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We've all been there. Perhaps you have just cooked a huge holiday meal and are facing a refrigerator filled with leftover bits and pieces. It doesn't even need to be a post holiday refrigerator.
We all come face to face with leftovers from time to time and can feel a bit frustrated in how to reuse them in a delicious way that our families will enjoy.
We may even have family that refuse to eat leftovers. My father is like that. He says he doesn't like leftovers and won't eat them if he knows that is what they are.
Happily I am known as the Queen of Leftovers. There is no leftover I cannot turn into something which may even be more delicious than the initial meal! Seriously!
In a world where many go hungry and food waste is a huge problem, this is a skill we each need to learn to develop. I like to think that with my handy tips and ideas that can be a problem no more for you as well! Leftovers can be delicious too!
With a little bit of inspiration and not a lot of work we can all be good stewards of what we have been given as far as food goes. If you would like to be inspired to do better when it comes to using up your leftover or excess food read on! (If you are interested in some tasty recipes, scroll down)
Whenever you are faced with loads of extras, don't throw them out. Package them into some tightly closed containers, label and then either place them into your refrigerator or the freezer.
This goes for eating in restaurants as well. Always ask for a doggie bag, don't be ashamed to ask. You paid for it. Its yours.
Turn them into tomorrow's lunch. (or even breakfast) Leftover meats and cheeses can easily be incorporated into a salad or a sandwich. I love eating leftover pizza or pasta for breakfast.
Be inventive with your leftovers. Leftover meat or chicken stews make the most delicious pot pies. All you need to do is to reheat them and top with a pastry or some biscuits and bake in the oven. I can guarantee ain't nobody going to be turning them down!
For leftover meat, why not chop it fine or grind it up and use it just like you would use ground beef. I have done this many, many times and it is always enjoyed. In a lasagna or casserole, as a cottage pie, or even for hot sandwiches such as sloppy joes.
Leftover chicken or turkey is never a problem. Chicken is such a versatile protein, if you are like me you will never have a problem using it up. It works wonderfully in salads and casseroles.
Added to gravy it makes an excellent hot sandwich. Its even great on pizza.
We love it in tacos and enchiladas. Every time I cooked a turkey my family was drooling at the thought of the enchiladas I was going to make with the leftovers while they were still eating the holiday dinner!
Leftover fish? That is also not a problem. I often will mince it up, mix it with a cream sauce, or some mayonnaise and grated cheese, perhaps a bit of chopped onion or pickle. Spread onto biscuit dough (like a scone dough), roll it up slice and bake. This is excellent served with a cream or cheese sauce to spoon over. Or even as a side to a bowl of soup.
Leftover vegetables might be a bit more problematic, but if you put your thinking cap on there is no end to what you can do with them.
Potatoes are very easy to deal with. Who does not love fried potatoes, or hash. Just cube your leftover baked or boiled potatoes and fry them in a bit of butter with some onion. Perfect to enjoy with your breakfast eggs, or as a tasty side with dinner.
Leftover mashed potatoes? No problem. Add a bit of finely minced onion and maybe some meat or cheese, shape into patties or rolls, coat in egg and bread crumbs and fry in butter. If you shape and chill them really well, they cook a lot easier and won't fall apart.
Even if they do I can guarantee nobody is going to turn their nose up at golden brown buttery bits of fried potato, mashed or otherwise!
Bubble and squeak is the ultimate leftover vegetable dish! Its just a fancy name for vegetable hash. Just chop everything up, mix it together and then melt some butter in a skillet. Add the vegetables and cook, mashing everything down so that it covers the base of your skillet. Let brown and then carefully flip over to brown the other side. Delicious cut into wedges and served with a poached or fried egg on top!
Cooked ham is wonderful finely minced and then made into Deviled Ham. You can find my recipe for that here. I can promise you that it is incredibly delicious.
Its fabulous served on toasted baguettes or as a sandwich filler. Leftovers made delicious!
I also like to use leftover ham in casseroles. Its excellent stirred into scalloped potatoes or macaroni and cheese. We also enjoy it sliced and fried for breakfast with eggs. Finely chopped and baked in a Quiche it also shines.
