Frugal Friday: Using what you have
One thing which greatly stretches our grocery budget is the creative usage of leftovers. I love to come up with new recipes using up those random odds and ends of things.Tonight's dinner was one such creation. We had some leftover black bean chili and some sour cream. I also had some tortillas, cheese, burrito seasoning, and some canned tomatoes on hand.
I mixed the seasoning with the canned tomatoes and chili and then layered in a pan: tortillas, beans mixture, cheese, and sour cream and then repeated this layering twice. I heated this through at 350 degrees.
And ta-da! Instead of throwing out those few servings of chili or letting them become a "science experiment" in the back of our refrigerator, we had layered enchilada casserole for without it really costing us anything additional for another meal.
I'd love to hear some of your favorite leftover creation ideas. I'm always coming up with new ones based upon what we have on hand. And surprisingly, most of the time they are really good! Sometimes even better than the original dish!
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posted by Crystal Paine at 11:32 PM
38 Comments:
This is one of my favorite things to do! It is such a great way to save money AND find new meals.
I have posted ideas for using leftover mashed potatoes.
This is my first week participating in Frugal Fridays.
Thanks for hosting and sharing so many wonderful tips.
Stacy
This is one of my very favorite things to do. And in fact, I often plan it into my week's meal plan. I usually make an "original" dish once every few days. One thing I love to do is make a roast beef with carrots and potatoes roasting in the pot. We will eat 1/3-1/2 of the original roast, but then I am able to stretch the rest of the meat over several other days. The next night is almost inevitably either a stew or a hash made from leftover veggies and meat.
Oh, my! We had the "same thing" for dinner tonight. :) :)
Finding new ways to use leftovers is always great. I *hate* wasting food - but it does happen from time to time.
Exactly. We never throw anything away around here!
A lot of times I just put all the leftovers out and let everyone pick what they want. Call it a buffet!
I posted this week about a baked potato bar. It is a good way to use some leftovers too.
Using what you have is one of the best frugal tips I know! Thanks Crystal!
This is one of the cooking things I do best I think. My favorite leftover meal is probably quesadillas made with leftover chicken or beef, or taco meat, a bit of shredded cheese and the endless supply of flour tortillas we keep stocked in our fridge. We nearly always have a can of beans and a jar of salsa on hand, so that rounds out the meal, with perhaps some steamed corn.
I also keep a veggie bag in the freezer, and any leftover veggies from meals go in there. When the bag is full, I pull it out, add whatever leftover meat I have hanging around and work my magic to make a wonderful beef stew.
Yup! Here is my favorite pantry recipe:
http://atime4everythingblog.blogspot.com/2007/11/easy-quick-and-delicious-chicken-pot.html
I used to "remake" meals because I didn't have enough money to throw things out...I didn't realize how frugal I was being...Now that we have a little more money I do this on purpose.
~simply stork~
That's pretty much what we do - make a casserole out of leftovers by adding a little here and there. Tomato sauce, cheese and pasta usually makes a nice base for casseroles.
Thanks for hosting this carnie. :) I always enjoy it.
Hi Crystal... thanks for hosting! I love that my husband is so involved in my blogging that he is giving me ideas. :)
I started making up new recipes as a teenager with what our family had on hand. I still find it to be fun and even an adventure to come up with new delicious meals!
I often times have leftover onions, green peppers, etc. that I've cut up for tacos or a roast. I place the remaining veggies in a zip lock in the fridge and sauté them the next day for omelets, bake them in a casserole, or use them in a soup.
I love to reuse leftovers too. This week we had some Enchiladas that I used up some leftover taco meat in as well as some leftover brown rice. It was new and different but my family loved it. I very rarely throw old food away.
sometimes we have chopped kilbassa, potatoes and bell pepper for supper. I then use the leftovers for a soup, or instead, I mix the left-overs with scrambled eggs, top with cheddar cheese and bake it at 350 for a breakfast casserole. A nice hearty breakfast for the weekend.
