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• Johanna GGG - May 2, 2011 at 8:41 am

  

  great to see you living your dream!

  one of my favourite frugal habits that I have picked up through blogging is throwing leftover vegie scraps in the freezer and when the bag gets full I put the scraps, some water, salt and herbs from the garden in a big stockpot and make vegie stock – it is great in so many soups and stews

• Rosa - May 2, 2011 at 8:55 am

  

  When I boil veggies I always keep the water and use it for making soup. Otherwise, I never throw away leftover which I use to create a new meal (omelet, casserole, etc…). I keep meat fat that I melt in a pan and use as frying oil.

  That book sounds great.

  Cheers,

  Rosa

• Alexis @ Home in the Straw - May 2, 2011 at 9:14 am

  

  I plan pizza into our menu at least twice a month. I usually buy some cheese, but otherwise I use it as a way to clean out the refrigerator and re-discover frozen items. I generally also make the dough once a month and then freeze it in dinner-size batches for other nights.

  I just recently found your blog and find it very inspiring and enjoyable!

• Sara Clevering - May 2, 2011 at 10:09 am

  

  I use the “discard” from soudough starter to make pancakes. You need less milk and eggs and flour, and since I don’t make bread often enough I’d otherwise have to throw it away. So I feel like I am saving in many ways!

• Merryann Palmer - May 2, 2011 at 10:27 am

  

  I always make extra pasta or rice to use later. Spaghetti noodles make a great oriental stir fry – just add anything you have in the fridge – diced leftover meat, vegies, etc. Use a teriyaki sauce & you’ve got a great main dish.

  Freezing pasta is very easy – just make sure it is covered completely in water. I prefer using bags so they freeze flat.

• toontz - May 2, 2011 at 12:18 pm

  

  I was raised by a very frugal mother, who taught me well. Now that I have a family of my own, I continue to rely on those lessons. We had a garden and used every bit of fruit and vegetable that we grew. Any pieces that we couldn’t use went into the compost. I drive my husband crazy with my habits in the kitchen. I save little bits of leftover fruit and freeze them for smoothies. It is always a surprise what flavor they will become with bits of melon, berries, etc. in them. When I buy a can of tomato paste, I measure out and freeze tablespoons of it…no waste. I make double batches of most meals, and freeze for later (waffles, sauces, soups, etc.) When I need lemon or lime juice, I zest the peel first, (freeze that in teaspoon measures) and then juice. Just recently I baked a whole bag of russet potatoes, and made twice baked potatoes to have on hand for the hungry teens. Oh, and also just made a jar of Ranch Dressing mix to have on hand (no msg, and preservatives, etc) using the parsley I dried last summer. If I have my act together I will dry some onions for more mix after this summer. I guess because we raised so much of our food (and it is hard work) I have always hated wasting food.

• Jill - May 2, 2011 at 12:23 pm

  

  I never throw away a good jar with a good lid.

  I have a small box of baby food jars that I use to store small amounts of herbs and spices. It’s perfect since I like to buy spices in bulk. Pasta jars, sun-dried tomato jars, peanut butter & nutella jars (great for storing beans), cardboard oatmeal containers (good for rice and keeping whole bean coffee fresh), and other spice containers are all great for storage.

  When I can find them at yard sales, big glass pickle jars are excellent for granola, popped corn, and more beans. We eat a lot of beans.

• Cindy Doudrick - May 2, 2011 at 12:26 pm

  

  I remember my grandma (RIP) stored her veggies/fruits and canned items in her “spooky” root cellar. Well, I just realized while reading this that I have a “modern version” of her root cellar and am excited to learn more the art of root cellaring. If I don’t win the book I will be checking it out at the library!
  Every Sunday I bake bread and/or muffins to eat during the week and I also cook a roast or crock pot something so we have left overs for the week. It’s only my hubby & I now, since our chicks “flew the roost” but I’ve discovered its been more challenging to cook for two and not waste food. So, we use lots of tupperware and freezer bags!

