Part 2 - Using Up Leftovers

One of the easiest ways to save money on food is to just use it again!  No not regurgitating it and putting it back on the plate...but instead of throwing away the stuff that doesn't get eaten, save it and make it into something else. 

The first rule to using up leftovers is making sure you save some when you are serving up the “real meal”!!  Sometimes you might just want to add an extra 100g of mince or maybe use 4 chicken breasts where you would normally use 3.  But other times it's all about the way you serve it.  I have made a special effort in recent months to not serve the kids up quite as much food as I had been, not because I am being stingy, but because it is often such a struggle to get them to finish it...maybe they didn't actually need that much food and I am being a bit too mean by forcing it down them!!  

Not all meals work as leftovers, but with the ones that will work make sure you put aside some when you are serving up.  Sometimes it will work as a repeat meal sometimes you can just take some of the meal or a specific vegetable and turn it into something else.  Add more rice, veges and/or sauce to the meals to make it go further (hey that is a good idea for next week's post!  making meals go further... yes will start that soon!) 

 

Ham and Vege Strata - This could be made with left over meat (doesnt have to be ham) and left over stir fry or roast veges - also uses the stale bread that no one wants to eat anymore!

I have a bunch of meal plans that rely on leftovers…I’m not sure where to start…with the meals that I save the leftovers from or the recipes I use the leftovers for.

….ummm..

Maybe I need to mix it as I go….

Last week I gave the recipe for Roast Chicken Casserole, from the roast chicken leftovers…obviously not so much for the night following…but it freezes well.

I always try to save as much chicken as possible from a roast chicken meal.

I save it in small containers to throw into various meals including

Pizza – meatlovers, satay chicken pizza, chicken Camembert and “brie”

Hawaiian Pizza (opened tin of pineapple and bits of ham left over from Christmas...or something else!)  and Chicken Satay Pizza (- cooked chicken and left over satay sauce)

Kowhai Chicken – My favorite yummy casserole dish

Chicken Sopa – Another great Mexican chicken dish (save some tortillas from the burrito meal too I like to buy the 15 packs from Countdown, best value for money…only problem is, that I usually shop at Pak n’ Save…so making the special trip to Countdown for one item isn’t that good of a money saving technique)

Fettuccine “Cabonara” – a handful of chicken at the last minute…or one of the minutes near to the end at least.  (Any left over meat is good for this one – sausages, other roasts…not so much mince though)

Leftover Nacho Mince:

A “handful” for a Mexican inspired pizza

Spread over the bottom of a casserole dish and make Cowboy Casserole or Cornbread Pasta something or other Bake

Whenever I make meatballs I always set aside a few to use on pizza.

So to end this…before I have to spend the whole rest of the week writing up recipes on the recipe page…I will say Pizza, Pizza Pizza…. If you are trying to save money on meals, make a quick base or a fancy base or a bread maker base and top it with left over anything!  (Oh and make sure you save a bit of tomato based pasta sauce for the base topping!!)

(by the way, I am going to try to take more photos of my leftover meals and will add them to this post in the next week or so, and the recipe links are coming soon too!)

This month we are taking our budget seriously!! (part 1)

Ok, SO it’s been a while since I last wrote a post.  It’s quite hard really to think of things I have to say, that someone might be interested in… but maybe you might be interested in this one… it’s about budgeting.

There’s always something in the media about budgeting, it seems the latest and greatest budgeter at the moment is the facebook woman…or man who was on NZ Best home baker, for one episode apparently… How to feed afamily of 6 for under $20.  It’s all good, a lot of help for people who don’t know where to start.  I personally am a huge fan of Sophie Gray….the Destitute Gourmet.  I think I have all of her recipe books….apart from one, which mum has, so I share it with her!!!  Because I am on a budget!!

Last month we had a bit of a budget blowout.  It started with our 10 year wedding anniversary celebration trip to Queenstown, 

Me screwing up my nose to look so beautiful

which was getting paid for by money that hadn’t yet come into the account!!  And ended with 2 plumber call outs, a new lawn mower, me backing into someone’s car and paying up front for a trip later in the year.

So this month we had to somehow make up for some of that.  Rules include: no takeaways all month (apart from Mother’s Day!) and try and empty out the freezer and halve the grocery budget!

So I have been getting creative.  I was lucky, in the fact, that there were a few good bits of meat in the freezer that hadn’t already been planned into meals, and both our freezers were somehow chocka! 

1. I think one of the best ways to save money is thru planning.  Write a meal plan and stick to it.

Example of a meal plan that I havent been sticking too and is longer than 1 week (what not to do!!)

  I like to plan 1 week at a time.  I used to plan for the whole month, but then I would just end up forgetting things off the list….. or changing my mind ….or things would go off.   It just wasn’t working out for me, so I decided to try fortnightly and then weekly.  This is working really well for me, and 4 months in a row, I have managed to come in right on budget, or a few dollars below.

1. But because this month is tighter than before. I did my initial week and then I have added to it.  So now I have a 12 day meal plan, that should take me thru to next payday.  I think I shall put the meal plan next….in an ideal world I would link to the recipes that I can or to the book you need to buy.
2. As it worked out, there were a number of meals that had a reasonable amount of leftovers, so I have frozen it and planned it into another meal.  E.g.  After the Roast Chicken there was heaps of gravy and stuffing left.  (I had used the left over chicken for other things!) So I have a new meal waiting that is going to be a roast chicken casserole.  I also found a couple of extra drumsticks to use as the chicken.  And I did the same for Corned Beef (and Corned Beef Casserole)