How to love your leftovers

We’ve all faced a fridge full of assorted food left over from a week’s worth of cooking. Instead of throwing these leftovers out, turning them into something useful could help you save money, time and cut down on food waste.  

Here are our top tips to help you make the most of your leftovers (while keeping them fridge safe!).  

1. Make it a meal - Think about what to do with your leftovers as you pack them away, or factor them into your meal planning right from the start. Tonight’s leftovers can be lunch tomorrow, frozen for dinner next week, or transformed into an entirely new dish altogether.  

2. Keep them in sight – Store your leftovers at the front of the fridge on a shelf that is at eye-level to prevent the age-old problem of discovering them at the back of the fridge a week later.  

3. Mark them up – Keep a marker and labels handy to track when food was made and when it should be eaten. Refrigerated leftovers should be eaten within 2 days to avoid the risk of harmful bacteria like listeria. Frozen leftovers, if kept at -18°C, can last up to 3 months. And try to avoid thawing and refreezing again.  

4. Act quickly – To keep leftovers safe, make sure to cover and store them in the fridge or freezer within two hours. This is because bacteria can grow rapidly at room temperature, making the food unsafe to eat if left out for too long. 

5. Reheat right – When reheating leftovers, make sure they are thoroughly heated to at least 75°C. Soups and other liquid foods should be brought to a full boil and stirred for at least three minutes to kill most bacteria. If the food isn't piping hot all the way through, it's best not to eat it. And don’t try and reheat more than once.   

6. Total transformation – Similar to the cook once, eat all week approach, you can prepare various main dishes and enjoy a new meal each night. Even if you didn’t plan for it and have ended up with extra food, get creative and turn last night’s leftovers into a fresh dish. For example leftover rice, veggies and eggs can become fried rice or burritos and leftover veggies and protein can become a salad, quiche or a pizza.  

7. Holiday-style buffet – Set one evening a week as your smorgasbord fridge clean out night. Mix and match leftovers to create a main dish, and serve the rest as sides, or turn it into a buffet where everyone can choose what they like. You can add a few extras like wraps, bread, and salad greens for some fresh new combinations. 

From this to that  

Looking for some recipes to help you love your leftovers more? Here’s some inspiration from foods we’re often storing in excess.  

• Rice – Turn your leftover rice into these delicious, grated veggie rice balls. 

• Pasta – Your leftover pasta can be transformed into an easy veggie frittata. 

• Veggies – Add those unwanted veggies into pasta sauce and blitz ready to create a fresh new meal, or make a homemade vegetable stock.

• Breakfast and salad – Couldn’t do as many Weet-Bix as you thought? Add them and any leftover bits of fruit and greens to a tasty smoothie – no one will know!  

• Broccoli and cauliflower – Kids didn’t eat their veggies? No worries! Turn leftover broccoli and cauliflower into a hearty lentil ratatouille with a cauliflower crumb.  

• Spaghetti Bolognese – Is there anything you can’t do with Bolognese?  With or without the spaghetti use the sauce to fill toasted sandwiches, pies, capsicums, make a lasagne, Shepherd’s pie or an American style Sloppy Joe burger.  

• Odds and ends – Use those leftover veggies, proteins and wholegrains to make a nourish bowl.