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What you have in your fridge and pantry right now can probably make a delicious fried rice. Use your leftovers to make chicken fried rice and use all those vegetables while they are still fresh to make a healthy fried rice. Here you’ll find the flexible ingredient recipes for leftovers and food you have on hand right now. There are even alternative leftover recipe ideas to use in case they sound better tonight – burrito? quiche? or Oeuf en Cocotte?

Avoid Food Waste, Save Money, Increase Sustainability

We’ve all done it. Bought more than we can use. Perhaps we had intentions to use the food differently or, like me, so often the vegetables or packages of meat or dairy are just too large for me to use easily. We won’t worry about the cause here, we just want to use the food we have on-hand. Avoid wasting food, save money, increase sustainability, maximize convenience, there are so many reasons to use the food we have on hand to make our meals. Luckily, there are some “go to” recipes that are flexible to use a variety of vegetables, dairy or meat and make absolutely delicious dinners and lunches.

Cook the food now while it is still at its peak (or at least still good enough) and you can further extend the life of most foods. For example, cooking up spinach leaves that are not quite fresh enough for salad anymore can not only make delicious food today, but food that could be your dinner or lunches over the next three or four days. Smart!

If you have aging bread, you may want to check-out the article about extending food life and tips how to make bread last.  Find stale bread recipe ideas in Leftover Recipes: How to do a Weekend Fridge Clearout.

You can do it! Here is the Flexible Ingredient Recipe for Fried Rice, so you can use leftovers and food you have on hand in your pantry and refrigerator:

Okay now! Let’s get down to the nitty gritty. Nearly all uncooked food vegetables, dairy or dairy substitutes, eggs and meat can be easily made into any one of the top recipe ideas I have below. But don’t forget about also using cooked meat and vegetables, as they can often be easily used in these recipes as well, as long as they are not too covered in sauces or processed into a full meal already. For more tips on cooked food, continue reading and make sure to read the last section of this article Differentiate “Left-Overs” Versus “Make-Aheads”.

Three other wonderful recipes for using leftovers and doing a refrigerator clear-out are the following:

Differentiate “left-overs” versus “make-aheads”

Use food in the most convenient ways, and you’ll deal with less spoilage. A great way to make sure food is easy to use when you want to use it, is to package it up ready to reheat or cook with, as you put it into the refrigerator. I use two classifications to do this Left-Overs and Make-Aheads.

Left-Overs are a complete meal that I can eat later. Package these up just ready to heat in the microwave, and someone will be much more likely to grab it for an easy lunch the next day. Consider storing it in a microwave safe bowl or small plate (covered in cling film) or similar serving dish, to make eating left-overs even easier and more appealingly than heating up a frozen prepared meal. Eat them within three to four days.

Make-Aheads are food that was cooked for a previous meal, but can be repurposed and used in new ways. These become extra-easy ingredients to make meals with over the next few days.

For example, have a left over pork chop? Dice it up; save it in a clear jar (so you can see it, and won’t forget about it); and toss it into one of your next meals as an easy shortcut to add meat – like into your pasta sauce, casserole, stir fry, eggs, tray bake, soup. Any food that is focused on a single ingredient works well as a “make-ahead”. Meats always work well this way. Consider cooking up a full package of meat at one time. Eat some right away, and save the rest as a “make ahead” for extra convenience.

That ham above look familiar? Yes, that is the ham I used in the breakfast burrito how to video. I ended up using a sliced piece because the cubed ham got used up first in the most delicious potato hash. By the way, the potatoes used in the hash had come from the same large roast dinner, repurposing the potatoes and the ham from a delicious meal into an exceptional breakfast.

Rice, potatoes and many vegetables (even spiced and seasoned) are also great “make aheads” to use in stir fries, soups, burritos, and many other entrees you may be making. And they can even become a core ingredient for a full new entry, such as in the recipes above for Fried Rice and Potato Hash. Store these in clear containers and keep them in full view, so you will use them quickly and conveniently in your cooking.

Now you are all set to avoid wasting food using these recipe ideas. There are some ways to further extend food life.

Extending food life to avoid wasting food

The best way to use food, is at its prime ripeness or freshness. There are easy ways to extend the life of foods that will also help you use them at their peak. Read Ready and Thriving article on Extending Food Life, which will help you to proactively keep food fresh for longer at its peak and to use your food even more easily. These tips can help you avoid having any food go to waste.

If you are a gardener or have glorious friends who gift you with their large harvest of garden vegetables, you will be able to use those vegetables in these recipes here. But to enjoy an “overly large” harvest, you will want to preserve food for the longer term. Watch for my upcoming articles on Extending Food Life page to learn more on preserving food at the peak of freshness.

What’s next?

Look for future blogs on reducing food waste and extending food life on ReadyandThriving.com’s Extend Food Life page. Some topics include the following:

• Cookies and bread crumbs can take on new life as a cheesecake crust or fried topping
• Create a kitchen herb garden for fresh herbs any time
• Grow a fresh food garden that also allows you to get certain foods whenever you want them
• Preserve harvests that are more than you can eat while fresh
• And more … 

Bookmark ReadyandThriving.com and SUBSCRIBE to Ready and Thriving YouTube channel and check back for more ways to decrease your food waste and extend your fresh food life.