Your best "use-it-up" dishes--Thanksgiving edition starts post #26! - Page 2

[EarthyMamaofDaisy]

I like to take leftover beans and veggies and turn them into chile.  It can easily be eaten over leftover rice or quinoa.  I do the fried rice with leftovers a lot too.  And if I'm on a kick where I'm eating eggs I will saute leftover veggies in with a few eggs for a fritatta.

[Ragana]

I have been making clean-the-fridge chili lately, too. Basically you saute an onion and some garlic, add canned or leftover tomatoes, the last of the salsa and pasta sauce left in various jars, various leftover beans including refried, and a bit of frozen corn, maybe some past-prime green/red/yellow peppers or a shriveled jalapeno, then season with chili powder, cumin and paprika (equal proportions) and S&P.
 

[justmama]

Wow, you guys are rockstars.  Here I was thinking I was all "hot-shot" because I took my middle daughter's pumpkin from school and peeled, cooked, and pureed it for pumpkin muffins and the freezer last night.  It was the first time I'd ever done it and it was a PITB but totally worth it for 6 1/2cups of free pumpkin puree.   But I feel a little lame after reading this thread.  I'll have to step up my game a little.

[worthy]

Originally Posted by Basylica 

Also mom would buy bread when local store had it on sale for like 4/1.00 or something similar. she'd buy enough to fill entire back of station wagon and freeze it. first couple were "ehh" by the last few the bread would be so hard you could shingle with it...AFTER it was defrosted!

We have french toast for dinner once every 1-2 weeks.  To use up the bread the kids decided was too old, too hard, too end-y, not their fave.  I have started tossing the bread dregs in the freezer and pulling them out the day of french toast.  Of course I make the french toast with water, not milk -- just eggs, water, cinnamon, vanilla, and maple syrup for the top (lucky for us, we live in maple syrup country.)

I make "rice-n-stuff" a lot -- same as fried rice but not fried.  I try to include a) some kind of meat, b) some kind of fat for flavor, c) some kind of green veg, d) tamari to even out the flavor.  Sometimes it has lots of different kinds of bits; sometimes it's just bacon and kale, or whatever. 

If a pot of leftover rice gets left out on the stove overnight, I boil it with water in the morning and turn it into rice pudding.  I figure the boiling kills any overnight germs.  Add a little vanilla, raisins, almonds, sweetener.  Yum.  Or cinnamon and chopped fresh apple (preferably the bruised one or the half that the kid didn't finish the day before, with the bite mark trimmed off.)

I make soup at least once a week.  It's like stone soup -- see what's in the fridge, see what leftovers can be tossed in.  This week we had a rotisserie chicken carcass left over from a potluck, so I boiled the heck out of it in my crockpot overnight to make stock, strained the broth and let the solids cool, and picked off enough chicken for the soup - maybe a cup, or 1-1/2 cups.  I added leftover pasta my kids didn't eat the night before, a couple of chopped shriveled carrots, a handful each of freezer green beans and corn (freezer-burned works fine in soup, too), and some chopped cabbage that was cut on some prior date for raw snacking -- my kids like raw cabbage, of all things.  Added seasoned salt and it was delicious.  We had half a chorizo sausage left from a prior meal and diced it and divvyed it between those who wanted to add a little "spicy" to their soup.  Yum.  Leftovers got eaten for lunch today.

I love making hash with leftover potatoes.  Also omelettes with any kind of leftover rolled into them (this is my current favorite breakfast).  We eat very little dairy; my kids eat almost none, but I will add some cheese on top of even the sort of dried-up weird leftovers and somehow the cheese makes it all better.  LOL.

When I make pancakes/waffles/muffins, whatever doesn't get eaten is made into bread pudding the next day.  My kids love bread pudding so they beg me to make muffins, LOL.  (I'm gluten-free so baked goods are an uncommon treat.)

