Learning to Embrace Leftovers

I am always surprised when someone expresses their utter disdain for leftovers. I have been a long-time fan of them, myself! Here in The Speeding Kitchen, I can use them to my advantage, to help put together a meal even faster than usual. The wise and creative use of leftovers means that nothing is going to waste, keeping my grocery bill down! And I admit I feel more than a little satisfaction in creating something delicious out of items a lot of people might have just tossed in the garbage.

A few evenings ago, my husband was out at dinner time and my motivation for cooking for myself and my two boys was running low (sometimes it's hard to muster up my cooking enthusiasm when I know they'd be just as happy with a peanut butter sandwich!)

I rooted around in the fridge for a couple of minutes, and came up with: 2 baked potatoes (leftover from burger night), half a carton of sour cream, a few strips of bacon and a jar of salsa with a few spoonfuls left at the bottom. I also had some garlic chives poking up in the veggie garden. Inspiration struck and I came up with the following:

Spicy Potato, Bacon, and Onion Hash

2-3 strip of bacon
2 baked potatoes, peeled and cubed
1 small onion, chopped
2 tbsp canola oil
3-4 tbsp salsa
1/4 tsp each salt and pepper
sour cream and garlic chives for garnish

In a small frying pan, cook the bacon until crisp. Remove from pan. Saute the potatoes and onion in the oil until onions are tender and potatoes turn golden brown. Add salsa, salt and pepper and mix well. Crumble bacon and add to potato mixture. Cook for a minute or two longer. Spoon out onto serving plates and garnish with sour cream and garlic chives.

To round out our meal, I scrambled up some eggs and toasted the last few slices of homemade bread we had on hand. This turned out to be a deliciously satisfying meal!

I hope I've convinced you that leftovers are a good thing - they can be the springboard to a tasty, something-for-almost-nothing culinary creation.

Sunday Night Fridge Clean Out

Time: approx. 15 minutes

It's hard to cook when you have no idea what's in your fridge or where to find it. Fortunately, it's not difficult to keep things organized in there if you stay on top of it regularly. A quick once-a-week romp through the depths of the fridge should be enough to keep the science experiments at bay. This should take about 15 minutes. If your fridge is a total disaster, just work on it 15 minutes at a time, every day for 1 week and you should get it under control.

Remove any spoiled food and toss in compost, green cart, food disposal or (last resort!) garbage.

Found stuff that's still edible?

Make a plan to use it in the next 24 hrs (i.e. tomorrow's lunch or dinner)

OR

Freeze it for future use (make sure to label it clearly with the date and type of food- trust me, you won't remember what it is 2 months from now when you find it at the back of the freezer!)
If you have leftover mashed potatoes, freeze it in approximately 1 cup portions (we'll talk about what to do with them later!) If there are little bits of a few different cooked vegetables lying around, you can freeze them together if they seem compatible (e.g. green beans and carrots) - they can be tossed into a soup, stew or other dish later. If you have leftovers of an entire dish (like a casserole or soup) portion it out into single servings for future use when quick lunches or dinners are needed.

If you do a once-a-week clean out faithfully, you'll always have a good idea what's in your fridge, and you'll drastically reduce the amount of food waste in your home - and the amount of money you're spending on groceries!