• ValleyWriter - May 2, 2011 at 2:32 pm

  

  First of all, lovely photo of the two of you! 😉

  As for a Leftover Queen tip, one of my favorites is saving meat bones and carcasses to make stock. We don’t have bone-in meat too often, but the beauty of freezing it that they’ll last for a long time, so once you do build up enough bones, you’re good to go! I like other folks’ ideas of saving veggie scraps for stock, too. That’s a good one I hadn’t thought of!

• kat - May 2, 2011 at 3:21 pm

  

  I try to always plan my meals for a week or two in advance so I can think about what ingredients can be used in more than one dish. This is important when you are only cooking for two because so many things can only be bought in larger amounts.

• Arlene - May 2, 2011 at 4:06 pm

  

  Purchased culture to make Fromagina cheese. Thing is, you have to use a gallon of milk=one heck of a lot of cheese (and whey-which at least keeps for 6 months). The cheese keeps for one week. If you salt the cheese though (with sea salt) you can freeze it-which I did in small packets. When I cook certain meats like steaks, burgers or veggies, I add a frozen packet of the cheese at the end, just giving it time enough to melt-yum-it adds such a wonderful flavor while not wasting any cheese! Added some to a lamb burger last night-amazing!

• Krystal - May 2, 2011 at 5:21 pm

  

  Well, I am a small hobby farm. My group includes a pony for my daughter, Which I plan to add a mini horse that can pull buggy so that we will have gas free transportation. I also have dogs for livestock protection, cats for rodent control, I have 4 goats which I use for meat, dairy for soap and family, and cashmere because I spin my own yarn. I also have 4 angora bunnies for the fiber as well. I also have just started with baby chicks for eggs and meat, and am considering doing a second breed of bunny that is raised for meat. We have a large garden that provides food for my family, and scraps for the livestock. I am going to be looking in to getting a pig, and a couple cows as well. My family and I have made the choice to go as self sufficient as possible, and although not for everyone, it works GREAT for us.

• Jenn - May 2, 2011 at 6:54 pm

  

  Tuesday night is Egg Foo Yung night: leftover cooked veggies, tamari, scallions, and eggs, scrambled together and cooked up in ghee until browned and set. If I have leftover chicken gravy, I pour that over the top. It’s not only frugal and uses up leftovers, but it’s super-quick. The reason it happens on Tuesdays is because Tuesday is when I have 6-8pm capoeira training and I come home after 8:30pm, absolutely ravenous. So I get some good-quality protein, veggies, all fried up in healthy fat, without having to wait until I get cranky.

• domestic diva - May 2, 2011 at 8:03 pm

  

  I’d love to learn from this book.

• domestic diva - May 2, 2011 at 8:04 pm

  

  We repurpose everything we possibly can and use cloth instead of paper when we can (napkins, bags, towels, diapers, etc.)

• Arlene (MOM) - May 3, 2011 at 9:22 am

  

  There are a lot of familiar “habits” of mine in this list and some new ones to try too.
  I make extra pancakes and use them for snacks or a quick breakfast in the toaster instead of buying them in a box from the store. I save bits of meat and veggies for omelets or frittatas. And left over roast can be cut into bite sized pieces, combined with peas and a cream based soup to put over toast points for a quick dinner to use leftovers. Mom used to do this all the time so it is not my original idea.

• 5 Star Foodie - May 3, 2011 at 9:26 am

  

  Every third week or so, we take an inventory of what’s leftover in our fridge, freezer and pantry and make new dishes with fun combinations of the ingredients that are leftover and need to be used up before we buy anything new. This week, my daughter took charge and did the “leftover” inventory & menu all on her own, so cool.

