What are your favorite ways to stretch food with leftovers?

[guest2]

I realize that this could also go under the frugal challenges board, but I thought I'd put it here because this forum was looking a bit lonely!

Right now my house is smelling divine as I have turkey soup simmering on the stove. This is the 4rd, 5th and 6th meals that I have gotten out of this turkey!
Meal 1: Roasted turkey, mashed potatoes, gravy, green beans, stuffing and cranberry sauce.
Meal 2: Turkey sandwiches
Meal 3: Turkey enchiladas
Meal 4, 5 & 6: Turkey soup made with the turkey carcus, leftover broth, seasonings, 2 huge onions, rice and about 6 stocks of celery.

When I bake a whole chicken, we have it one night and the next day I make soup with whatever is left and the carcus.

Meatloaf: I always make a big meatloaf and set some aside to use in chili or a casserole.

Ham:
Meal 1:Baked ham, scalloped potatoes, green bean casserole, applesauce and a big green salad
Meal 2: Ham sandwiches
Meal 3: Alfredo noodles with ham
Meal 4: creamed potatoes and ham
Meal 5: soup made with the ham bone and broth (could be split pea, lentil or something else)

Roast:
Meal 1: roast cooked in the crockpot so it falls apart, baked potatoes, big green salad, homemade bread and fruit.
Meal 2: BBQed shreaded roast on a bun, fruit.

Mashed potatoes: I either add them to a chowder, add cheese to them and bake them or add minced onion and an egg to them, form them into patties and fry them in butter!

Leftover beans, corn, and other vegis find their way into casseroles or soups.

There are many more ways I stretch things and sometimes it's just freezing the leftovers for future meals!

Looking forward to all you ideas also!!!

[Mom23boys]

Debbie, you have some fantastic ideas for stretching food. I can't think of any right now besides freezing all my leftover vegetables and using them in soups/stews. I will try to think of others.

[sunshine]

Let's see:

I always add extra rice/noodles/potatoes to any recipe, and cut the meat by 1/3 to 1/2.

Chicken: we eat the meaty pieces on day one (5 of us so that means the thighs and breasts), day 2 I serve the meat from the wings, legs in a cream gravy over toast, day 3 I boil the carcass and make chicken/rice soup. I also render the fat and save it for baking and frying.

Save the veggies for "garbage soup"

fruits that are about to go bad get made into smoothies- as well any tiny bits.

I add oatmeal or tofu to ground beef to stretch it.

[guest2]

sunshine,
You've got some great tips there! Mind if I use a few? I freeze bananas all the time, but will have to do it with other fruits for smoothies! The chicken in cream gravy sounds good too!

[sunshine]

Use any you want- that's what this board is for, right?

[sunshine]

for Opal and any others that are interested.

[Nada.Leona]

Here are some of my favorite things to do with leftovers:

Mashed potatoes

~always make too much. Then freeze 'em -- when thawed, they have the consistency of boxed mashed potatoes and are great for thickening sauces, soups, chowders, stews, etc.

~ use them as the bottom layer of a shepard's pie

~ use them in pancakes, muffins, breads, etc.

~ fry 'em up with some onions, garlic, celery and bits of leftover meat for hash.

~ mix with some tuna, some spices and fry up in canola oil or butter to make fish cakes.

Poultry

~ Roast it in a roasting pan, serve for supper with potatoes, carrots, turnip, etc. Make a nice gravy with the gooey stuff left in the roaster (I'll get to post how do this if anyone is interested).

~ When you've had all the chicken dinner you want, take all the leftover meat off the carcass that you want (some people like to do the wings and legs in sauce, but we usually peel off the meat because I am not big on wings) and boil it down to make a great chicken stock -- add some onions, celery, garlic and carrots to give it lots of flavor.

~ Then take all the leftovers and divide it into two portions -- half for a soup and half for a casserole.

~ For the soup, mix up 2 c. chicken broth, 1 c. milk (using milk powder and water, of course!), the veggies, the chicken, and anything else you feel like adding. Heat through -- this is much quicker and easier than most people think.

~ For the casserole, put a layer of potatoes down first, then a layer of veggies. Then a layer of meat. Pour on a simple cream or simple cheese sauce, then cover with the last of the vegetables. Then, a layer of potatoes. Cover with a layer of breadcrumbs tossed in olive oil and salt, and (if desired/available/affordable) a layer of cheese. Bake at about 350 for half an hour or so -- again, because everything is cooked, it's just a matter of heating everything through.

Leftover Soups and Casseroles:

~ freeze any leftovers in individual or large portions, depending on whether you'd use it for supper or lunch for school/work.

~ if you have too much soup and are tired of it, drain off the liquid. Pour the solids into a greased casserole dish and ta-da! Instant casserole! (Freeze liquid for another soup).

~ if you have too much casserole and are tired of it, add some chicken broth, vegetable broth, milk or cream, and some seasonings to the casserole mix. Stir well to break up the casserole -- ta-da! Instant soup!

