These Leftovers Are Still Good! From Leftover Meals to Rollover Ingredients

Leftovers are the thawed and refrozen, freezer burnt, stale scraps and bits of unwanted meals that narrowly escaped exile into the trash. They are the forgotten foods wrapped in Reynolds wrap, tossed into Tupperware, stored for a day that may never come. Welcome to food purgatory. So if it is the word “leftovers” that has a negative connotation, perhaps the solvency is in the definition.

Let’s, for a second, think of leftover meals more as rollover ingredients: rollover meaning extra and ingredients meaning basic foods. Rather than being stuck with a déjà vu meal, you now have endless possibilities! How to do this: do not dump meat, potatoes and peas all in one container because this basically limits you to a glorified frozen dinner. Instead, store your ingredients separately so that later you can individually employ them in various dishes.

For example, I did not want my rollovers from the Bacon Guacamole Burger I had the other night go die a slow leftover death, I started to get creative. I had refried beans, cheese and turkey in the fridge, an extra roll…hmmm, sandwich with a side of beans? No, better.

Southwest Turkey Sandwich

Ingredients:

1 Kaiser roll

1 T olive oil

3-4 slices of deli cooked turkey

1 slice of Colby Jack cheese

½ c refried beans [from the burger dinner]

3 T rice cooked rice [saved from my lunch]

Instructions:

1. Brush buns with olive oil. Toast in frying pan.

2. Reheat refried beans. Mix with rice.

3. Layer bun, turkey, cheese, beans & rice, bun.

**Suggestions: make a sour cream spread: a pinch of cumin and chili powder mixed with 2 T sour cream; spread on sandwich.