Here are a few more ways to help to make your leftovers shine and starve the garbage can! My mother didn't call me the Queen of Leftovers for nothing!
Monday Night Supper
This is quite an old recipe for a delicious casserole you can make with your leftovers from your Sunday roast dinner. Beef, Lamb or Pork are lovely done this way, and you can also make use of any leftover vegetables you might have as well as leftover gravy.
Old Fashioned Baked Hash
Simple and incredibly tasty. Your family is sure to love this tasty combination of leftovers and fresh vegetables.
Leftover Meat Escallope
This delicious casserole makes great use of leftover bits of meat or poultry, vegetables, gravy, etc. A nice tossed salad on the side, and you have a delicious meal that everyone will enjoy and nobody will care if it is leftovers or not! I guarantee!
Greek Casserole
Almost like a lasagna, and a Greek Pastitsio, but using leftover cooked beef. If you don't have any leftover beef, you can use the equivalent in browned ground beef in its place.
Country Style Casserole
This tasty casserole makes good use of leftover cooked rice. Grated carrot, cheese, a good mayonnaise, egg, and some spring onion. Just stir together and bake for a delicious side dish that the whole family will love.
Ham and Cheese Casserole
A quick and easy way to use up bits of leftover cooked ham. With ham, cheese, noodles, and vegetables in a deliciously creamy sauce. With its crispy crumb topping, what's not to love?
Cheesy Chicken Enchilada Casserole
A very family friendly casserole that is very easy to make. Cheese, cooked chicken, (or turkey) tortillas, enchilada sauce, etc. all combine to make a spicy, quick and delicious casserole that everyone will love!
Teriyaki Chicken and Rice
Teriyaki is one of my favourite tastes. You can call this fusion cooking. It is a combination of two of my loves. Fried rice and Teriyaki! You can make it with chicken or turkey, or even ham!
Hot Turkey Poutine
It's your favourite sandwich, but it's not a sandwich. It's poutine!
Chips, cheese, gravy, stuffing and turkey! This is soooo good, I often just buy a small turkey breast roast to cook just so we can have it. You don't get much better than this!
Turkey Hash
Cooked turkey, sweet potatoes, regular potatoes, a bit of spice, some cheese and Bob's your Uncle. A bit spicy and very flavour-filled.
Cheesy Cornbread Turkey Pot Pie
Leftovers from your holiday meal, put together in a very delicious way. I love the cornbread biscuit topping on this fabulous casserole. You can also use chicken, or even a combination of chicken/turkey and ham. Delicious any way!
Proper Ham and Eggs
It doesn't get much better than this. Properly fried eggs accompanied with thick slices of ham fried in butter and toast soldiers. For breakfast or dinner, it always goes down a real treat!
A delicious soup with smoked ham, buttery soft cabbage, vegetables and a flavour-filled broth. The cheese dumplings on top tip it over the edge to heavenly.
Chicken And Ham Pie
This lush pie makes great use of cooked chicken (turkey) and ham. In a beautiful lard/butter pastry, that is in three layers rather than two. (Yes there is an extra layer of pastry in the middle dividing the chicken from the ham.) This always goes down a real treat and nobody minds that they are eating leftover at all!
Slow Cooker Potato & Ham Chowder
This is a hearty soup with beautiful flavours. You get the creaminess from the cream. Saltyness from the ham. Herbiness from the use of thyme and rosemary, and then lets not forget the garlic and the onion. Both are not only flavourful but very aromatic as well.
Broccoli & Potato Casserole
Ham, Leek & Potato Gratin
A tasty gratin that makes great use of leftover baked ham, boiled ham, or cooked ham hocks.. Its delicious! You can also use leftover potato in this, or cook potato specifically. Delicious any way you decide.
Salmon, Broccoli & Potato Gratin
Simple. Easy. Delicious. Economical. If you like Salmon and you like Broccoli and you are wanting delicious supper dish that goes together quick as a wink . . . this dish is for you! You can use tinned salmon or leftover cooked salmon, flaked. Fabulous any way. Pesto adds a special touch.
