Repurposing Leftover Torture

I am cheep.  I come by this naturally from an unnamed relative’s side of the family.  Although this relative hates to throw food out even when it has gone on the Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hide side, that being either penicillin or poison, I am more concerned with food safety.

In order to satisfy both my penurious and life saving sides I took some leftovers and repurposed them.  I made a bolognaise sauce from our leftover short ribs that Russ and Carter claimed was way fab.  Then I made homemade vanilla ice cream with flourless chocolate cake chunks folded it.

Both of these items enabled me to change what Carter thinks of as leftovers, and therefore is disinterested in them into totally new food.  The best part is that they are foods that can or should be frozen so I have significantly extended their shelf life.

The bad part for me is that I can’t share in their deliciousness.  Usually repurposing involves making something more fattening in its change up.  I have rarely been able to lengthen the life of an ingredient and make it salad ready at the same time.  Casseroles, sauces, wicked desserts are better remake candidates.

Soup is the only really good repurpose healthy food.  It is wonderful to take a dwindling carcass and some great veggies and make a hearty soup.  Sadly I did not have any of those today.  I did make myself a really nice egg white omelet with some of my friend Sara’s roast broccoli she brought to my house.  I had the egg whites leftover from making the vanilla ice cream and I am certainly the only person in our house that will eat leftover broccoli.  The omelet was the perfect answer because I hate creating new leftover ingredients when repurposing other leftovers.

When I was in college a sorority sister Lisa used to look at the weekly menu posted on our hall bulletin board and follow the food through the week; roast chicken – Sunday, Open faced hot chicken sandwiches – Tuesday, Chicken salad – Wednesday and Chicken noodle soup- Friday.  Certainly the food service had to add more chicken somewhere along the week, but they were hedging their bets incase it did not all get eaten.

For me the secret is not in the reworking food, sometime the second dish is way better than the first,  my issue is making sure I take it out of the freezer and serve it.  Since it is rarely in my calorie wheel I have to convince someone else that they want a frozen meal.  Being homemade is not the big selling point here.  I hope the ice cream goes before I hit some monthly craving and remember it’s in there.