7 Creative Ways To Get Rid Of Your Leftovers

Leftovers pile up. We’ve all been there. And we’ve all felt the guilt of letting perfectly good food go to waste. But what if we could repurpose some of these lost and forgotten fridge additions into spectacular kitchen worthy dishes? Maybe some of these ideas will cook up some inspiration. Here’s 7 ways you can use your old food up before it’s too late!

1. Turn Old Stale Bread Into A Bread And Butter Pudding

Bread and butter pudding has been an English kitchen staple since the middle ages. No, I’m not joking. It was first introduced as a peasant dish in medieval times as an exercise in frugality, intended for stale bread. Invoking that same spirit, try using your old bread with some custard and raisins to create a classic British comfort food!

For a boozy tip, pour some whisky into the mix- to really put the ‘comfort’ in comfort food!

2. Curry Omelette- Takeout Style

Ever had curry takeout and ordered way too much? Don’t worry. Besides, curry always tastes better the day after, when all the spices have had more time to blend and become a true spice mix. But while you’re at it, why not use up your old eggs too and make a curry omelette?

Omelettes are the ultimate cheat sheet for eating leftovers. If you have eggs in the fridge, whip them up with your old veggies and sauces for a one-pan meal.

3. Spag Bol- Too Much Bol, Not Enough Spag

Everyone loves spaghetti Bolognese, but getting the ratios just right is a rare occurrence. Luckily, mince is type of leftover food that can always be reshaped into another dish.

The ways to re-use spag bol are endless: baked potato topping, pasta bake, shepherd’s pie filling, chilli con carne, the list goes on. My personal favourite is stuffing it in a baked capsicum (because for some reason, it’s always spag bol and capsicums in my fridge…).

4. Turn Old Rice Into Rice Porridge

Ever had Chinese takeout and found you were left with boxes upon boxes of extra rice?

For a quick and easy Asian styled leftovers hack, add a little ginger and garlic to your rice and re-boil it into rice porridge. Also an old peasant dish, rice porridge was used when there wasn’t much else to eat (Most likely, someone over-boiled their rice and decided to just go with it).

5. Blend Old Mushrooms Into Veggie Burgers

There are always too many mushrooms in the tubs you get from the supermarkets, leftovers are inevitable. Instead of letting them shrivel up and dry out, take out your food processer or blender and transform them into meat for burger patties.

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Don’t blend them too much or the burgers will just fall apart, but most of all remember to season them just the way you like it!

6. Make Stale Bread Into Croutons and Breadsticks!

The versatility surrounding stale bread and leftovers is limitless. But croutons are an absolute winner for giving a fancy touch to the can of Heinz tomato soup that’s been sitting in your cupboard. Just cut you croutons into cubes, oil and stick in the oven.

Alternatively, instead of cubed croutons, make something your friends will go crazy for at parties and cut your bread into long strips to make bread sticks. Perfect for salsa and sour cream dips at parties.

7. Retire Old Berries To The Saucepan

Berries of any kind is delicious, but temperamental. One day they could be fine, and the next, mould city. When you feel that your fruit are heading down that particular hellish highway, get out your saucepan and boil them down with some water and sugar to make a great dessert sauce or jam.

After that, it’s fair game what you do with it. Drizzle over ice-cream for a tangy treat, spread on toast in the morning, even use as a homemade filling for donuts or a sugared breadstick dip. Get creative with it!