leftovers are your friend

cook once, eat twice

my dad texted me this as I was working on this post. too good.

My all-time favorite time-saving trick is cooking extra food while I’m already cooking dinner to serve as leftovers for the week. I am a master of repurposing leftovers into totally new and fresh feeling meals. At the bare minimum, I try to always cook a bit extra of whatever protein I’m making for dinner to throw into a salad the next day.

Here are some ideas to spark your creativity using WTC recipes from the archives:

one-pot cheesy baked meatballs // as written, sliders tomorrow!

Make the meatballs as written, and serve them with fresh bread tonight for dinner. Tomorrow, for lunch or dinner, make meatball sliders by adding a meatball, some sauce, and some mozzarella onto a King’s Hawaiian roll and baking for 15 minutes on 400°F. You can make as many sliders as you have leftover meatballs… or you could even cut each meatball in half to stretch this more.

sheet-pan roasted sweet potatoes and chickpeas // as written today, kale chicken and veggie salad tomorrow!

Grab all of the ingredients for this recipe, plus one bunch of curly kale and 1 pound of boneless skinless chicken thighs. Add the chicken to the sheet-pan with the veggies, along with a little extra oil and seasonings to ensure it’s coated nicely too. Roast as written.

Enjoy then recipe as written for dinner tonight. Chop the chicken up for tomorrow.

Then tomorrow, make a kale chicken and veggie salad. Chop up the kale, sprinkle with a bit of salt and massage until it softens a bit. Dilute the leftover feta dip with water, then use that as a dressing. Reheat the veggies and chicken on a sheet pan in a 400°F oven for 10 minutes, or until warm. Toss with the kale and whipped feta dressing. Sprinkle pickled red onions and some nuts or seeds over top. Delicious!

sheet-pan chicken and squash // as written today, grain bowls tomorrow!

While everything is roasting, cook up a pot of brown rice or quinoa or whatever your favorite grain is. Make some pickled red onions as well.

Enjoy the recipe as written tonight. Chop up the leftovers into bite-sized pieces so that they’re ready to go for tomorrow.

Then tomorrow, make grain bowls by putting about 1/2 cup of grains and greens (anything works but I love using arugula for grain bowls) into the base of a bowl. Top with the leftover chicken, squash, dates, pomegranate seeds, pickled red onions, goat cheese, and a big squeeze of lemon juice.

crispy artichoke and chicken salad // as written today, as written tomorrow!

This recipe is SO GOOD exactly as written for leftovers. Dinner tonight, lunch tomorrow! Just keep the nuts and croutons separate as they will get soggy in the fridge.

30-minute shawarma lettuce wraps // as written today, rice bowls tomorrow!

Make lettuce wraps for dinner, then use the leftovers to make rice bowls tomorrow. Rice and greens as your base, shawarma meat over top, any leftover avocado cucumber salad, chopped raw or leftover from another night roasted veggies, feta, fresh herbs, nuts, and finish it off with a drizzle of the lemon tahini sauce. Delish.

What are your favorite “cook once, eat twice” things to cook?