I saw that fridge and thought, “beautiful, I would love one of those in my kitchen!”  But then, I came back to reality remembering I had just had to pick up a “rolling” tupperware from the last time I opened mine so I realized, not practical for my house

Here’s how I use my leftovers.  I had the brilliant homemaking foresight to have a bizarre son who likes to eat non-breakfast food for breakfast.  I don’t have to be creative!  I just have to be willing to look at, smell, and heat up, chinese food at 7 am.  Voila!  Clean refridgerator, no waste, protein rich breakfast for bizarre child!

I find I can mix just about any leftover veggies with pasta, toss with some oil & cheese and have a main course or side dish (depending on how much I have). I also like to shred leftover protein (think steak or chicken) and us it wrapped up in tortillas with any cheese hanging around, roll up, heat and slice into small pieces.

I always try to keep a big ziplock bag of ends from carrots, onions, celery in the freezer to us when I am cooking chicken (I like to braise my chicken on the stove in some liquid). Just keep adding to the veggie pieces whenever you are chopping.

When my husband was working in the area I used to package any dinner leftovers into ready to go lunchtime containers as I was putting them away. He really preferred to bring leftovers for lunch than to go out. Now he is away during the week, so I just try to package anything leftover for the freezer right away - giving me a night off from cooking sometime later.

My last trick is to gather up any ingredients I want to use and do a recipie search on foodtv or epicurious.com using the ingredients I want to use. I have gotten some good ideas this way.

Regina, my daughter is the same way.  She eats all sorts of weird things for breakfast.  I’m just happy she’s eating something good, so if she wants leftover chicken legs and potatoes, she can have them.

I like to “disguise” leftovers by making them into something completely different.  Shred roast chicken, beef or pork and mix with sauces to make pulled pork, pulled chicken, enchiladas, all kinds of things!  Chop up cooked chicken and use in soups or casseroles.  Cube cooked pot roast and make stroganoff or goulash.  Leftover steak or chicken makes great fajitas or quesadillas.  Leftover hamburgers can be crumbled up for chili.

Don’t forget soup. Leftover pasta, veggies and meat chopped up and tossed into chicken or beef broth.  Add a can of tomatoes. Or some milk and cheese. Rice pudding uses leftover rice. Stir fries also use up rice, veggies and/or meats.

And here I thought I was doing well just eating the leftovers as, well, leftovers (you know, instead of throwing it away). We usually get through them as lunch the next day. If there’s some still left, I freeze it for a lunch for my husband or a dinner for all of us later, depending on how much there is.

One of my favorite ways to use up all those little dabs of veggies and meat(as well as leftover rice) is to make stir-fried rice.  A little bit of corn, some peas, cut up a carrot, throw in a chopped up sausage link or a little leftover ham.  Saute it all in some butter as well as the rice, then put in some scrambled eggs.  Soy sauce if you like.  Yum!  The kids love it!

Since I was lucky enough to taste this pizza casserole, I can vouch that it was most delicious!

I have eaten left overs for breakfast as long as I can remember. When I was a child my Mom would cook a pack of hot dogs on the grill ,every time that she used it ,just to put in the fridge for my brother’s and my breakfast. To this day I don’t care for cereal, eggs,pancakes, or any other traditional breakfast foods. Instead pizza and grilled meats chicken, steak, even taco meat wrapped in a tortilla with shredded cheddar are some of my favorites

Another favorite left over use tip in our house is omelet stuffing. My husband loves omelets and I can put any left over meats and vegetables ( especially those which I don’t like) in with a little cheese and he has a different breakfast every day.We rarely waste food around here.

Check out Crescent Dragonwagon’s book, Passionate Vegetarian. It is full of sidebars headed “cook once for two [or more] meals.” I think she’s the one who calls them “planned-overs” instead of leftovers, but the ideas work just as well for accidental leftovers. Summer is a great time to put leftover beans and grains into a hearty main dish salad—mix it up in the morning and let the flavors meld until dinner, and you don’t have to heat up the kitchen. I am also a frittata fan, since they can turn dribs and drabs of things into a quick easy dinner the next day. I like to bake extra sweet potatoes and make them into muffins—also works with steamed carrots if they haven’t been peppered. I often make tortilla soup and shepherd’s pie, both of which are favorites at my house. Conveniently, I can toss various odds and ends into either recipe and no one complains.

As homeschoolers we love left overs for lunch…as well as “resturant night” when we pull everything out of our frig and let the kids pile up what they want…you can even get a big kid to make a menu to show what is available. (first come-first serve) We also make smoothies a couple times a week with left over fruit, half eaten bananas, any kind of juice or yogart. +JMJ+