Learn To Love Leftovers

Nikki Boswell, Nutritionist for the March Budget Friendly 28 Day Challenge has provided some tips on how leftovers are a great way to help you keep on track with your healthy eating and stay on budget:
Loving leftovers is a great way to not only save time while still eating healthy meals, but also to save your hard earned dollars from ending up in the garbage.

• Leftover dishes like curries, soups and pastas are great freezer fillers. By placing leftovers into airtight containers and into the freezer you will always have healthy meals on hand and will save on your grocery bill. If you start to get a stock pile of frozen meals, plan them into your weekly menu.
• Leftover staples like rice and quinoa can be stored in an airtight container in the fridge for about three days or in the freezer for several months, but remember food safety is particularly important with high moisture foods such as these, so only ever reheat them once and be sure they are heated to steaming.
• Left over rice or quinoa is great to throw into a frittata or soup, make a quick fried rice or serve with some stir fried veggies; have it cold for breakfast as a rustic rice pudding (add milk, a little honey and some fresh fruit); or whip up some sushi for lunch.
• Leftover cooked meats are great to pop into salads, sandwiches or on a mixed plate with some cut up veggies for lunch.
• Don’t throw out overripe bananas or last week’s excess of apples – use them to make healthy muffins, slices or bliss balls. These can be popped into the fridge for up to a week or several months in the freezer. Alternatively you can slice, bag and freeze fruit to use in smoothies or baking another day.
• If you aren’t a family of ‘crust’ lovers, save the ends of your bread in a bag in the freezer to use for bread crumbs (or to feed the ducks if they start to pile up).
• If you get towards the end of the week and your fresh herbs are looking a little limp, you can place them in a freezer bag and save them for later use – just remember to label what’s inside!
• If you have leftover chickpeas, lentils or beans, be them canned or pre-soaked, these again can be placed in a container or zip lock bag and frozen for later use. Try to remove any excess liquid before freezing by patting them dry.
• And since you’ll be doing all this freezing and storing, save yourself some money and reuse glass jars rather than buying excess containers or freezer bags (glass can be frozen too – just be sure not to over fill).

Nikki Boswell, Nutritionist