Broccoli & Potato Casserole
This delicious bake makes great use of leftover baked potatoes. In fact if I am going to bake some potatoes for supper, I always throw a few extra into the oven just so that I can make this tasty casserole the day after!
It never hurts to have already cooked potatoes on tap!
As you can see, leftover food need never be boring or lackluster. There is always a delicious way to present it so that everyone enjoys the leftovers just as much as they did the original meals!
I have pages and pages of leftovers on this blog. What I have shared today is only the tip of the iceberg. If you are wanting even more inspiration just put the ingredient you are looking for into the search option at the top of the page and see what comes up. I guarantee you will discover something delicious, or I'll eat my hat, and I am betting I could even make that taste scrumptious!!
Sometimes even I need additional inspiration on how to use up my leftovers. One site which I have found very helpful for that is Gumbo. You just pop your ingredients into the search window and it finds recipes that you can easily use them in. I love it! Reducing your food waste has never been easier.
This old fashioned potato side dish has been a favorite in my family for many, many years. My grandmother made it for her family and my mother made it for us. My own children also enjoyed it.
Of course like any of these dishes, each generation adds something into the mix. I strongly suspect in my grandmother's day it was just the corn, milk, potatoes, onions and seasoning.
Mom always added a bit of summer savory to the mix. I no longer do that myself, but I do like to add some cheese to the layers.
Basically it is just creamed corn, sliced potato, and sliced onion layered in a baking dish with some flour and cheese, as well as seasoning between the layers.
A bit of milk is poured over top and then the whole lot is baked in the oven until the potatoes are tender. I also like to add a layer of buttered cracker crumbs on top.
I am a person who likes a bit of crunch on things like this. You can't beat buttered cracker crumbs, although I have also been known to use bread crumbs as well when I didn't have any crackers.
I love that crunchy buttery topping and my family did as well. When this was on the menu, my children were very happy campers!
I loved it because I could make the dish as large or as small as I needed it to be, depending on how many mouths there were sitting around the table. Its very easy to amp up or amp down. A lot of these old recipes are!
WHAT YOU NEED TO MAKE CORN AND POTATO SCALLOP
Simple store cupboard ingredients. I love recipes like this. Simple ingredients put together in a most delicious way!
- potatoes
- onions
- grated cheese
- whole milk
- salt and black pepper
- creamed corn
- all purpose flour
- buttered cracker crumbs
Unlike regular scalloped potatoes, there is no need to make a cream sauce on top of the stove. This simple recipe leaves that step out.
Instead the creamed corn, milk, cheese and flour work together in this tasty dish to make a creamy sauce.
HOW TO PREPARE THE VEGETABLES FOR CORN AND POTATO SCALLOP
Generally speaking one large potato and a small onion will be all you need for every two to three people. I like to use a russet type of potato. I do peel both the potato and the onion.
Once you have your potato peeled, cut it in half lengthwise and then cut each half crosswise into thin slices, each resembling a half moon.
The onion is treated the same way. Peel, cut in half lengthwise and then cut in half crosswise into half moons.
HOW TO MAKE CORN AND POTATO SCALLOP
Once you have your vegetables all prepped it is as simple as just layering things up in your casserole dish. Its not difficult at all.
The size of the casserole dish you use will depend on how many people you are feeding and how many potatoes you are using. Today I was making a small-batch which would feed only two to three people.
I used a 2-cup (1-pint) round Pyrex casserole dish which has a lid. Butter the dish really well. (This makes clean up a lot easier.)
I start by spreading about 1/4 of the can of creamed corn in the bottom of the dish. Onto that I put a layer of potatoes. I tend to do this in concentric circles, beginning at the outer edge.
Next I add a layer of onion. I always separate the half moons of sliced onion into separate bits. I just scatter some of these over top, and then dollop on another 1/4 of the can of creamed corn.
I season with some salt and pepper and sprinkle on a bit of flour and some grated cheese. Not a lot of any one thing, but just enough so that you know it is there. If you don't want to use cheese, you can dot with butter.
The cheese/butter works with the flour and cream corn to make a sauce when it bakes. I just keep repeating the layers until everything is used up, ending with some cheese on top if I can. Over that I scatter the buttered cracker crumbs.
