Jackie Gower - Lotsa uses for leftovers!

The average household throws away around $600 worth of food every year – scary but true!  Much of this amount is made up of cooked leftovers.  Don’t let them go to waste – there are heaps of delicious ways you can use them and turn them into a whole new meal.  Do your wallet and the planet a favour and try some of these!

Baked in a pie. Pretty much anything is delicious when encased in golden pastry! You can throw in cooked vegies, leftover roast meat, Bolognese or chilli con carne, even curry.  Make a large family sized pie or several smaller ones.  If you don’t have a pie maker, you can easily make individual pies using a muffin tin.

Spring rolls from leftovers.  Spring roll wrappers can be found in the freezer aisle of the supermarket.  Fill them with finely chopped cooked meat, leftover vegies, casserole, whatever you like add cook according to directions.  Add a little curry or chilli powder to your filling to spice them up.  These make a delicious light meal and are a brilliant substitute for takeaways!

A touch of the exotic.  Tapas are all the rage these days and you can have fun making your own from all kinds of leftovers.  You can make a tasty Spanish omelette, or try tossing your vegetables in olive oil and garlic and heat through.  Reheat cold cooked potatoes and serve with pasta sauce to make patata bravas!  Have a look online for more tapas recipes to find creative ways to use up your leftovers. Or, you can go Italian and make pizza.  Simply make or buy your own plain pizza base and top with leftovers and anything else you like for a cheap, filling meal.

Super spuds.  Leftover tuna mornay, Bolognese or taco sauce, even sour cream dips all taste terrific with a baked potato!  

Fabulous fritters.  Any kind of leftover meat and vegetables can be chopped into small chunks and made into fritters or rissoles.  Give this easy recipe a go:

1 cup milk
2 eggs, beaten
2 tsp melted butter
13/4 cups self-raising flour
½ tsp salt
2-3 cups leftover meat and vegetables

Whisk the wet ingredients into the flour and salt until smooth. Stir in your leftovers. Drop spoonfuls of the mixture into hot oil and fry until golden. This is a handy way to hide vegetables that the kids are not too keen on!