Recently, I wrote about how our meals slide into each other – one dish segues into the next in a relatively seamless manner. Let me illustrate the point by describing to you what we ate last week.
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For our lunch with Bizzy Lizzy and Peter, I’d baked Buratto flour sourdough loaves – we ate two and froze the remainder for a later date.
On Tuesday, I turned our leftover lunch cheese into fromage fort – French brie, mascarpone reale, buffalo parmesan and West Dorset cheddar were blitzed together in the mini food processor with a clove of garlic, a splash of Kirsch and ¼ cup of white wine. This cheese spread isn’t for the faint of heart or stomach, but I adore it…
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We also had leftover ricotta from lunch – on Wednesday, it was drained, then spooned into a small pie dish, sprinkled with crumbled dried sage, black pepper and our homemade chilli flakes, and baked until firm (I popped it into the oven while the pulled pork was on – see below).
Big Boy ate this for lunch on Friday, accompanied by defrosted Buratto sourdough…
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On Wednesday, I roasted a large pork neck in the Römertopf to make pulled pork…
I froze four 250g portions of the meat and two boxes of defatted stock for future meals, and served the rest with rice, homemade frijoles negros refritos, chipotle salsa and cheese. The leftovers from this meal – a small quantity of saved pan drippings and some cooked rice – were stored in the fridge.
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Since the oven was on anyway, I baked one of our butternut trombies at the same time. We ate half with dinner, and stashed the other half in the fridge…
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Now, remember our monster squash?
We cut it open on Friday, and found orange, Jap pumpkin-like flesh…
I thought it might be nice stuffed, so I deseeded it, then put half into the oven to bake as I prepared the filling.
I made a batch of empanada filling (using the saved fat from the pulled pork to fry the onions), then stirred in the leftover cooked rice. Once the squash was nearly done, I spooned most of the mix into it, then topped it with cheese, and returned it to the oven to finish baking…
Small Man doesn’t like pumpkin, so I baked the remaining meat and rice mixture on a separate plate for him…
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On Saturday, I combined the leftover third of the roasted monster squash (the top section, which was free of rice and meat) with the baked butternut from a few days before, added in a box of the frozen defatted stock from the pulled pork…and made soup!
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As you know, I love trying new recipes, but this is how they often come about. Rather than reading about a dish and then going out to buy ingredients, we’re much more likely to see what we have on hand, and then try to figure out a way to make use of it.
Our primary motivation is to minimise waste (be it food or electricity), but the joy of creating something new from something old comes a close second. Being able to make do with what we have on hand is both frugal and empowering. It’s also a huge timesaver – a couple of nights ago, I defrosted one of the 250g portions of pulled pork to make tacos for an easy midweek dinner.
Do your meals slide into one another? So often food blogs and magazines are filled with glamorous photos of restaurant-style dishes, but I’m far more interested in how people eat on a day to day basis. How do you feed your family midweek, when life is frantic?
Fig Jam and Lime Cordial 
You know I’m a sucker for stuffed squash. Yours are coming in very nicely.
Greg, I actually checked out your recipes when I was making this, but in the end decided to use the empanada filling, as it had a little added sweetness that I thought would go well with the squash. Yours were very tempting though! :)
So true – love being creative and creating available ingredient inspired dishes. So glad to have a fridge and freezer to store excess food and ingredients. Love the look of that baked squash. Yumo! :)
Thank you! I don’t think we’d survive without our freezers (yes plural) :) !
I have the same thing on a weekly basis with chicken. Roast on Sunday or Monday, then strip the carcass,, make a stock, and use the left over meat to make a risotto using the stock, one pasta or noodle dish and something else to match up with whatever is in my veg box…I love that sort of cooking, where it’s all about making up delicious things with left-overs. I must say that that baked ricotta of yours looks fabulous! I so want to make a fromage fort but never have enough bits of bobs of cheese left over…
Selma, the fromage fort only seems to happen after entertaining, when we’ve put out too much on an antipasti platter. Your chicken dishes sound fantastic! Have you ever tried saving the pan drippings as well and frying the rice in that before cooking? Would add an amazing flavour – we do something similar in Hainanese chicken rice…
https://figjamandlimecordial.com/2013/12/03/hainanese-chicken-rice/
Thanks Celia – brilliant recipe that I will try tomorrow! I am going to keep pan drippings next time I roast and try that with the rice – sounds fantastic!
