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Finding Free Food in Your Fridge
It's that time of year when most refrigerators are packed with leftovers. Holidays are over, kids are back to school, gardens are producing prolifically, and fridges are packed to the top not only with fresh food, but leftovers.
While a lot of us hate to let food go to waste, the only alternative is to reuse food we didn't finish a few days ago and prepare dinner out of leftovers.
Do you realised that meals made from leftover are free - you've already paid for the ingredients when you used them in the original dish!
Leftovers were once planned to become another tasty meal, but sadly in these extravagant times, to many they are no longer appealing; instead perfectly good food, that you have paid for, is being tossed in the bin. You might as well just put $10 in the bin every night!
Fear not, with just a few tricks, similar to the ones Grandma used, you can create tasty meals once again simply by utilizing leftovers.
Leftover Meat Dishes
One way to recreate a great meal from your leftovers is to blend it with fresh ingredients. In this example, pasta works with many different beef and chicken dishes. Use thin spaghetti, wide noodles, macaroni, spirals, you name it with your meat leftovers. Add gravy, tomato sauce or even chili to turn an ordinary dish into an extraordinary dish.
Turn leftover leg of lamb or lamb chops into a sweet curry for a quick and tasty 'leftover' meal. This was a Monday night staple for so many Australian homes in decades past, to use up all the Sunday roast.
Leftover sausages are delicious chopped into 1cm slices and heated in barbecue sauce (bottled is fine). Serve over hot noodles for a tasty meal in minutes. Add them to sweet'n'sour sauce or plum sauce and serve over rice. Use them to top pizzas. Roll them in pastry and serve real sausage rolls. Turn them into a stew. The ways to turn leftover sausages into another meal are almost endless, just use your imagination, and enjoy a free meal from your kitchen.
Vegetable Dishes with Rice - Twice as Nice
If you have leftover vegetable dishes that you would like to reuse, one of the greatest ways to do so is to prepare it with rice. Whether you choose white or brown rice, you can prepare an awesome vegetable dish and make it into an entirely new meal. Turn them into a delicious fried rice or frittata.
Chill the rice and mix through chopped vegetables, add some Italian or French dressing and you have a delightfully different rice salad.
Try vegetable pancakes as a way to use up leftovers. Dice the vegetables and add to a pancake batter (replace the sugar with mixed herbs). Cook tablespoonfuls in hot oil until golden brown on both sides. These are delicious hot or cold with tomato sauce.
Create Sensational Soups with Leftovers
If you are stuck with a few meals in your refrigerator and you don't know exactly what to do with them, you can always toss them into a pot and prepare delicious soup. Whether it is chicken, mince or beef, making flavourful soup out of leftovers makes sense.
Preparing soups using leftover is painless. You can pretty much add any sliced meat and chopped vegetable to some broth or a cream base to create a great tasting soup. Even old bread can be useful (toast it as croutons).
Don't Throw Out That Stale Bread
If bread or rolls have gone stale you can freshen them by brushing with cold water and then heating in a moderate oven for about 5 minutes. You'll be surprised at just how fresh it is after this treatment.
Bread and rolls can be whizzed or grated to make breadcrumbs. Use them as fresh crumbs in meatloaves and rissoles or spread them in a thin layer on an oven tray and bake in a hot oven for 3 - 5 minutes until they are golden and dry to use as toasted crumbs.
Cut sliced bread into small cubes and dry in the oven to make croutons for soups and salads. Spray them with olive oil and sprinkle with herbs, garlic or paprika for seasoned croutons.
For a sophisticated and international twist stale croissants can be used in place of bread in bread and butter puddings. Use orange marmalade instead of jam and you'll fall in love with this dessert.
Stale cake can be used in trifles or to make bases for other desserts. Top stale sponge or madeira cake with tinned fruit, spoon over some juice (or a liqueur if you prefer) and then top with whipped cream.
If you are lucky enough to ever have biscuits last long enough to go stale they can be crushed and the crumbs used to make pie crusts or as the base for a truly decadent caramel slice.
Using Leftover Fruit
Generally, many houses will have a couple leftover apples, oranges or bananas in their refrigerator. While the odd piece of fruit is not necessarily a leftover, practically all fruit can be utilized to prepare delicious fruit smoothies, ice blocks and baked goods.
Fruit smoothies are easily prepared with some milk, yoghurt, fruit and a blender. Not only are they healthy, but perfect for a treat or even breakfast. Fruit smoothies are ideal for leftover fruit or even slightly over ripen fruit. Mixed with a little milk or juice, or yoghurt, they still taste good and won't go unused.
Dice wrinkly apples and add to pancake batter or muffin batter.
Mash bananas and add to cake mix or muffin batter.
Puree berries with a little sweetener of choice and use as a syrup over cakes or pancakes.
