Amid a busy week, it’s often not lifelike to cook dinner and put together three meals and two snacks each single day. Meal prepping and batch cooking play an infinite function in establishing wholesome habits and getting meals on the desk, however figuring out how one can jazz up these leftover meals and elements is a novel ability that may prevent an immense quantity of money and time. Plus, remodeling leftovers into one thing new helps to vastly cut back meals waste.
If you’re questioning what to do along with your leftovers, listed here are some widespread leftover elements and how one can breathe new life into them.
What to Do with Leftovers
Cooked Rice + Other Gluten-Free Grains
We truly wish to cook dinner additional rice and gluten-free grains particularly so we’ve got some left over! If you’ve got leftover rice available, use it to:
Almond Pulp
We like making nut milk from scratch, so we find yourself with numerous leftover nut and seed pulp! Save the pulp in a bag or jar within the freezer, and while you’ve obtained sufficient listed here are 9 methods to make use of it.
Cooked Chicken or Turkey
A standard leftover ingredient, particularly across the vacation season. Here’s what you are able to do with cooked rooster or turkey leftovers:
Burgers
Veggie or meat burgers are nice recipes for batch cooking, however generally you don’t wish to have them the identical outdated manner in buns or lettuce leaves. Instead, strive serving leftover burgers:
- With a aspect of wholesome baked French Fries
- Crumbled up over a salad
- Broken up into hamburger soup or lasagna soup
- In a bolognese sauce with gluten-free pasta or zucchini noodles
- As a wholesome pizza topping
Salad Greens
Didn’t dissipate your whole darkish leafy greens this week? That’s OK! Get additional life out of your greens earlier than they go unhealthy by:
- Juicing them with low-glycemic fruits
- Blanch, chop and freeze for later
- Blitz with olive oil, lemon, dietary yeast and sunflower seeds for a nut-free pesto
- Make a couple of inexperienced smoothies and freeze them
- Wilt them on the finish of cooking one-pot meals or Instant Pot meals
- Bake kale chips
Roasted Vegetables
We wish to eat plenty of veggies right here on the Academy of Culinary Nutrition, and roasting them actually enhances their flavour. With any leftover veggies you’ve got available, you possibly can:
- Fold into an omelette, frittata or scrambled eggs
- Toss into savory oatmeal or savory pancakes
- Use in a stir-fry with leftover rice
- Bake a casserole with a thick and creamy sauce
- Whip up a fast and simple soup
- Stuff them into rice paper wraps or lettuce wraps
- Blend them with chickpeas to make a veg-infused hummus or dip
- Make a veggie pot pie
- Use for pizza toppings
- Mix right into a salad with beans or grains
- Fold them into gluten-free flatbreads and different baked items (puréed squash and pumpkin are nice for this!)
- If you’ve got contemporary veggies you didn’t get round to roasting, strive pickling them
Stale Bread
There are solely so many days you possibly can eat avocado toast! Take your leftover gluten-free bread and:
- Blitz in a meals processor for breadcrumbs (save in jars within the freezer for later use)
- Bake a gluten-free and dairy-free bread pudding
- Blend with walnuts, roasted crimson peppers and spices for muhammara
- Make croutons
- Create a bread salad with a great deal of contemporary veggies and tomatoes
Overripe Bananas
Photo: That Clean Life
Super brown bananas can be utilized in a wide range of methods:
Crushed Tomatoes or Tomato Paste
Sometimes you don’t dissipate the entire jar or BPA-free can! Try:
- Freezing in ice dice trays for successful of flavour you should utilize later in recipes
- Cook with onions, garlic, herbs and veggies to create do-it-yourself tomato sauce
- Make salsa, plum sauce, ketchup or sizzling sauce
- Fold into scrambled eggs or omelettes
- Use as a pizza sauce
- Blend with soaked cashews for a vegan ‘cream’ of tomato soup
Fresh Herbs
When saved correctly, contemporary herbs can final at the very least every week within the fridge. If you aren’t ready to make use of them up earlier than they wilt, then:
- Mix with olive oil, then freeze in ice dice trays
- Blitz to make a fast pesto, then freeze
- Dry them out, and retailer in sealed jars within the pantry
- Make herbes salees or infused vinegar
- Add to smoothies and juices
- Replace half of your salad greens with contemporary herbs
We hope these concepts spark your creativity – love your leftovers and use them effectively!
