Love me some left-overs and Mama just posted a great cabbage recipe that called for leftover mashed potatoes and cubed ham. I am wondering if any of you have some excellent ideas for left-overs also?

Since we got our Food Saver I am using up left-overs better than ever before!

Leftover marinara can be spooned over deep-fried eggplant slices and then top with parmesean cheese broil for a few min's and you have eggplant parmesean!

Leftover corn can be used for making fritters -
Leftover meatloaf makes great sammies: smush up, add spices and use for tacos, chili, etc.; can be used as a meat sauce of pastas; smash up and add one can of cream of mushroom soup and heat in skillet. When warmed through, add a small container of
sour cream. Serve over egg noodles. This also works well with leftover hamburger patties or unsauced meatballs.

Potato pancakes from mashed potatoes
Pot pies and salads from all kinds of meat - use your imagination


Creamed Turkey Over Rice


1 med. onion, chopped
1/2 c. chopped celery
1/4 c. butter
1/4 c. flour
1 1/2 c. chicken broth
2 c. cooked cubed turkey
1 c. milk
1/2 c. cubed Swiss cheese
1 T. diced pimientos, drained
1/2 t. salt
1/4 t. pepper
1/4 t. ground nutmeg
Hot cooked long grain and wild rice

In large skillet, saute onion and celery in butter until tender. Stir in flour until blended. Gradually stir in broth. Bring to boil; cook and stir 2 minutes. Reduce heat; stir in turkey, milk, cheese, pimientos, salt, pepper and nutmeg. Cook until cheese is melted and mixture is heated through.

Serve over rice.
Use chicken, turkey or ham for this.


Save all those heels from your breads and stuff them in a large plastic bag in your freezer for bread stuffings, bread puddings, etc. A nice mix of various grained breads makes a delicious stuffing/dressing. Save sweet, fruit, cinnamon bread pieces for bread puddings.

Make your ouwn croutons and bread crumbs.


Use leftover salmon to make croquettes.


POT ROAST - Shred or chop leftover pot roast. In a Dutch oven,
saute one medium onion, chopped, in oil, until done. Add the
shredded beef. Stir in 1 1/2 teaspoons chili powder and cook
1 minute. Stir in 1/2 teaspoon salt, one small can of chopped green
chiles, and 1/2 cup water. Reduce heat to low and let simmer about
30 minutes. Check often to see if you need to add more water. The
consistency should be about stew consistency, but not as wet as
soup. When meat is done, stir 1 tablespoon flour into 1/4 cup water
until blended. Slowly add flour mixture to meat and cook over
medium heat until thickened. Remove from heat and stir in 1 cup
shredded Monterrey Jack cheese until melted. Spoon some of the
burrito mixture into a warmed flour tortilla, add salsa, sour cream,
avocados, onions or whatever suits you.

FRIED CHICKEN - Although we don't often have much of this left
over (I like it cold!), when we do have an abundance, I remove the
skin, shred the meat and either use it in my favorite casserole, or,
even better, make chicken salad, which takes on a whole new taste
if you also use just a bit of the crust (but not the skin) from the
chicken.

SLOPPY JOE MEAT MIXTURE - Spread the leftover meat mixture
over a pizza crust (you can use a store bought one), cover with cheddar
cheese and bake in a 400 degree oven until heated through and
the cheese is melted, approximately 8 to 10 minutes. Really quick,
really easy, and really different! I also make this from scratch using
canned Sloppy Joe Mix.

HAMBURGERS - break up hamburgers into loose meat. Brush a
premade pizza crust with olive oil, spread the meat over the crust.
Sprinkle lightly with onion powder. Top with cheddar cheese (or a
mixture of cheddar and Monterrey Jack) and crumbled bacon and
bake in a 400 degree oven for 8 to 10 minutes until heated through
and the cheese is melted. Voila! Bacon cheeseburger pizza!

Holler if you need recipes!

BTW - leftover meatloaf, burgers, porcupines, etc. broken up with added rice, tomato soup or sauce makes a very quicked-coooking stuffed pepper or cabbage rolls.

Speaking of leftovers, I went to my sister's this afternoon for a big Baked Ham dinner. Sis doesn't cook a lot, but what she does make is absolutely delicious! She made 7-layer-salad, a whole bone-in smoked ham, smashed red potatoes & gravy, green bean casserole, scalloped corn, cranberry relish and a coconut-layer-cake. (today is my birthday- and her coconut cake in my fav!) We all ate and ate and got stuffed as l'il piggys... And I brought home not only a full plate of leftovers to nuke for tomorrow's supper- but her ham bone (I'll freeze it for bean soup later this Fall) and some ham scraps that I'll chop into a ham-salad sandwich spread for work-lunches later in the week. YUM!

sounds like you made out like a bandit!!