If you’re stumped for ways to use up the bits that are going spare in your fridge, we’re here to lend a hand. With a bit of Slimming World know-how, it’s surprisingly simple to turn your odds and ends into delicious, healthy meals that you can enjoy for breakfast, lunch or even dinner.
We’ve found some inventive and tasty ways to use up our leftovers – all fantastically Food Optimising-friendly. Take a look at how we’re cutting down on waste, without skimping on taste!
Try the recipe: Do you have your eye on the comforting homity pie pictured at the top of this post? If you’ve made too much mash, or have leftover potatoes, this delicious dish will put them to good use!
Batch of the day
Making extra portions of your favourite dishes not only means you’ll have fewer leftover ingredients to worry about, you’ll also have delicious meals to enjoy for lunch or dinner over the next few days. Or, if you really want to get ahead, you can freeze them, so you have a healthy meal ready to go on those hectic days when time is too tight to cook from scratch. Soups, pasta bakes and casseroles all make brilliant batches, or you might feel inspired by Michelle’s (@shelljackson) gorgeous pork chilli, which she enjoyed so much she had it again the day after.
Try the recipe: Our beef and bean chilli is fantastically freezer-friendly.
More for members: Find more brilliant batch-cooking recipes here
Soup-er stars
Making a soup is one of the easiest ways to use up any leftover meat or vegetables – for extra filling power, add storecupboard stables like pasta, rice, lentils and canned beans or chickpeas.
Try the recipe: Put leftover leeks and potatoes to good use.
More for members: We reveal our 10 favourite soups – with recipe videos!
Let’s wok
Have a rummage through your vegetable drawer… Do you have some broccoli, peppers and onions that need using up? Then you’re already halfway to serving up a satisfying stir-fry for lunch or dinner. Stir-fries are a great way to level up your leftovers because you can throw pretty much anything you’ve got into the pan, along with some noodles or rice, and you’ll have a healthy meal in no time.
Try the recipe: This chinese pork and noodle stir-fry is quick and easy
Curry club
If your Sunday roast has left you with some surplus chicken (or beef, pork or lamb), cooking up a curry is a fantastic way to transform uneaten meat into a quick and easy midweek meal. Our leftover chicken curry recipe is a delicious way to use up any roast chicken you didn’t manage to finish off on Sunday.
More on the blog: Discover more ways to use up those lovely leftovers
MORE FOR MEMBERS:
Your 7-day storecupboard menu
A Food Optimisers guide to storecupboard staples
Brilliant batch-cooking recipes
10 ways to slim and save
10 ways with… pasta, potatoes and more!
