Meal Ideas for Leftovers

During these tough economic times everyone is looking for ways to save money. As hardly anyone in my family will eat leftovers, I've come up with a few ways to incorporate last night's meal into tonight's meal with a few additions. It saves money, time and it helps you not waste food.

Southwestern Pizza

You can make southwestern pizza with your leftover taco meat; it's a different kind of pizza your family will enjoy as it includes most of the accompaniments you use to make tacos. Besides the leftover taco meat, you will need:

Pizza dough (a pre-made crust works fine)
A jar of salsa
Shredded Taco Cheese
Black Seedless Olives cut-up (approximately 15 -20)

Spread the salsa on the pizza dough

Add the taco meat, black olives and shredded cheese

Bake according to Pizza dough directions

Cheesy Potato Slices

You can use leftover baked potatoes that have been refrigerated for this side dish. You will need to add olive oil, breadcrumbs, shredded cheese and onions.

Sauté about ¼ of an onion in 3 tsp of olive oil

Cut the potatoes up in slices and place on cookie sheet that is coated with cooking spray or olive oil

Add the onions

Bake at 350 degrees for 10 minutes

Remove from the oven and sprinkle with breadcrumbs and shredded cheese

Return to the oven and bake until cheese is melted

Chicken or Beef Stir-Fry

In the summer we love to make chicken or beef ke-bobs on the barbecue. The leftovers work great for dinner the next night as they are nearly a complete meal as they contain meat and vegetables.

Disassemble the ke-bobs and cut the chicken or beef into bite size pieces

Place all the meat and vegetables in a skillet a little olive oil to warm, cook it on med-low until heated through.

Separately cook brown rice. When rice is cooked, add to the skillet and your stir-fry is complete.

Meatballs/Sausage
When you have leftover meatballs or sausage there are a couple of things you can do:

Open Faced Meatball Parmesan or Sausage Parmesan Heroes

Sprinkle parmesan cheese or shredded mozzarella over the meatballs or sausage and place 3 - 4 meatballs or several cut up sausages in a half loaf of Italian bread for each serving and bake in the oven for approximately 15 minutes.

Meatball or Sausage Pizza

Slice the leftover meatballs or sausage and place them on a pizza crust covered with sauce add shredded mozzarella cheese and bake at 350 degrees for approximately 15 minutes.

You could always combine the meatballs and sausage to make meatball sausage parmesan heroes or meatball sausage pizza.