A Guide to Leftovers: Take Out and Homemade Foods that Taste Better the Next Day

Open your fridge and chances are bound that you are to be confronted with leftovers. Leftover food is a blessing when it comes to food preparation (click here to see a slideshow of the best leftover dishes). Using leftover food will save you valuable time cooking in the kitchen, in addition to saving you money versus just throwing them out. If handled correctly leftover food can be used in an exciting new dish. Whether you are an experienced cook or someone who can't use a stove, "A Guide to Leftovers: Take Out and Homemade Foods that Taste Better the Next Day" is article you don't want to skip. In it we explore the best take out and homemade leftover food.

Leftover Take Out Food

Take out Pizza
If you haven't discovered it already, refrigerated take out pizza is an excellent tasting leftover. Cold take out pizza makes a great breakfast. Cold take out pizza is also easy to grab on your way out the door to work.

Take out Chinese Food
Any good take out Chinese restaurant will serve a heaping portion of food. Not only will it taste great the night that you order it, take out Chinese food makes a great midnight snack or meal the next day. Some leftover Chinese take out food that tastes great when cold are: crab rangoons, chicken fingers, boneless spare ribs, lo mien, and of course pork fried rice.

Take out Mexican and Indian Food
Both take out Mexican and Indian cuisine use a lot of spices. Take out Mexican foods such as enchiladas and burritos are easy to eat cold or reheated. Take out Indian dishes on the other hand often involve a heavy rice component (think stir fry), and are generally better when reheated. Both take out Mexican and Indian cuisine are two spicy leftovers that are sure to quickly become favorites in many households.

Homemade Leftover Food

Homemade Meatloaf
Homemade meatloaf is one of the most versatile dishes to use when it comes to preparing original meals with leftover food. One option is to make a homemade chili. Cut up the meatloaf, add a can of kidney beans, tomato sauce, and a few spicy ingredients like chili powder and hot sauce, then let it simmer in a crock pot.

Leftover meatloaf can also be used to make the comfort food classic shepherd's pie. Just add a layer of frozen vegetables on top of the ground up meatloaf, top it with mashed potatoes, sprinkle on some cheese, and bake it in a casserole dish for half an hour.

Leftover meatloaf is the main ingredient in many other great homemade dishes you can make, such as tacos, meat balls, sloppy joes, and casseroles.

Stews and Soups
Both stews and soups make fantastic leftover food because when you refrigerate them they have time for the liquid to thicken. After being reheated, homemade stews and soups will taste more flavorful.

Homemade Turkey Dinner
One classic use for a leftover homemade Thanksgiving turkey dinner is to make turkey sandwiches with stuffing and cranberry sauce. Not only are turkey sandwiches quick and easy to make, they are delicious. Another idea is to make enchiladas, substituting the often used chicken with turkey.

Homemade Roast Beef Dinner
Like turkey, homemade roast beef is another great item that goes well in a sandwich the day after. Another great option is to use the meat to make a homemade meat pie, which leads us to...

Homemade Meat Pies
Be it chicken pot pie, or a French meat pie, homemade meat pies in almost always taste better the day (or two!) after. Some may prefer to eat them cold, while others like to heat them up in a toaster oven or microwave. One great trick is to add hot sauce to leftover homemade meat pies.

Homemade Pasta
There is a reason why leftover pasta tastes better the second day. People generally cook their pasta and sauce separate from each other, and only combine the two on a plate when serving. When the pasta and sauce are combined and sit over night, this gives time for all of the flavors to infuse into the pasta, similar to how people marinate chicken or steak. Many restaurants will cook the pasta and sauce together for a few minutes just for this reason.

Homemade Lasagna
Homemade lasagna tends to taste better as a leftover for the same reason as pasta does. However a major difference between pasta and lasagna is that lasagna tastes fantastic while cold, and does not *have* to be heated up again, while most pasta dishes will. Making homemade lasagna from scratch takes plenty of work, so make sure that the next time you make one there is plenty for leftover food the next day.

How to serve leftover food
An important thing to remember about leftover food, be it take out or homemade, is that they should be severed differently then the night before. Eating the same meal two days in a row can be boring, and it is important to make sure that there is variety with your leftover food. This can be as easy as two new side dishes, or adding new spices and other ingredients to the leftover food themselves. No matter how you decide to serve it, giving new life to your take out or homemade leftover food will save you money and time.

What is your favorite leftover?

Do you have a special leftover recipe?

Comment below.