Having a planned leftover day each week helps take away the burden of cooking for a night and cleans out your fridge. Reheat all the leftovers you have and lay them out buffet-style for your household to enjoy. You can even have a topping bar to use up the last of hummus, shredded cheese, sour cream, or whatever else you have that could make leftover night more interesting. 

If you have a large crock of leftovers that you just can’t seem to finish, freeze it! It will save you when you’re in a pinch for some food. Just be sure to keep in mind how you might use those leftovers next before you freeze them. If it’s a meal you might eat for lunch one day, freeze it in single portion sizes to make defrosting fast and easy. Or maybe you have a lot of leftover roasted turkey you’re planning to use in a soup next week; shred it up before you freeze it so you can just throw it into the pot right from the freezer.

Leftovers so often go bad because we forget they exist after they are buried in the back of the fridge. On a weekly calendar, write out which day your leftovers need to be consumed by. This way, you’re less likely to forget what you have before it goes bad. Most food keeps for about 4 days in the fridge, but click here to learn more about how long cooked food keeps. But always remember, when in doubt, throw it out!  

Stir frys are a great way to give leftovers you might be a little tired of some fresh flavor. Amazing stir frys can utilize leftover meat, veggies, grains, and even legumes like nuts or beans. Chop all your leftover ingredients into bite-sized pieces and reheat them in a hot wok or flat-bottomed pan. Coat them in your sauce of choice and toss in your leftover grain for a delicious, new meal. Click here for tips on how to make a great stir fry and 7 different stir fry sauces to add new flavor to your leftovers.  

Soups are one of the easiest ways to use up scraps and leftovers. Add your leftover veggies and meat to a pot. Warm them up on the stove with your favorite seasonings and add stock. If you have leftover grains like rice or pasta, serve your soup over top of it. It’s hard to mess up a soup, but if you need some inspiration, click here. You can even make your own stock by saving up all your veggie scraps, like broccoli stems, carrot peels, onion skins, etc., and storing them in an airtight bag in your freezer until you’re ready to use them. Click here for more tips on making your own stock.  

Breakfast in the US is a meal that people often forget that you can add variety to. However, omelets and hashes make the perfect vessels to add leftovers. Leftover veggies and meat combine with potatoes and eggs to make a delicious, well–balanced breakfast. Although this may be strange for some people, you can also just reheat your leftovers for breakfast, too! If this feels a little too taboo for you, add an egg on top! 

People often think of salads as boring, but that’s far from the truth. Salads do not have to be bland or have lettuce as their base. Add warm leftover veggies and rice to a bed of leafy greens for a hearty winter salad or forget the lettuce altogether and use leftover noodles as your base to make a pasta salad. Click here for inspiration on making different kinds of salads. For easy and delicious salad dressing recipes, click here.