15 Meals with leftovers

Do you want to eat that meal again? How can you remake it so that you are using up the leftovers but eating something new? These are 15 ideas that I had on how to remake leftovers and turn them into a new meal.

1. Hot chicken sandwich: Take leftover chopped chicken or turkey and add to a piece of toast. If it's Xmas or Thanksgiving, add a little dressing or cranberry sauce as well then cover with another piece of toast for a hot chicken/turkey sandwich. Chutney or homemade relish is another option. Cover with hot gravy (leftover or not). Eat with leftover veggies.
2. Pot pie: Make a chicken, turkey or beef pot pie with leftover meat, veggies and some thawed puff pastry. Great add-ins are peas, corn, carrots, potatoes, mushrooms and cheese.
3. Chili spaghetti: Add leftover chili to spaghetti sauce and serve with pasta for a spicy kick.
4. Chili beans: Add leftover chili to baked beans (leftover or canned). You can also add this to hotdogs for spicy chili dogs while watching the game.
5. Chili cakes: Dethaw two packages of puff pastry. Grease one to two muffin tins and heat the oven up to 375. Cut the thawed pastry into squares and fit into muffin tins. Fill the cavity with leftover vegetable chili and sprinkle some cheese on top. Bake until the cheese is golden and the filling is hot, about half an hour. Eat as many as you want!
6. Pasta cups: take any leftover pasta that you have. Toss with a chopped pepper, onion and shredded cheese. Stuff the muffin cups with the pasta mixture and bake in a 350 F oven for about 20-30 minutes or until browned on the bottom. Serve with a salad. You can probably do this with rice too.
7. Burritos: Chop some onions, red and green pepper, mushrooms and some tomatoes. In a warm skillet, sauté the onions and tomatoes, then add the peppers and mushrooms along with hot sauce, chili powder and oregano; cook until soft. Add some leftover chopped chicken or beef roast pieces at the end to heat it up. Add to a flour tortilla and add some shredded cheese overtop, roll up and eat.
8. Quesadillas: Chop up a celery stalk and some red pepper into small pieces and stir fry until done. Add chopped leftover chicken to this mixture then spread over a flour tortilla. Pour cheese salsa overtop, add another flour tortilla on top and heat up in the microwave until cheese salsa is hot, about a min. Another idea is to add leftover chili to the quesadilla.
9. Action-packed rice: heat up a saute pan with some oil and add some chopped onion and mushrooms. Add 1 cup of leftover rice and season with soy sauce. Add some chopped up leftover meat and scrambled egg and keep cooking until the rice starts to brown on the bottom (but not burn). Add some thawed, chopped spinach. Keep turning until everything is heated and mixed through then serve.
10. Hash: you can do this with almost any leftovers. Take leftover chopped meat, potatoes and veggies and saute in a pan with a chopped onion. Let it brown on the bottom and keep turning it over to let it cook together then serve. This is great with leftover sausages, potatoes and veggies or other ingredients like bacon, eggs and sweet potatoes.
11. Fajita rice stew: Chop up some celery and red and green peppers along with a large onion and 2 cloves of garlic. On a separate cutting board, chop up two to three beef steaks in strips about 1 inch long. In a warm skillet, add a little oil then the onion and later the garlic. Add the meat strips, cook them. While this is cooking, open a can of black beans and a can of corn niblets, both drained well. Add the beans and corn along with the peppers and along with a large bottle of hot or medium salsa (or leftover chili). Add spices like cumin or chili powder if desired. Add 1 cup of cooked leftover rice. Simmer it all down until the peppers are tender and serve this beef fajita stew (can be done with chicken also). Add chopped cilantro at the end if desired, or chopped green onions.  This can also be made in advance and served as a cold rice salad.
12. English muffin paninis: Chop your fav cheese and lay out on an English muffin. Add tomato slices, pieces of cooked leftover meat, and some cleaned spinach leaves. Put two halves together, and press into a George Foreman grill like a Panini press until golden brown and flattened a bit.
13. Tacos: use any leftover meat with some shredded lettuce and cheese to make tacos. All you need is a taco kit.
14. Creamy casserole: Add some pre-cooked brown rice to a casserole dish with 1 cup of chicken broth. Add sliced veggies (leftover or fresh) and diced meat (leftover or fresh). Add leftover pureed soup (instead of canned soup) and bake at 350 for 35-40 minutes. You can also add shredded cheese before baking, if you want.
15. Mashed potato cups: load up your leftover mashed potatoes with cooked bacon, chives, sour cream, cheese or whatever you want. Mix it up then add to a greased muffin tin (or you can use paper cups). Bake at 350 for 20-30 minutes or until done. Eat on the side with your meal. Another idea is to mix leftover mashed potatoes with leftover chili and top with cheese to make these.