Leftover Spaghetti Sauce:

~ great for pizzas (especially meat sauce), tortillas, chilis, encilladas, casseroles, soups, stews, etc. Just add for flavor!

Day-Old Bread:

~ French toast
~ Bread crumbs
~ Garlic toast

Dry Cheese:

~ shred and freeze for any kind of cheesy topping/melting you might do.

~ toss your dry cheese onto your day-old bread when making garlic cheese.

Beef or Pork Roasts:

~ pretty much the same as poultry -- make casseroles and soups. Hash is also a good one.

~ with leftover beef, you can make stew, stir fry, sheppard's pie, sandwiches, enchilladas, wraps, toss in salads, etc.

~ with leftover pork, stews, stir fry, sheppard's pie, sandwiches, wraps, salads, toss in bake beans, etc.

Leftover Baked Beans:

~ blend 'em up to mush. Serve instead of mashed potatoes, and use in place of mashed potatoes in any of my previous suggestions.

~ add some water and/or cream and make a nice soup base. Toss in some leftover ham for a great bean chowder.

Pickle Juice

~ bake pork chops, salmon or vegetables in pickle juice to give them a great, salty and dilly flavor.

~ add a splash to soups for a bit of zest

~ take a cucumber and slice it thin. Put as many slices as will fit in the broth and put in the fridge for a few weeks to a month -- you'll get brand new pickles! Or try hard-boiled eggs.

Tuna Juice

~ give it to the kitty! They LOVE tuna juice.

Leftover Mashed Vegetables:

~ serve in place of mashed potatoes

~ add to soups, stews, casseroles, etc.

~ blend up and add some cream to make a beautiful creamy soup

~ add to muffin mix for veggie muffins (great for kids who won't eat their veggies)

Leftover Fish:

~ fish cakes (tuna makes great fishcakes btw!)
~ fish hash
~ fish soup or chowder

Bones:

~ send 'em to us! makes what he calls "brown stock" out of the bones of everything but fish. He collects all the bones from beef, pork, wild game or chicken/turkey into 4 ice cream containers in our freezer. When he has enough, he tosses everything into a big stockpot and boils it for about 12 hours (don't stir or it'll get cloudy!). He's left with the most beautiful, flavorful stock. And you know it's the best when it turns to jelly when it's cold.

That's all I can think of for now, but if anything else comes to mind, I'll add it later!

[pkellyc]

One more for pickle juice.

Boil the juice for 10 minutes and let cool. You really should do this before reusing.
Add frozen vegetables or blanch fresh for pickled veggies.

[Judi Dial]

My biggest success this way is with a roasted chicken.

Meal 1: roasted chicken with potatoes, citrus, and rosemary
Meal 2: more of the same
Meal 3: tacos or hash or creamed chicken on [toast or rice or (depends on how much we have left)] or sandwiches or curry
Meal 4: same ideas as 3, but slightly changed, probably
meal 5: all the bones, giblets, and remains from the previous meals (which have been frozen) go in the crock pot with whatever is left and I make stock.

And sometiimes:
meal 6 + the light stock and fat are removed, the carcass again covered with water in the crock pot and cooked down until it is a brown, sticky goo, demiglace. When it gets to where it is getting thick, I remove the carcass and other larger bits. The demiglace goes in the frig and is used instead of bullion cubes for flavoring. (You get VERY little demiglace from a chicken, like 1/4C. You have to be really dedicated (or crazy?) to do this, I think, it can take up to 3 days!)

Judi

[Judi Dial]

Oh yeah, sorry! I'm only feeding 2 people here! I'm sure that makes a HUGE difference.

Judi

[Nada.Leona]

Oh yeah, sorry! I'm only feeding 2 people here! I'm sure that makes a HUGE difference.

Judi

Nope. I only feed and myself and even though is a big eater, we still do all the things I suggested. Our grocery budget (though we do go over it frequently because of good deals) is $80/month.

[Dancing Lotus]

I keep a tupperwear in the freezer and put all our left over veggies in it. We always have one spoonful left inthe pot so instead of tossing it if I add it to the bowl in the freezer when its full I have enough for a casserole or soup.

[wildflowerpa]

My problem wtih stretching leftovers is that my dh is a germaphobic. He thinks because it was froze when it came home from the store you cant freeze it after you cook it. I have managed to sneak a few things in but not much. Sd eats everything in sight if not at supper an hour later and can't undertand why we have so many potatoes with our meals. We have tried telling her that it stretches meals and its something we have on hand since I have a garden full of them. If i would freeze leftover veggies he'd have a stroke!!!!!!

[Shannicurls]

Well I'm a newbie here and stretched my first meal this week.
Wednesday hubby mane tacos, Thursday we had leftovers and Friday I made Mexican pizzas. Usually we would have just tossed the little bit of leftover taco meat after the second serving, but we're down to our last little bit of money so I decided to squeeze one more meal out of the meat!
But I'm definitely learning from all the posts here!

[amecoy75002]

Thanks for all of the tips. Some I do and some are new to me! LOVE this board. Thanks again ya'll