A Different Twist on Leftovers...

     Had a conversation with a friend earlier looking for ideas on meals and meal planning, and figured I would share what I have been up to this week, in hopes that it might inspire others.
      I have a rule at my house, waste not - want not. Saturday evening, we enjoyed a meal of beef roast (slow cooker), baked potatoes and fresh carrots with a butter dill sauce (Not so normal for us to have a full meat course, but on occasion it is nice...). As always, I plan on leftovers with most meals, using one base to make another meal completely. Now after cooking the roast, I had stock and left over roast to put up. The stock was set into muffin tins, to freeze into smaller portions, leaving easily usable disks of beef stock to add to recipes in the future (one less thing to purchase from the store and I keep it sodium free!). All kept in a wonderful little labeled bag in the freezer - without taking up too much valuable space. (The little floating bits are just fat. I skim most of it off, but happy to leave a small amount). This is also a great thing for leftover gravy, as I often add a disk or two to soups and stews to give it a little flavor.

Muffin tins with beef stock ready for freezing.

     Next, I shredded the leftover roast (had two teen boys for dinner that night - so not quite as much left over...), added some frozen peas & carrots, some onions, herbs & spices, and a bit of the left over gravy - all dumped into a pie crust, and topped with mashed potatoes. A quick and easy meat pie! Completely different meal, but using all the leftovers I had. Even the water that I boiled the potatoes with is set aside and fed to the plants. They love the starch boost from the potato water!

Meat pie before the potatoes. The little white pieces are garlic and dehydrated onions.

     Then I added the mashed potatoes and gravy just before going into an oven heated at 350 degrees for approximately 40 mins - just long enough to get everything heated through and a bit of browning on top of the potatoes. Came out wonderfully, and even my picky son ate it. Always a grand thing!

Finished meat pie - fresh from the oven!

     Now whenever I cook, I try and use whatever I can so as not to waste. Vegetable scraps are chopped coarsely, thrown into a labeled bag in the freezer, and boiled down to make vegetable stock, frozen the same as above. I also do the same with chicken stock, and find I no longer need to purchase extra from the store. After the veggies are boiled down and sifted from the stock, they go onto the compost bag, which when full, heads out to my rolling compost bin. So nice when everything can be used!
     Sunday was a casual dinner night of chicken quesadillas (left over single grilled chicken breast from Friday was cut up and used for them -perfect size for a couple for each of us), along with some single serve cookies in a cup for dessert. Finished off the last bit of cheese, the grilled chicken breast, and some pico di gallo I had thrown into the freezer. Thinking my son also finished off a couple of other small veggie leftovers we had in the fridge as well. Tuesdays are my cleaning the fridge day, as Wednesday is trash day. Nothing worse than something going foul in the trash and stinking up the house! Luckily, it is a rarity that I have any food that needs to be emptied out of there though - lets' get real, I have a teenage son and he LOVES to EAT! Luckily he has a mom that is a great cook! LOL

     Also, most days I bake small batches of all the bread we use (check out this site for Artisan bread in just 5 minutes a day!), but sometimes it still goes stale. When that happens, I end up cubing up and throwing in the freeze for bread pudding or making croutons later on, the freezer halting the oxygen from damaging it further. If I am really not paying attention and a tiny bit gets a little mold, the critters that live out back get a treat. LOL Though I usually am fairly good at keeping it all under watchful eye. 

     Too, if your family has a great deal of left overs and not really a good thing to try and make another meal out of, try freezing single portions into smaller zip lock bags. We have a bin in the freezer just for that, so on nights that I am busy or unable to cook, the kiddos can fend for themselves. A much better "frozen dinner" option. Many times we have left over soup, and it too is frozen into muffin tins and then transferred into zip lock bags, as you can heat up as much as you wish to eat. Makes life much more convenient! 

     I know as busy parents, we are always looking for useful tips that are tried and true. Perhaps just trying to shave down a bit on the grocery bills, etc. Always good to save as much as possible in this economy! If you are single and tired of cooking for one, the freezer portions work great! Or find some friends and get on the same style of freezing, and host a meal swap. Each of three friends cooks three separate meals, then freeze portions. Get together and swap out, so as to have variety without having to cook every night. Saves a ton of money and is always a great way to try other foods! 

     I always love great tips and ideas, please feel free to share some so that we may all benefit from the shared knowledge! Thanks!