I just put several plastic lidded containers inside the door of my kitchen freezer.  One is for ingredients that make a good tomato based soup (meat bits, leftover peas, the scrapings or swishings from the pasta sauce jar), one is for stock veggies (clean parings and trimmings, shriveled up whatevers that are dried out but not moldy), one is for the leftover squishy grapes that taste miraculously fine when frozen (my kids think these are a huge treat), and one is for "sweet" odds and ends that would be good baked in goods, granola add-ins, etc (like choppeds bits, dried fruit, etc).  I need another one for spicy stuff, like the swishings from the salsa jar, spicy sausage, diced pepperoni ends, etc.  Ooh, and I need another one for chopped abandoned fresh fruit for smoothies.  These are all for the bits and ends that would otherwise likely get tossed, and I do sometimes use plate scrapings in these containers; I figure they're going to get boiled or baked to death anyway (except for the grapes).

[CookiePie]

I make soup often to get rid of veggies that are on their way out.  I keep 2 zip-top bags in the freezer 1 with chicken bones the other with veggies ends & peelings.  When I have enough I make stock.  I like to keep them separate and roast them in the oven until browned & then add to stock pot with frozen veggie scraps, seasonings and a glug of vinegar.  I simmer either stock for several hours strain, for the venison I pick through for meat to add back to the stock.  The amount of meat left on the bones always surprises me.  My Dad had been wasting these bones for years & years until a hunter friend of his told a couple years ago, that he saves bones for soup.  Dad tried it & gave be some & we are both hooked on this soup and now he saves ALL usable bones!    

[SweetSilver]

Last night while I was cooking the obligatory turkey soup, we had a delicious dinner of baked potatoes with Thanksgiving gravy and broccoli stems (leftover from the broccoli dish I made.)

Mmmmm.

Can't wait for the soup!  While making the broth I tossed in the tail end of celery and onions from the fridge.  I threw in the skin along with the bones for flavor.  I'll skim off and save the extra fat off the top.

[colemom]

I always make turkey tetrazzini using this recipe as a base http://allrecipes.com/recipe/turkey-tetrazzini-ii/detail.aspx I saute garlic and onion in butter first and add broccoli for the last 15 minutes. The kids love it because it's creamy and cheesy and I love it because it uses 4 cups of turkey and 3 cups of turkey stock and broccoli :) It makes a lot so there are always leftovers for lunch or even another dinner.

I also will make turkey and wild rice soup and freeze the remaining stock in 3 cup bags to use for future soups or to cook rice in. We've been having turkey salad sandwiches for lunch on toasted wheat bread. I add chopped pecans and dried cranberries.

[onlyzombiecat]

I had the following to use up:

1 to 2 cups cooked turkey meat, cubed

maybe 1 to 1 1/2 cups homemade tomato soup left from this recipe- http://www.saveur.com/article/Recipes/Classic-Cream-Tomato-Soup

about 1 cup beans, salsa and corn mixture left from this recipe (without any cream cheese added)- http://www.food.com/recipe/crock-pot-chicken-w-black-beans-and-cream-cheese-yum-89204

1 can bean and bacon soup that I have had sitting in the cupboard for a long time

about 2 cups mashed potatoes

maybe 1 cup shredded cheddar cheese

I mixed everything except the cheese and mashed potatoes together in a baking dish. Sprinkled cheese on top of that. Covered that with a layer of mashed potatoes. Sprinkled some paprika on top. Baked in 350F oven for 30 minutes.

I would say it made 6 servings.

Dh declared that it was the best leftover casserole thing that I've made in the last 13 years. Dd pretty much just ate the mashed potatoes and left the rest alone.
 

[SweetSilver]

Originally Posted by onlyzombiecat 

I mixed everything except the cheese and mashed potatoes together in a baking dish. Sprinkled cheese on top of that. Covered that with a layer of mashed potatoes. Sprinkled some paprika on top. Baked in 350F oven for 30 minutes.

I would say it made 6 servings.

Dh declared that it was the best leftover casserole thing that I've made in the last 13 years. Dd pretty much just ate the mashed potatoes and left the rest alone.
 

And I award you 1,000,000 points for that dish!

I love canned bean and bacon soup.