Leftovers are often breakfast or lunch some other day, rewarmed.
I have had leftover meat of any kind I've had leftovers of on pizza.
Plain pasta or rice can be mixed with a new kind of meat and/or sauce for the next meal.
My best "leftover creation" was probably pizza with cubes of sweet potato, potato, pork and beef. And the meat was already a leftover when it got cubed with the potato.
This week I purchased 1.5 kilos of green peppers at 1.50 Euro (um, that's about $2 or so). I also had a little bit of ground pork in the freezer, and a little bit of shredded cheese.
I browned the pork, chopped 3-4 of the green peppers, and put them together in a small baking dish; coated with 1-2 Tablespoons of oil, then put the cheese on top. It came out delicious! I was quite surprised, as I wasn't following a recipe or anything.
I didn't have any potatoes, but I thought that this would be great as a topper for baked potatoes with a cream sauce.
I have a recipe for breakfast bread pudding that I really like. When I have leftover bits of bread, whether plain or cinnamon raisin or zucchini bread or pancakes, I put them in a container in the freezer until I have enough to make bread pudding.
Hopefully I'm doing this right; I've never participated in Frugal Fridays before! But I just posted on my blog about a good deal at Walgreens; Christmas wrapping paper is buy one, get two free. That's three rolls for only $1.99! And, they have some other great deals, too!
This is my first time doing Frugal Friday. I posted about making cheap tortilla chips.
Thanks!
Ashley
Amanda: Thanks for joining in! I fixed your link to go directly to your FF post. I try to encourage everyone to have their links go directly to the Frugal Friday post to keep it easy for people to find!
Oh and be sure you check out all the other Walgreens deals I posted about on MoneySavingMom.com - if you haven't already!
We have several "beans and rice"-type dishes and leftovers of these make terrific soups! Just add broth, and that's really all you need, although I sometimes add extra leftover beans or cooked chicken or veggies or whatever. I am a total soup dunce, though, and I can do this! lol
One of our favorite leftovers is also with chili. We make baked potatoes in our crockpot. (Just scrub, butter, wrap in foil, and place in a crockpot on low for 7 hours.) Then we cut up the potatoes, top with the warmed chili, sour cream, cheese, green onions, bacon bits, salsa, and this list could go on and on!
We also enjoy warm meatloaf sandwiches.
Ruth, PA
I was able to make something yummy today while cleaning out my pantry too. Check it out!
http://www.tomotherhoodandbeyond.com/2007/11/jumbo-breakfast-cookies.html
Crystal,
I believe you have posted before about a website where you can type in three ingredients that you have on hand, and it puts them together to make a "recipe" suggestion. Am I remembering that correctly? What was that site? It sounded great for the "on-hand" kind of cooking you're talking about. Hopefully someone may have the link.
Thanks! Savannah
Sounds delicious, Crystal! I recently "created" a super yummy soup using left over mashed potatoes (which usually do not taste all that great the second time around). The results were great! Thanks for sharing.
~Kristy
I put together bbq chicken, corn and baked beans and then pour cornbread mixture over it and bake it. Hearty and tasty!
Dear Crystal,
Here is a Frugal Friday tip inspired by the one I read today about generic laundry detergent:
I have a front loading washer and was growing desperate to find a less expensive high efficiency detergent than Tide, the only one I found to really clean our clothes well. Then I learned this trick from the owner of a Laundromat nearby. You can use regular laundry detergent in your front loading washer, just use much less. I started off using only 2 Tablespoons Arm & Hammer detergent (a little more or less depending on how small or how large the load) plus 1 Tablespoon Borax, and all our clothes have been coming out very clean. If I use the Great Value Ultra Glacier Breeze detergent I read about in one of the Frugal Friday tips today, my cost will be closer to 6 cents a load!
This is my first week participating. I'm not very frugal, but making your own baby food is. Have you seen the prices on those jars?!
Not very original-but don't forget that stock from the bones of a chicken makes a great basis for a filling soup.
