Favorite ways to remake Leftovers

[ice_maiden]

I guess you can say I am a bit of a picky eater... For starters, I have a food texture problem. There are many things I love raw but can't eat once they have been cooked unless they are very finely chopped into a recipe. These are things like cabbage, tomatoes, Bell peppers, and onions.

I am also not much for fast food or prepackaged food. A very few I do like, others I will eat only in limited amounts. Like rice-a-roni. Will do only very limited boxed helpers.

That being said I prefer home cooking but... I am not much for days of leftovers either... I tend to make leftovers into something completely different.

My favorite remake is to take a piece of leftover lean grilled steak and finely dice it up along with small diced carrots, potatoes, onions and cream of celery soup. Cook till the carrots and potatoes are tender. While this is cooking roll some cheap canned biscuits flat. Once your mixture is done, add some to the center of the biscuit and fold over and seal the edge. Bake till the biscuit is done. There are fancier meat pies but this one is quick, easy and cheap. Since the inside is already cooked on stove top. The rest can be baked any way you can cook a biscuit... I use a toaster oven.

you can make several of these with a small chunk of leftover grilled steak, one med potato, a couple of carrots, a small onion, 1 can of soup and 1 can of biscuits.

 

[WheelEstate USA]

Sounds pretty good.

 

[hippiechk]

Day 1 - make small (one of me, the alters don't eat much *laugh*) pot of chilli and eat with garlic toast because chilli needs to proof.

Day 2 - chilli much better...mmmm...eat big bowl by itself.

Day 3 - add rice to chilli for variation.

day 4 - last of chilli and rice into salad or fritatta.

And yes...those folders sound yummy ice_maiden!

 

[Unchained]

While this is cooking roll some cheap canned biscuits flat. Once your mixture is done, add some to the center of the biscuit and fold over and seal the edge. Bake till the biscuit is done. There are fancier meat pies but this one is quick, easy and cheap. Since the inside is already cooked on stove top. The rest can be baked any way you can cook a biscuit... I use a toaster oven.

You can also use crescent rolls for this. Unroll the dough and separate the rectangles, then lightly press the diagonal seam to seal. Fill, fold and bake. Works well for those of us who don't currently own a rolling pin and/or have very limited counter space

My all time favorite leftover remake is pork roast to eggroll filling/ pancit. Back when I had a real oven, I would get a large pork shoulder roast, coat the outside in granulated garlic, onion powder, sea salt, black pepper, cayenne, red pepper flakes and more garlic, pop in a meat thermometer and bake (cover with foil late in the baking time).

Then I would take some of the leftovers, chop into small pieces and marinate in soy sauce, cooking sherry a dash of oyster sauce and a little corn starch or flour for at least 2 hrs. Make sure the marinade is more than you need, as it will also flavor the veggies.

Blanch packaged coleslaw mix (yes, I'm lazy), some chopped raw spinach, a handful or two of bean threads (sai fun) and bean sprouts until bean threads are soft; drain and move to large bowl. Add meat and marinade, mix thoroughly, let cool in fridge 1 hr, mix thoroughly again.

For eggrolls- drain well, break out the wrappers and go to town. Leftover filling freezes very well for the next go round.

For pancit, do not drain. Heat 2 tbsp oil in a large skillet. Add meat/ veggies and 1 package of blanched (just softened) rice noodles. Stir fry until noodles are tender and all is heated through.

Doesn't look like the simplest recipe in the world, but it's actually pretty easy once you've made it a time or 2 and it's really yummy!

BTW, my ex gets credit for the pancit. He found a bag containing 2 full batches of eggroll filling in the fridge while I was at work, ate the whole thing and told me that I made great pancit, but it needed more noodles. Took me a minute to figure out what had happened... he had eaten the filling for about 30 eggrolls in a single sitting!

 

[Zil]

Any cooked protein. I use meat. First is a roast. Then heated in gravy with a couple starch and vegetable is a stew. Some with tomatoes and beans and spice, for chilli. In all these just use your favorite spices.

 

[ice_maiden]

Unchained... I have hardly ever owned a rolling pin... I use a smooth sided drinking glass and a cutting board.... but the crescent rolls would work great too

love the eggroll idea..I never thought of using left over roast to make them. I still make pot roasts on a small scale in a small crock pot but I usually make roast hash out of the leftovers

 

[Willy]

I just take whatever garbage I cooked up the night before and throw it in the frying pan. Dump on the pepper 'n soy sauce and PRESTO, and Del Monte success story! ..Willy.

 

[WheelEstate USA]

Willy, I like the waste not, want not approach.

 

[Willy]

I might not particularly want it, but I sure as shootin' ain't gonna waste it. 'Sides, eating that slop gets me mean, mad dog mean: need that to get by in today's brave new world. ..Willy.

 

[ice_maiden]

I just take whatever garbage I cooked up the night before and throw it in the frying pan. Dump on the pepper 'n soy sauce and PRESTO, and Del Monte success story! ..Willy.

hmmm ... errrr...mmm... NO!...if I can't identify it...I am NOT eating it....and I'm an anomaly... I am from Texas and I eat nothing that is spice hot. So I can't just cover the taste with hot sauce.

 

[kappydell]

Fried rice with minced leftovers.
Take some cold leftover rice (room temp OK) and mix with one beaten egg, soy sauce to taste, and finely minced leftovers. Stir-fry until the egg gets solid & coats the rice. It will be moist, but not runny concoction. Excellent for breakfast! It also works substituting cold leftover spaghetti or ramen noodles for the rice, more of a lo-mein thing then. Either way...I like.