It works out to 4 layers of creamed corn and three of everything else, if that makes sense. Once you have everything layered in you add some milk.
How much milk you need depends on how much you have in the dish and the size of your dish. I use the tip of a knife to move things around a bit so that the milk can get right down to the bottom of the dish.
You do not want anymore than 1/3 of the casserole dish filled with milk, unless you want a mess at the end. (Milk doubles in volume when heated!) Cover tightly and bake until the potatoes are tender and everything is bubbling away.
You can remove the cover for the last five to ten minutes of baking so that the cracker crumbs get all nicely browned and crispy. That's it!
This is such a simple homey dish. It wouldn't win any beauty contests, but I can tell you it would probably come first place in a taste contest because it is extremely delicious.
I can't think of anything that wouldn't go with this. Yesterday I had it with some roast ham, but it is just as good with chicken, or pork, lamb, fish, etc. Its just plain good eating no matter what!
I really hope you will make it! I used the smaller can of cream corn yesterday. When I make it for a larger group I use a large can, maybe even more depending.
I don't personally think there is such a thing as too much cream corn, but then again, I have been known to eat it with a spoon, cold and fresh out of the tin. 😆 Yes, I am that person!
Corn and Potato Scallop
Yield: 2 - 3
Prep time: 15 MinCook time: 45 MinTotal time: 1 Hour
This old fashioned side dish is an old family favorite. You can multiply it very easily to serve more people if you wish. Its delicious, easy to make and goes with just about any protein you can think of!
Ingredients
- 1 large potato, peeled
- 1 small onion, peeled
- 1 can of creamed corn (you may not need it all)
- 2 TBS flour to sprinkle
- salt and black pepper
- grated cheddar cheese to sprinkle (about 4 TBS)
- a handful of buttered cracker crumbs
- milk as needed
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350*F/180*C/ gas mark 4. Butter a small (2 cup/1 pint) deep glass baking dish.
- Cut the potato in half lengthwise and then cut into thin half-moons cross-wise. Do the same with the onion.
- Place 1/4 of the creamed corn in the bottom of the casserole dish. Top with 1/4 of the potatoes and the onions. Season with salt and pepper, sprinkle with 1/2 TBS flour and 1 TBS of the cheese. Repeat 3 times until you have all layered in the dish.
- Pour the milk over top, using the tip of a knife to move things around a tiny bit in order to allow it to get down to the bottom. Do not fill more than 1/3 of the baking dish with milk. Scatter the buttered cracker crumbs on top and then cover tightly with a lid.
- Bake in the preheated oven for 45 minutes to 1 hour until the potatoes are soft and everything is bubbling. Uncover and allow to brown for about 10 minutes.
- Remove and let stand for 5 to 10 minutes before serving.
Notes:
You may want to place the casserole dish on a baking tray just in case it bubbles over in the oven. Also, I sometimes start this in the microwave to help it cook quicker. About 6 minutes on high, and then pop into the oven as above. It should be done in 35 minutes or so.
Not too long after I moved into my new place, I purchased myself an Instant Pot. This is the model I bought here. It is a multi use pressure cooker. I can even make yogurt in it if I want to.
I am ashamed to say that today is the first time I used it, inspired by my sister having used hers to make a stew yesterday. It sounded so nice, I thought I would give it a go!
.JPG "Instant Pot Beef Stew")
I picked up some stewing beef at the grocery store yesterday. I was shocked at how expensive meat it getting. I paid $7.69 for .388 kg, which is not even a pound.
Stewing beef sells for $19.82 a kilo here, which is 2 1/4 pounds. Outrageous when you think that stewing beef is not even the best quality beef around. I do not know how families can make ends meet and feed themselves these days!
.JPG "Instant Pot Beef Stew")
That is where making something like a stew can be a delicious economy. You don't need a lot of meat and by adding a lot of vegetables to it, you can stretch that meat even further!
My recipe today makes four servings out of one pound of meat, and nobody will feel shortchanged because there are loads of delicious vegetables and there is lots of tasty gravy, ready to be mopped up with bread and butter.
This is a meal made in heaven.
