Easy & Delicious Meals: A Defense of Leftovers

Here are some simple tips and examples to revitalize the food ALREADY in your fridge.

Leftovers don't have to be a last recourse for the desperately hungry when no other options are around. And they don't even have to feel redundant! Depending on how you prepare your food, leftovers can be a dynamic and even (yes) exciting part of your next meal. Here's how to rethink extras in your fridge.

Step one: the initial meal prep 
​Combo or Piecemeal? Choose your path!

There are two main ways to prepare a given dish. For the sake of simplicity let's call them Combo and Piecemeal.

Combo meals are what we often think of when we consider a specific dish or recipe. Any soup, stew, gumbo, curry, stirfry, casserole, pasta dish or similar falls into this category. The meal is prepared (either initially or eventually) in a single dish and served as a standalone main dish with the option of additional side-dishes, which are hopefully rich in vegetables if the main item wasn't. These are hard to recreate the next day as anything other than their original items, though they could be served as a smaller portion with a larger variety in the side dishes. In general, try to either create just enough of these combo meals that you don't get sick of them — whether that means a day or a week of leftovers I leave to your own comfort level! Many liquidy options (stews, gumbos, curries, soups) will freeze quite well to be enjoyed weeks or months down the road when you are in the mood for this item again and don't want to spend time preparing it. Otherwise, not much to do about this one. Let's go on to my main example, the Piecemeal options.

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In the Piecemeal approach, all the various components are prepared separately and then served together. Some examples include salads (or salad bars), bibimbap, and any basic template meal of meat (or non-animal protein), grain or starch, and veggies.

• Roasted chicken with wild rice, roasted root veggies, and asparagus
• Steak with roasted potatoes, sauteed mushrooms, and steamed broccolini
• Baked marinated tofu with baked sweet potato fries, bok choy, and cucumber salad
• Poached egg with beans, rice (or tortilla), avocado, shredded lettuce, and salsa
• Grilled salmon with white rice, sauteed kale, and grilled green beans

You get the picture. The meals are balanced and (hopefully) well complemented by the combination of flavors, but the individual components are all prepared in separate dishes. Depending on how much you prepare for a single meal, you may have leftovers of some or all of these components, and if you create a few different piecemeal dinners in the week, you may end up with many leftovers from the each meal. This is where the magic happens.

Step 2: Fantastic Culinary (Re)Creations 
Get Experimental & Playful!

If you purposefully cook enough to ensure substantial leftovers (and store them separately), they make FANTASTIC building blocks for entirely different meals for lunch, snacks, breakfasts, or dinners later in the week. You can even spend a few hours on a single day cooking fresh groceries and storing them for this approach. Then, when it's time to create a meal, take a little bit of each item that appeals to you — maybe this is everything, maybe it's just a couple options today, and add in additional components that weren't in the original meal but ARE in your kitchen. Some of my favorites are small bits of cheese, soft-boiled egg, nuts, and fruit. You can check your pantry for canned fish or beans or pasta, your freezer for easy-to-prep veggies, or your shelf (or fridge) for additional fresh produce. As most of the work has been done, all you have to do is pick a favorite plate and put just a bit of each item you want to include to create a new and exciting meal that doesn't feel the slightest bit like leftovers. Here are some of my recent meals using this approach:

Leftovers: roasted beets & carrots, roasted butternut squash & sweet potato, stir-fried celery w/tamari, steamed spinach with lemon juice and salt, roasted persimmon, and wedge of boiled potato. Freshly prepared at time of meal, counterclockwise from top: (A) 2 pear slices, (B) 2 slices of cheese, aged cheddar and goat brie, (C) soft-boiled egg and (D) small cup of bulletproof coffee with dash of salt and vanilla extract

Snack from leftovers (stir-fried celery, steamed cabbage with soy sauce, roasted persimmon, cold leftover soft-boiled egg with freshly melted butter added on top, and leftover green tea chilled overnight and served with ice. Prepared fresh: blueberries, slice of cheese (goat brie) and banana with peanut butter, cinnamon, and dash of salt.

Leftovers: stirfried celery, roasted beets + carrots, roasted sweet potato + squash (all same as previous photo and description to the left), plus kimchi-salmon rolls made night before with leftover rice, baked salmon, a bit of kimchi, and spinach. Topped with a dash of fermented hot sauce (similar to tabasco or sriracha). Freshly added: kimchi, blueberries, and sliced pepper-jack cheese

Kiddo has a variation on the same meal (milk instead of green tea, organic chicken apple sausage instead of egg due to allergies) in smaller proportions, and is happily enjoying his plate. He even got to help prepare some of it (peeling and cutting banana, spreading peanut butter, and counting berries) with great glee!

I hope this gives you some inspiration for how to utilize your leftovers and look forward to leftover-based meals with anticipation and excitement. I adore the simplicity of this approach (no active cook time or cleaning pots whatsoever!) and the ability to get a plate of healthy food onto the table for me and kiddo ASAP. Nutritious, colorful, and seasonal options abound once you start experimenting. This also lends itself well to to-go lunches (think loosely interpreted bento boxes) and salads.

Meal from leftovers (green beans, sautéed kale, steamed broccoli, quinoa, sautéed mushrooms, homemade salsa, and baked sweet potato) pus addition of fresh produce (cucumber and avocado)

Meal from leftovers (pork chop, quinoa, steamed spinach, sauerkraut) and freshly added items (lettuce, avocado, hazelnuts, fruit)

Happy exploring!