• Michael Goodwin - May 3, 2011 at 10:43 am

  

  Great photo and welcome to the neighborhood (I’m in Mass now, transplanted from NH). I’m in the MetroWest area around Boston, and I did a Google search of “Farms near 01778”, and discovered about, oh, 20 of them! I didn’t know I had moved to the Hudson Valley of Massachusetts. I’m within 30 minutes of all the farms the restaurants in Boston use, and it’s SO EASY to pop over to one to get stuff. I also save my egg cartons for my local chicken people, and you’d be surprised what great relationships you develop when you use a farmer’s ingredients to make a dish for the farmer – it’s just adding a person and bringing it over. Love your blog!

• Bren - May 3, 2011 at 12:02 pm

  

  Great post and question. For starters, since I make flan so much, I use the sweetened condensed milk can to fill with my other milk so as to not waste the remains of the SC. If I don’t all of the SW milk (in the even I’m making a smaller batch of ramekins), I use it for a drink or another dessert. Fresh vegetables that aren’t used in entirely are used for soup stock, garnish, and sometimes, though seldom, frozen. And of of my faves is storing leftover anyhing in glass jars from foods I’ve purchased! Saves money on having to buy containers and great way to preserve food!

• Jenniffer - May 3, 2011 at 4:06 pm

  

  I love puting leftover foods, like coconut milk, soup, stock, etc. into glass canning jars. I keep them in the fridge or freezer to extend their life! This book would be great, we just moved into a new house with land and would love to see how we can incorporate a root cellar into our plans!!

• Pamela - May 4, 2011 at 12:13 am

  

  My Leftover Queen Tip that works great for us and would for everyone is I often will take the leftovers from a meal and freeze up individual meals. These are great for days when were are on the run and then we can just pull a couple of containers out of the left over meal of choice ( each is labeled as to contents ), popped into a container to heat in toaster oven or into a pan and heat on the stove top.
  We buy very little from the store anymore, it’s amazing how much we have cut down with growing our own organic veggies and putting up, raising our own meat, eggs, also we put wild life into our freezers – venison, goose, duck and we buy grass fed raw milk from a local family.

• Tea - May 4, 2011 at 7:12 am

  

  For me having a well stocked pantry is key to turning left over food into something different and interesting to eat. Lots of spices, different grains, ect. make it easy to toss in some leftovers and have them not look like leftovers.

• Meister @ The Nervous Cook - May 4, 2011 at 9:57 am

  

  You inspire me so to use what’s at hand, to make something special out of the everyday, and to remember that living authentically and healthily doesn’t have to be a huge elaborate production. Keeping it small and simple can sometimes be the most rewarding thing we do for ourselves.

  My “Leftover Queen” tip is to sometimes step out of my comfort zone by picking a pantry item at random and using it in a whole new way. It’s so easy to have noodles or lentils in the cupboard all the time and go back to cooking them the same way over and over — but when you move a little outside your own repertoire to try something new sometimes it can really zap you back into enjoying the kitchen and the art of creating delicious, wholesome food for yourself and your loved ones.

  I always make lentil-and-sweet-potato salad, for instance, but never thought to use spiced and mashed lentils in tacos — what a welcome new spin!

  Keep rockin’, Leftover Queen!

• Francesca De Grandis - May 4, 2011 at 11:57 am

  

  It can be hard to motivate myself to prepare three healthy meals a day b/c there is just me eating them. Also, my MS limits my energy. Quantity cooking and buying are my solution, just as much as they’d be for a family. It also helps me manage to do without buying almost any prepared foods. Here are a few things I do. I grind lotsa nuts in my blender to keep on hand, b/c a bit in a sauce or cereal adds great taste. This weekend, I used an old macrobiotic trick: I lightly browned a large amount of brown rice flour in a dry skillet. Then I put it into a jar. Voila, a huge jar of cream of rice, whole grain style, on hand to cook when needed. Extra yummy if I cook it with ground almonds and goat’s milk. Also, (I love that more than one of us decided to post tips re freezing tomato paste) I buy large cans of tomato paste, b/c that’s less expensive, then use the bit I need, and put the rest in an ice cube tray. When frozen, I put the “cubes” into a bag in the freezer – – then I have bits when I need to enhance the flavor of a soup or sauce.

