Having been cooking quite a lot over the past few months, I realised that in general, people tend to cook alot more than necessary for one meal, thinking that they can always eat the rest of the food the next day. More often than not, we forget about that leftover food, and end up having to throw it away. It’s such a waste.

Yesterday, I made roasted chicken & egg fried bee hoon using some leftover chicken. It was absolutely delicious. (No one would have known I had used overnight chicken!)

And so I thought that today I’d gonna share a great article that helps us work with these food scraps and save them from the fate of the rubbish bin:

Top 7 Things to do with Leftover Food Scraps, from http://lunchinabox.net

1. Eat as you go: Have them as part of breakfast or a snack as you pack.

2. Camouflage: Put them underneath a layer of pretty food, or cut them small and mix with other food. For example, the yellow pepper scraps in the orzo salad lunch to the right are chopped and mixed in with the salad itself.

3. Veggies: Save & put in other food like salad, fried rice, stir fry, soups, or a sauteed add-in to macaroni and cheese. You can also chop them up small and add them to a mirepoix or seasoned food topping.

4. Bread crusts: Make into bread crumbs, croutons, or freeze in cubes and save to use in stuffing or bread pudding. Or you can always save them to feed to the birds — my preschooler enjoys going to Golden Gate Park and feeding stale bread cubes to the ducks in Stowe Lake.

5. Fruit: Save (in refrigerator or freezer) and put on cereal, in smoothies, yogurt, pies, pancakes, or muffins.

6. Cheese: Save and use in salad, melt over bread (sandwich melt, grilled cheese, or “pizza”), melt over tortilla chips as nachos, or put in an omelette.

7. Sliced meats: Save and incorporate in other dishes like pastas, sandwiches, omelettes, fried rice, etc.

Now, what do YOU do with your leftover food scraps? Any other interesting ways that you know of to make use of food so it doesn’t go straight to the bin? Drop a comment and let me know!