Recreations from Leftovers

Recreations from leftovers is a great way to avoid tossing food out. I’m all about saving money and the grocery shopping budget can be one of the best expenses to get control of to save money. One of the things I hate the most is throwing away leftovers because we didn’t eat them fast enough or suddenly lost interest in that food. Coupled with my newfound interest in creating pasta dishes from leftovers, here are recipes plus a $5 Dinner Cheat Sheet freebie!

Recreations from Leftovers

Let’s start with some of the basics that are included in making a fresh dinner from last night’s leftovers.

1. You need to reinvigorate the flavors in the dish. You might need to add freshly diced onion, minced garlic, add a little bit more salt and pepper, or even seasoning packets (in moderation). You might even need to add BBQ sauce (if the recipe calls for it, of course.)
2. Leftovers are basically the scraps, and one of the sure ways to make a dish look full is to shred the meat. Suddenly a few chicken chunk/strips triple. If you are left with maybe 1 serving of last night’s bell peppers (for example), add more bell peppers to the mix.
3. Cheese Please! Adding cheese and a carb is an easy way to double to the recipe and put something together fast!

Chicken Fajita Pasta – from Chicken Fajitas

BBQ Pulled Pork Pasta – from Pulled Pork Sandwiches

BBQ Pulled Pork Quesadillas- from Pulled Pork Sandwiches. Shred the pork, add some more BBQ sauce and layer it onto a quesadilla. Add another layer (or 2) of cheese and set to cooking it on the stove top!

Turkey Taco turned Sloppy Joe– This might sound crazy, but leftover turkey taco meat makes for an excellent sloppy joe. Simply add BBQ to the meat and reheat it over the stove and eat with a hamburger bun! It’s that easy!