• Lisa @Granola Catholic - May 4, 2011 at 10:14 pm

  

  I would have to say one of my favorite recipe stretchers is the crockpot. I use it to cook various meats and then save those bones with the bits of leftover veggies or odd pieces to make bone broth. This week alone I cooked some on sale chicken legs and thighs with some tomato paste. They made a lovely broth. I added back some of the meat from those bones to broth made with some additional water, turnip greens and garbanzo beans. Soup is made for tomorrow and I still have chicken legs for snacking on as well as a new bag of bones for making broth next week.

• Christy - May 4, 2011 at 11:49 pm

  

  Well, I keep leftovers in check by having a large family – 5 teenagers right now! My big boys don’t leave much of anything. ;o) Sometimes someone will only eat a part of a piece of fruit and I do freeze all little leftover pieces of fruit in a baggie to put in slushies. I also add all sorts of veggies to spaghetti sauce – it just adds to the yummy taste!

• Natalie Arnold - May 5, 2011 at 12:14 pm

  

  If there are veggies that I can’t use up in time, I keep them in a baggie in the freezer and pull them out for flavoring stocks.

• Alta - May 5, 2011 at 4:18 pm

  

  Wonder if root cellaring is something that can be done without a cellar, in Texas, when the summers reach 100+ degrees and the AC is running just to keep the house at 80 degrees! 🙂 As for leftover tips – I make stock from chicken carcasses and veggies that I’ve frozen because they were on the verge of spoiling. Also I freeze a lot of other things – I’ll bulk-cook beans and freeze them in portions. I’ll freeze meat in portions when I bulk-cook with the slow cooker for nights I don’t have time. I dehydrate veggies for snacks if I’m not going to get to them. If a certain dish doesn’t turn out as tasty as planned, depending on what it is, I might repurpose it. (for example, if I bake GF bread and it’s not great, it gets turned into breadcrumbs or maybe bread pudding)

• Karena - May 6, 2011 at 4:01 am

  

  I just discovered your blog in the last week, and it’s quickly becoming one of my favorites. I’m feeling so inspired to get out in the garden, and ordered The Backyard Homestead on your recommendation to help me get started.

  Many, many of my kitchen tips are in the above comments. A few of the things I do: cook up a HUGE batch of beans on the weekend, then use them to make soups, curries, and veggie burgers throughout the week; make and freeze bar cookies for my kids’ school snacks versus buying individually wrapped treats; and using canteens and reusable water bottles instead of disposable.

• Angela@spinachtiger - May 6, 2011 at 8:37 am

  

  I truly am a left over queen. I purposely make double portions so we can eat the same food the next day (if it’s a braised meat, roast or soup). I cut up my own chickens and vacuum seal the neck and back for broth. I will actually eat my own left over salad (that has dressing already on it) for lunch. I will plan out meals that incorporate the same ingredients to make eating fresh, whole food a real possibility. I don’t quite understand people that refuse to eat left overs, when I think they are the best. We will also vacuum seal left over meatballs, pasta dishes and then in a pinch we have food ready to eat. The vacuum sealer is a great kitchen investment.

• Kat K, - May 6, 2011 at 8:47 am

  

  I am a leftover queen too…I cook to have seconds, but they are never the same as the original meal. I use my crockpot to make meals like salsa chicken(boneless breasts or thighs w/ any flavor salsa thrown on top) and turn the leftovers into enchiladas, quesadillas, chicken salad etc.
  I do the same thing with an on sale roast beef and a jar of mild Pepperoncini peppers to make Italian beef sandwiches and turn the leftovers into bbq beef sandwiches and tacos.
  My crockpots are my workhorses, I have five of varying sizes and four were from garage sales!