The stock can be made quickly in a pressure cooker or easily in a slow cooker (crock pot).
Annaelisabeth
This week I put leftover chicken and spinach into a quiche with homemade crust - I try to keep homemade crust on hand in the freezer. Quiches are so versatile and we eat them for breakfast for a week! Last week I made little empanadas with leftover chili, folding a few spoonfuls of chili in the dough and baking them. These are great on their own! We often eat them with sour cream, salsa and shredded cheese on top - yum!
I keep a tupperware container in the freezer that I fill with every little bit of beef, veggie, (beef) broth, and gravy. Anything beef,veggie or potato will go in. I don't even waist a spoonful. When it's full I will make the best stew ever! It takes the day to thaw it out but only 10 min to cook it. Sometimes I need to add broth or more veggies but for the most part it's ready to go. If I need to thicken it I do it with instand mashed potatoes. (I always have them on hand for a quick beef or chicken pie with potatoes for the top!)
You'll never have a better soup.
momtogirls5
Praise God for good stewardship. Stay away from ladies that joke about leftovers. They can ruin your budget.
We use leftovers for lunch, saves time AND money.
your meal sound GREAT to me!
I blogged today about making homemade "chinese takeout", complete with photos and instructions for making wonton soup.
One of my favorite things to make for dinner with leftovers is fried rice, or spanish rice. Sometimes I use leftover meat and veggies to make egg rolls. I also use a lot of leftovers in soups and stews.
Dear Crystal,
I have a Frugal Friday tip. It is a lesson I have learned over the years and that is to glean knowledge from folks in the generation that lived through the Great Depression.
I know this very nice gentleman that had lived during the Great Depression Era. I love to hear him talk of his stories during that time. He was 10 years old when it happened.
Well that experience has helped him to save considerably and to be thankful for what he has.
I am amazed at how well he takes care of his belongings. For instance, this gentleman has a pair of well-worn boots that are twenty-five years old, yet he has kept them in great shape over the years. He has a very remarkable way of keeping up his belongings. Nothing gets tossed, unless it is beyond repair or maybe someone in need can take the item.
He is big on doing things himself if not he finds a family member to do it. He rarely pays for a service like plumbing. His financial decisions are always well thought out.
Please find one of these individuals who lived during this time. Glean from them because they are wells of wisdom about saving. You will be amazed at what they might have had to do to get by.
Pumpkin
Hey Crystal,
Thanks for all the great tips on Frugal Fridays. We have six children whom have never been picky eaters because we never throw anything away. We turn leftovers into a buffet, or sometimes we make pizza or casserole. For instance, last night I was making spaghetti and didn't have any spaghetti noodles. We just used regular elbow macaroni noodles and mixed our sauce and a little cheese altogether and baked for about 20-30 minutes. I was surprised how much easier this was for the little ones to eat. Keep up the good work.
Marie in NC
Something which we eat alot of in the North East of England is something called panhacklety. It is basically, meat, potato, onion and gravy.
In the old days wives would go to the butchers and buy the cheapest bits of meat (scrag ends), or maybe use the leftovers from a sunday joint, or odd bits of meat they had lieing around. These days we use sausages and bacon, or corned beef (or in my case, vege sausages).
Another benefit of this dish is that you can leave it on a slow cooker all day, and get on with whatever else you need to do.
Take an oven dish and layer the bottom with very thinly sliced potato, then add a layer of onions, then bacon, then sausage, and so on until the dish is full. I only put the sausage in the middle and the top, then cover the top layer with tatties, as sausage is expensive.
Then when the dish is full, cover everything with gravy. I add celery salt to the gravy, just a little, to give it a better taste.
Pop in a slow cooker and leave until the top layer is caremelised and the tatties are so soft and full of gravy, they break in half at the slightest touch.
This is delicious, nutrious, cheap, and easy to make.
I will be posting other north east faves on my blog, and there all nutrious and cheap.
Hope you enjoy this recipe.
Take Care and God Bless
Melanie
http://www.freewebs.com/melaniegalloway/
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