One thing which I did differently than the usual here, was to use a package of fresh potato gnocchi. This is the brand I used. I am a huge fan of gnocchi. Little potato pasta dumplings that you can use almost like potatoes.
I have always used them just like potatoes myself. I boil them and fry them with onions, etc. They always come out most delicious!
.JPG "Instant Pot Beef Stew")
The gnocchi add a lovely heartiness to the stew and doesn't break down like potatoes do. You add them at the very last. They only takes about 2 minutes to cook.
I really love the way they hold together in things like this.
.JPG "Instant Pot Beef Stew")
WHAT YOU NEED TO MAKE INSTANT POT BEEF STEW
Aside from the Instant Pot, very simple ordinary kitchen ingredients. It looks like a lot but most of them are seasonings/flavorings.
- 1 pounds boneless stewing beef, cut into 1 inch cubes
- 1 TBS oil
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1/4 tsp black pepper
- 1/2 tsp garlic powder (not salt)
- 1/2 tsp onion powder (not salt)
- 1/2 tsp dried summer savory
- 1/4 tsp dried thyme
- 1 bay leaf, broken
- 1/4 cup tomato ketchup (61g)
- 1 TBS Worcestershire sauce
- 1 TBS Balsamic vinegar
- 1 1/2 cup beef stock (360ml)
- 4 1/2 cups peeled and prepped vegetables (see note)
- 1 package refrigerated fresh potato gnocchi (4 serving size)
- 2 TBS flour
- 2 TBS cold water
.JPG "Instant Pot Beef Stew")
I used the Knorr beef stock concentrate for this. Ordinary tomato ketchup (adds a nice tang) as does the Worcestershire sauce. Normally I would add sweet pickle juice to my stews, but lacking that, today I added balsamic vinegar with excellent results.
I used a variety of vegetables for my stew. Parsnips, carrots, onion, rutabaga and celery. The onions and celery break down quite a bit and are not really all that discernable in the end.
.JPG "Instant Pot Beef Stew")
I left my vegetables quite chunky because I didn't want them breaking down too much. Although the instant pot does cook the stew in a fraction of the time that you would normally need to cook a stew, it's still long enough to break down your vegetables.
I love soft vegetables in my stew, but not mush. So, do keep them in largish chunks.
.JPG "Instant Pot Beef Stew")
HOW TO MAKE INSTANT POT BEEF STEW
It's really easy and quite quick, once you get over your initial fear of pressure cooking. If you follow the instructions that come with your instant pot, you needn't fear!
Add the cooking oil to the Instant Pot insert. Select sauté, adjust to normal. Add the beef cubes, cooking in two batches. Cook 2 to 4 minutes on one side until browned. Repeat on the second side.
Once all of the meat has browned return it to the pan along with all of the herbs and seasonings, along with the broken bay leaf. Give it all a good stir and cook for a few minutes. Select CANCEL.
Place all of your prepped vegetables on top of the beef in the pan.
.JPG "Instant Pot Beef Stew")
Whisk together the ketchup, Worcestershire sauce, Balsamic vinegar and stock to combine. Pour this mixture over top.
Secure lid. Set pressure valve to SEALING. Select MANUAL. Cook on high pressure for 45 minutes. Select CANCEL.
Set pressure valve to VENTING to quick-release pressure.
Add the potato gnocchi, cover and keep warm on the warm setting until the gnocchi have cooked through. (Should only take a few minutes.)
Whisk together the flour and water until smooth. Whisk this into the pot. Select SAUTE, adjust to normal. Brint to a simmer and then cook, stirring frequently, until the mixture has thickened, and any flour taste has been cooked out. Select CANCEL.
Serve hot spooned into bowls along with crusty bread to sop up all that lush gravy.
.JPG "Instant Pot Beef Stew")
I was really pleased with how delicious this stew turned out and how very quickly it was ready in comparison to the traditional method.
My friend Glenna stopped by right after it was done. She has just bought herself an Instant Pot, so she was quite interested in how it went together. I gave her a bowl of it to take home with her. (She just lives across the road from me.)
I think I have found a new way to make a tasty stew! Many thanks to my sister for inspiring me!