• Kat K, - May 6, 2011 at 8:51 am

  

  tweeted…
  http://twitter.com/#!/katklaw777/status/66484912118706176

• Jen - May 12, 2011 at 5:23 pm

  

  I love your blog! This book looks great, I do volunteer work share for fresh veggies at a local farm in Austin TX and have bits left ofter often. I’ve dabbled in canning and am very interested in doing more! It would be great to see what this book can teach me! Cheers!

• alwayshungry - May 13, 2011 at 2:04 pm

  

  Could I be called a leftover Queen?
  Well I don’t have leftovers unless I want them.
  I’ve try really hard at getting my portions right. Either I plan just the right amount and keep some nuts, yogurt or something like that on hand in case we’re still hungry. Or I purposely make more and freeze individual servings for meals on busy days.
  All of my veggy scraps become stock; same goes for all bones and carcases, though I cool the broth and skim off the fat which I reserve for cooking.
  One cool tip is to freeze the part of the egg you’re not using, that way when a recipe call just for egg whites or just the yolk you don’t have to get all upset about what you’re going to do with the other half! Recently I made an angelfood cake that called for 12 egg whites!! I plopped the yolks into a silicon mini muffin pan I had and froze them over night, the next day I popped them out and into a zippedlock bag, Now I’ve got individual yolk ready to use!
  I consider myself at the very beginning of the preserving world so if I’m lucky enough to win the book on root cellars I know I’ll put it to good use!
  I just recieved my very 1st pressure canner a month ago, this summer will be my 1st canning season, I’m very exited!
  For a ton of fabulous tips on saving leftovers I highly recommend reading Penny’s blog: Penniless Parenting http://www.pennilessparenting.com/
  yeah…that would be my bigest tip!

• April Bennett - May 16, 2011 at 1:07 pm

  

  I have gotten in the habit of doubling (or more) everything — I used to make what the recipe told me to, and now I just make sure my proportions are right, and then I use everything I have on hand. So if I have a huge amount of stock, I make a huge amount of soup — I find almost anything can bulk up a soup, from nettles to chard to the regular veggies, plus the leftover meat from the stock-making. And it’s just as easy to freeze leftover soup as it is leftover stock – except now you have a meal!

  Or if I’m making fried rice, instead of measuring out the right amount of rice, I just use the whole package, increase the proportions of the sauce so it’s still flavorful, and add all the veggies and leftover meat and eggs I have on hand. The meal lasts so much longer, and is so much less stressful. I also can give some away spontaneously to friends who are sick, had babies, etc.

  For me, this works better than doubling or planning large recipes, because I will just feel pressured or overwhelmed by the planning aspect, and not do it. Choosing recipes that are easily adaptable, and relaxing and adding things pell-mell, makes it more doable for me.

  I want that book! <3

• Lisa Miller - June 4, 2011 at 11:25 pm

  

  My husband (he’s the main cook, but I’m no slouch) have a method of cooking and storing meat that has really come in handy-and cheap over the years. We stew or roast 3 chickens at a time-just water to cover in a stockpot for an hour, or a pint of water in a large covered roaster at 350 for two hours or until done. Then let the chickens cool in the juices to seal in the flavor and bone out the meat, putting all the bones and skin into a stockpot and cooking for 4-24 hours. The cooked meat gets wrapped in 8oz. wax paper packages and placed in freezer bags in the deep-freeze. The broth gets frozen in 1-cup quantities to use for sauces or soup.

  Similarly, if we have beef or pork, we do large amounts like a brisket or 10lbs. of pork chops at a time, make broth from the bones or save the meat juices and put up the meat in 8oz. packages. Each package of meat is incredibly economical and makes 4 servings of a dinner that’s already ‘mostly made’ because the meat is already cooked. With just the two of us, that’s 2 meals for 2 people and we have broth that enhances most any dish and supports our health. We find that making ‘3rd world’ dishes, meaning 2oz. of quality protein filled out with lots of vegetables and brown rice, makes us feel happy, healthy and yes, wealthy and wise.