers.

Freeze your leftovers

If you've got another portion or two of your dinner left over, don't throw them away. Instead, freeze your leftovers so that they can be ready to eat another day.

Alternatively, you can store them in the fridge and consume them the next day. Consider using clear glass containers so you can easily see what things you have left over. It’s never fun to find a container in your refrigerator for a meal you forgot about and is now past its best-before date. Alternatively, use sticky notes to label them.

Create dishes with the same ingredients

When you have spare ingredients after cooking a meal, use them to create something else. For example, if you've got ground beef leftover from making chili, use it to make spicy beef tacos the next day. If you've cooked too much tofu for your stir-fry, save it to throw into a salad the next day for lunch. It's all about getting creative and thinking of innovative ways to combine your ingredients.

Vegetables are highly versatile ingredients that are easy to use up if you have leftovers. You can add them to almost any dish (like soups, curries, pasta, pizza, quiche, and stir fry) and can even combine them with fruits to create healthy smoothies and shakes.

Use your stale bread

When your bread starts to go stale, your first thought might be to throw it away and buy a new loaf. But think again! You can use your stale bread to make breadcrumbs, which you can use as a coating for your chicken, turkey, or tofu.

You can also use stale bread to make crusty rolls or bruschetta to enjoy as part of any meal. Consider freezing your bread when it goes stale to preserve it and use it at a later date.

Reuse your pasta

It's easy to cook too much pasta, but you don't need to throw it away if you've got leftovers after dinner. Instead, store it in the fridge to reuse the next day in soup or pasta salad. Pasta is a highly versatile ingredient that tastes great with almost any meat (or meat alternative), vegetable, and sauce. You can also freeze your pasta and it should last for between three and six months.