Perfect description of meal making throughout my week. Loved the monster squash!
Debi, it’s gigantic, isn’t it? How it managed to grow without us noticing is still beyond me! :)
Mmmm squash soup, sounds yummers. My mencats are not fond of leftovers, though usually they eat everything so it’s not a problem. Occasionally I can sneak leftover meat into pies but not often. I have some leftover veg from last night that will be good in soup. If I have leftover vegetarian dishes I just eat it for lunch the next day. Hugs, Maz
PS Made an almond toffee pear tart last night for company that was killer. I’ll post picts soon.
Maz, I wish you were closer, so I could share my squashes with you. They’re having a bit of a late run here!
That would be a fine thing! <3
[…] Jam and Lime Cordial has a good blog up on…leftovers. There. I said it. It sounds so much better the way it’s written in […]
i do the same celia..i’m not interested in creating ‘restaurant’ meals either..x
Jane, the older I get, the more drawn I am to peasant food – big, filling meals served in a large communal pot at the table. :)
Brilliant! My day to day meals evolve much like this. I absolutely loathe waste too.
Thank you! We’re fortunate to have the chickens, so not a lot ends up in the bin. Oh, and starving young men as well. :)
I don’t say I’m as resourceful as you Celia but my motivation is to minimise waste too so leftovers in one form or another form part of our weekly menu. Driven by what I buy at the farmers market on a Friday, I check cook books for inspiration but tend to adapt rather than follow slavishly.
Sally, I love reading cookbooks for ideas as well! But I never seem to be able to shop to a recipe – so when I go shopping, I think “ooh, the chicken looks good, and I might get more coconut milk, and…” And then I go home and try to retrofit a recipe into the ingredients. I’m sure it’s far more efficient the other way around! :)
You’re so clever and creative, Celia and you eat beautifully, right through the week. I love baked ricotta. I used to cook it like that with a spicy salsa on top and enjoy it with a pre-dinner drink – must start making that again. Interesting how the squash was actually a pumpkin! I love how you baked it whole stuffed with goodies. The pulled pork looks amazing and tacos mid-week with this pork would be a joy xx
Charlie, thank you – the interesting thing about the giant squash is that when the fruit is small, it has the flavour, colour and texture of a zucchini! So we get to use it both ways. The 250g portions of pulled pork have proven to be the right size – combined with refried beans, it’s more than enough to feed all four of us for dinner with tacos or tortillas! :)
I wish I was still feeding four of us, Celia! I love how your meals slide into another, as you say. There is so much deliciousness. And boy, that pulled pork! Yum. You are indeed very resourceful… I aim to be more like you in this department… that said, we rarely have leftovers.
Liz, how cool that you can manage your portions so well! I’m rubbish at it – I just cook a whole lot, then wonder what on earth I’m going to do with it all. Hence the sliding. :)
I think it is a trait of a truly talented cook, such as yourself, to be able to make decent meals out of what’s on hand rather than buying and cooking solely to recipes and glossy pics. I’m not a glamorous or even particularly skilled cook but I can feed us for a week out of a modest shop and put stuff in the freezer, or feed us for a week out of what’s in the freezer and leftovers. Slow cooked meat of any kind and veges go a long way. It’s looking like the latter this week as we have found better things to do this weekend than food shop.
ED, thank you, if we’re clever we can really stretch slow cooked meat meals out, can’t we? When I was portioning out the pulled pork, I thought “250g might not be enough for a meal for all of us”, but we’ve now used two portions for two different family meals, and each time it’s been fine. Good for us not to eat a huge amount of meat every night as well!
I am impressed. I hate waste too. So many of my meals evolve from what’s on hand, what needs using up and so on. Mr T always says comments about how good the dish was, and asks if I took a photo or whether I noted the ingredients. The answer is always no- when I am creative, I rarely have time to note down things or photograph, especially if I am starving. So those big fat squash are really pumpkins!
Francesca, Mr T is smart – he wants to have the meal again! :) The big squash are really pumpkins, but they start off as zucchinis – mild light yellow flesh and zucchini textured! So we get the best of both worlds! :) PS. your seeds are going in the mail today!