The next time you search deep into your refrigerator and see all the meals from the past week, don't panic, use them to prepare new meals, soups and even desserts.
Then give yourself a pat on the back for creating free meals!
While a lot of us hate to let food go to waste, the only alternative is to reuse food we didn't finish a few days ago and prepare dinner out of leftovers.
Do you realised that meals made from leftover are free - you've already paid for the ingredients when you used them in the original dish!
Leftovers were once planned to become another tasty meal, but sadly in these extravagant times, to many they are no longer appealing; instead perfectly good food, that you have paid for, is being tossed in the bin. You might as well just put $10 in the bin every night!
Fear not, with just a few tricks, similar to the ones Grandma used, you can create tasty meals once again simply by utilizing leftovers.
Leftover Meat Dishes
One way to recreate a great meal from your leftovers is to blend it with fresh ingredients. In this example, pasta works with many different beef and chicken dishes. Use thin spaghetti, wide noodles, macaroni, spirals, you name it with your meat leftovers. Add gravy, tomato sauce or even chili to turn an ordinary dish into an extraordinary dish.
Turn leftover leg of lamb or lamb chops into a sweet curry for a quick and tasty 'leftover' meal. This was a Monday night staple for so many Australian homes in decades past, to use up all the Sunday roast.
Leftover sausages are delicious chopped into 1cm slices and heated in barbecue sauce (bottled is fine). Serve over hot noodles for a tasty meal in minutes. Add them to sweet'n'sour sauce or plum sauce and serve over rice. Use them to top pizzas. Roll them in pastry and serve real sausage rolls. Turn them into a stew. The ways to turn leftover sausages into another meal are almost endless, just use your imagination, and enjoy a free meal from your kitchen.
Vegetable Dishes with Rice - Twice as Nice
If you have leftover vegetable dishes that you would like to reuse, one of the greatest ways to do so is to prepare it with rice. Whether you choose white or brown rice, you can prepare an awesome vegetable dish and make it into an entirely new meal. Turn them into a delicious fried rice or frittata.
Chill the rice and mix through chopped vegetables, add some Italian or French dressing and you have a delightfully different rice salad.
Try vegetable pancakes as a way to use up leftovers. Dice the vegetables and add to a pancake batter (replace the sugar with mixed herbs). Cook tablespoonfuls in hot oil until golden brown on both sides. These are delicious hot or cold with tomato sauce.
Create Sensational Soups with Leftovers
If you are stuck with a few meals in your refrigerator and you don't know exactly what to do with them, you can always toss them into a pot and prepare delicious soup. Whether it is chicken, mince or beef, making flavourful soup out of leftovers makes sense.
Preparing soups using leftover is painless. You can pretty much add any sliced meat and chopped vegetable to some broth or a cream base to create a great tasting soup. Even old bread can be useful (toast it as croutons).
Don't Throw Out That Stale Bread
If bread or rolls have gone stale you can freshen them by brushing with cold water and then heating in a moderate oven for about 5 minutes. You'll be surprised at just how fresh it is after this treatment.
Bread and rolls can be whizzed or grated to make breadcrumbs. Use them as fresh crumbs in meatloaves and rissoles or spread them in a thin layer on an oven tray and bake in a hot oven for 3 - 5 minutes until they are golden and dry to use as toasted crumbs.
Cut sliced bread into small cubes and dry in the oven to make croutons for soups and salads. Spray them with olive oil and sprinkle with herbs, garlic or paprika for seasoned croutons.
For a sophisticated and international twist stale croissants can be used in place of bread in bread and butter puddings. Use orange marmalade instead of jam and you'll fall in love with this dessert.
Stale cake can be used in trifles or to make bases for other desserts. Top stale sponge or madeira cake with tinned fruit, spoon over some juice (or a liqueur if you prefer) and then top with whipped cream.
If you are lucky enough to ever have biscuits last long enough to go stale they can be crushed and the crumbs used to make pie crusts or as the base for a truly decadent caramel slice.
Using Leftover Fruit
Generally, many houses will have a couple leftover apples, oranges or bananas in their refrigerator. While the odd piece of fruit is not necessarily a leftover, practically all fruit can be utilized to prepare delicious fruit smoothies, ice blocks and baked goods.
Fruit smoothies are easily prepared with some milk, yoghurt, fruit and a blender. Not only are they healthy, but perfect for a treat or even breakfast. Fruit smoothies are ideal for leftover fruit or even slightly over ripen fruit. Mixed with a little milk or juice, or yoghurt, they still taste good and won't go unused.
Dice wrinkly apples and add to pancake batter or muffin batter.
Mash bananas and add to cake mix or muffin batter.
Puree berries with a little sweetener of choice and use as a syrup over cakes or pancakes.
The next time you search deep into your refrigerator and see all the meals from the past week, don't panic, use them to prepare new meals, soups and even desserts.
Then give yourself a pat on the back for creating free meals!