leftovers

After a holiday weekend of grilling, chances are, you've got some leftovers in the fridge. Brisket, ribs, sausages, and steak aren't exactly ideal leftovers. Reheating them can dry the meat out, or worse, make it chewy and inedible. However, don't discard the beef or pork. With a little creativity, you can transform it into a delicious new dish. Here are some suggestions:

• Shred or finely chop the meat and layer between tortillas with cheese to make a quesadilla.
• Add to a pot of simmering beans. Enjoy the beans over rice with hot sauce.
• Make a hash. Sauté just-boiled potatoes with onions, peppers, and mushrooms. Throw in the leftover meat and top with fried eggs.
• If the meat was originally cooked with barbecue sauce, use it as a pizza topping. Make grilled pizza with red onions, smoked gouda, and barbecue sauce.
• Toss in a salad with greens and your favorite vegetables.

What do you do with leftover meat?

With 1.3 billion tons of food wasted annually, I do my part to cut the losses. At home, this means utilizing every ingredient in my fridge — and, of course, never scraping the rest of my plate into the trash.

It used to be that when I cooked too much food, I'd send my friends, neighbors, and co-workers home with Tupperwares of the leftovers. But those reusable containers didn't make their way back to me, and eventually, I had nothing to pack my own lunch with! That's when I discovered another use for those pesky plastic takeout boxes that are designed to be disposable. Rinse them out with tepid water, dry them with a clean towel, and ta-da! They become a convenient way to transport goods and accomplish one more task with a single-use container. What do you do when you're faced with a surplus of food?

Not sure what to do with leftover fries, OnSugar blogger Lauren G used garlic to jazz them up.

I had some leftover fries and wanted to jazz them up a little. Garlic fries are super easy and not to mention delicious! I just sauteed some minced garlic and tossed it with my fries after warming them up in the toaster oven, but here's a recipe to make them from scratch.

Learn how to make your own oven-baked garlic fries when you get the recipe.

Got a fridge full of leftovers? Be like Lauren and use them to top a pizza!

I made up this pizza with left over ingredients in my fridge! I think next time I will experiment with goat cheese, beets, and pesto! Any ideas for a tasty beet pizza?

Visit Savory Sights for more pictures of mouthwatering meals. Do you have an image of something gorgeous that you recently made or enjoyed? If so, be sure to upload it in our YumSugar Community!

Thanks to Thanksgiving, my refrigerator runneth over. While pondering what to freeze and what to remix into this week's meals, I remembered Alicia Silverstone's Kind Diet includes a section on streamlining meal time and revitalizing leftovers. A second read of the book revealed some smart tips for holidays. Here's what Alicia advises:

• Always make extra grain and beans — enough for a couple of days. You can use this food as the base for the next few meals, adding vegetables and other extras to round out meals.
• For a quick dinner, start with a salad as your base. Just add yummy leftovers like rice, beans, and seeds, or even a potato or tempeh . . . whichever you have around the kitchen that sounds good to you. Get creative. Throw in raisins. Go crazy!

Keep reading for more tips.

Turkey and cranberry quesadillas, turkey tortilla soup, turkey and stuffing sandwiches, turkey and sweet potato chili: the ways to use up leftover Thanksgiving dishes are endless! And whether you love them or hate them, you've got to do something with all that turkey, cranberry, and vegetables. Yesterday I served up a scrumptious turkey hash with fried eggs and whole wheat toast. Today I'm making cranberry, fontina, and sage puff pastry pinwheels that I'm offering as an appetizer with sparkling wine.

How about you? How are you using up leftovers? What have you made already?

Source: Flickr User kthread

The cornucopia that is the Thanksgiving day spread always seems to translate into a massive amount of leftovers. To avoid getting palate fatigue, be sure to create new dishes that introduce entirely fresh flavors. In dire need of some ideas? KitchenDaily offers suggestions from rich and creamy casseroles (turkey-cheddar Tetrazzini) to portable ethnic eats (turkey banh mi). For more inspiration and recipes, head over to KitchenDaily.

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