.JPG "Instant Pot Beef Stew")
If you would rather make stew in the traditional way you might enjoy the following recipes:
BEEF STEW FOR TWO WITH BISQUICK DUMPLINGS - A down-sized version of my favorite beef stew, perfectly sized for two. It may be smaller in size but is every bit as delicious as the full-sized version!
IRISH LAMB STEW - There is nothing fabulously outrageous ingredient-wise about this stew. Simple ingredients put together in a very simple way. Stewing Lamb, potatoes, carrots, onions, celery. Thyme, stock and seasoning. A bit of oil for browning the meat.
EASY OVEN STEW - This has to be the easiest and tastiest stew around. I clipped the recipe from a newspaper many moons again and I have been using it ever since. It pretty much cooks itself. With just a bit of peeling and chopping, your work is pretty much done, and if you use frozen chopped onions and buy your meat already cubed, then it doesn't take long to throw together at all.
Yield: 4
Instant Pot Beef Stew (with Potato Gnocchi)
Prep time: 15 MinCook time: 50 MinTotal time: 1 H & 5 M
You won't believe how quickly you can make a delicious stew in an Instant Pot! This is quick easy and incredibly tasty!
Ingredients
- 1 pounds boneless stewing beef, cut into 1 inch cubes
- 1 TBS oil
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1/4 tsp black pepper
- 1/2 tsp garlic powder (not salt)
- 1/2 tsp onion powder (not salt)
- 1/2 tsp dried summer savory
- 1/4 tsp dried thyme
- 1 bay leaf, broken
- 1/4 cup tomato ketchup (61g)
- 1 TBS Worcestershire sauce
- 1 TBS Balsamic vinegar
- 1 1/2 cup beef stock (360ml)
- 4 1/2 cups peeled and prepped vegetables (see note)
- 1 package refrigerated fresh potato gnocchi (4 serving size)
- 2 TBS flour
- 2 TBS cold water
Instructions
- Add the cooking oil to the Instant Pot insert. Select sauté, adjust to normal. Add the beef cubes, cooking in two batches. Cook 2 to 4 minutes on one side until browned. Repeat on the second side.
- Once all of the meat has browned return it to the pan along with all of the herbs and seasonings, along with the broken bay leaf. Give it all a good stir and cook for a few minutes. Select CANCEL.
- Place all of your prepped vegetables on top of the beef in the pan.
- Whisk together the ketchup, Worcestershire sauce, Balsamic vinegar and stock to combine. Pour this mixture over top.
- Secure lid. Set pressure valve to SEALING. Select MANUAL. Cook on high pressure for 45 minutes. Select CANCEL.
- Set pressure valve to VENTING to quick-release pressure.
- Add the potato gnocchi, cover and keep warm on the warm setting until the gnocchi have cooked through. (Should only take a few minutes.)
- Whisk together the flour and water until smooth. Whisk this into the pot. Select SAUTE, adjust to normal. Brint to a simmer and then cook, stirring frequently, until the mixture has thickened, and any flour taste has been cooked out. Select CANCEL.
- Serve hot spooned into bowls along with crusty bread to sop up all that lush gravy.
Notes
I used carrots (3 large), parsnips (3 small), 1/2 a small rutababa/swede, 1 medium onion, 2 stalks celery. Peel all of your vegetables. Cut the carrots and parsnips into thick coins. Cut the swede into 1/2 inch cubes, chop the onion. Slice the celery into 1/2 inch pieces.
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Add the vegetables and add water as needed.
Cover and cook on low for a further hour or so, or until the meat and all of the vegetables are tender. Add the potato gnocchi. Cook for several minutes until the gnocchi are tender.
Whisk together the flour and water until smooth. Whisk this into the stew, whisking constantly, until the mixture has bubbled and thickened. Cook for a few minutes to cook out any flour taste. Serve as above.
Leftovers taste even better the day after, and this freezes beautifully.
This content (written and photography) is the sole property of The English Kitchen. Any reposting or misuse is not permitted. If you are reading this elsewhere, please know that it is stolen content and you may report it to me at: mariealicejoan@aol.com
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