Very inspiring list of leftovers! I regularly recreate a main into what I hope is a decent leftover meal the next day. Clearly I have a lot more to learn about “sliding meals” :) Great read, thanks, Celia.
Fran, I think often the subsequent meals are as good as if not better than the first! Thanks.. :)
All I have to say is- YOU GO GIRL! I love posts like this because it’s the real deal. We often morph our meals as you do, and I find it quite challenging (in a good way). In fact, I get all stressed out when the fridge is too full! I have more fun getting creative with what I have on hand. xx
PS- I haven’t been to Spuntino’s although I would love to one day. I let you know if I do :)
Em, you’re so good at it too, I see it on your blog all the time! I don’t always end up with successes (never mention the apricot lamb), but it’s always such a thrill when it works! :)
I love seeing how your meals slide into one another. My starting point for a meal is often when I have something leftover and I find that a little leftovers often enhances the next meal. Last night I made quesadillas but didn’t have the feta in the recipe and so I used a sweet potato I had half baked and needed using – it worked really well. I often write up my recipes on my blog but they are what I make rather than triple tested – as I often tweak things I make multiple times. I love your cheese dishes – rarely buy ricotta because I never know what to do with leftovers but your baked leftovers with bread sound great
Johanna, a friend of mine working in the cheese shop told me that when the fresh ricotta gets a bit too old to eat fresh, but is still ok, baking it extends its life a bit longer. The secret is to drain it well first, in a colander. :)
That is exactly how eating evolves at our house. I LOVE when I can just take things and make something new out of them without needing a recipe! It all looked delicious Celia! It would be very interesting to track how that happens at each of our homes… what ingredients or dishes lead into other meals.
Ardys, it was an interesting post to write. I have the advantage, as Lizzy says, of feeding starving wolves, so there’s room to create and someone will eat the end results. I’d love to read posts on how you do things in your kitchen!
My sliding slides into the freezer for “lazy” nights but yes, I absolutely get what you mean. Right now I’m looking at a few leftover strawberries from the week, a slightly soft kiwi and a banana that will be too ripe tomorrow and deciding what to do with them for dessert tonight.
Rose, we do a lot of that too! I don’t know how I’d manage without our freezer! Hope dessert was fabulous (I’m sure it was)! :)
Am clapping! [Well, usually am when i have read your column!!] ~ loving healthy and interesting food, yet living alone, this is exactly how my food plans evolve! And, yes, one can DO it for a single and even fit in many of the recipes found on blogs, on a continuous revolving scale!! Thank you for the example and the encouragement!!
Eha, good for you! It takes far more thought and care to do it when you’re only feeding one!
I would love to have meals evolve the way yours do. I usually end up listening to my ‘want-to-eat’ gene and not to ‘what-I-have-on-hand’ gene. Wonderful meals, Celia!
Thanks Maureen! You always do so well though, and I know you always use what you have on hand when you’re putting together recipes (when you can)!
I love the concept of sliding meals and since my focus this year is on sustainability, I’ve come to appreciate the question of “what are we going to make with what we have?”, rather than “what are we going to make?” Its a different way of cooking and takes creativity and forethought, but I think in the end, better choices. I applaud your commitment Celia. I have my April IMK done, but having trouble linking, so let me know if it”s not linked….
Julie, you’re so right, it is a subtle change in thinking. We often find the follow up meals are better than the first, so we’re encouraged to keep going, if only for that reason! :)
G’day and well done Celia! My passion is minimizing food wastage and you you living proof that you do! I have some ricotta in the fridge. Thanks for the suggestion on what with it today I can go! Cheers! Joanne
Thanks Joanne! Hope you enjoy the baked ricotta!
Great read Celia, it really is impressive that you use everything and don’t waste food. It was interesting to read how one dish becomes another, just fantastic. Restaurant style recipes are great to look at but personally I just think not practical and especially on a weeknight when you just want something not too complicated. If we have leftovers of vegetables or vegetables that are getting a bit old I make a soup as it’s quite forgiving, otherwise if we have bits and pieces left I tend to just make up a platter of little different things and we eat that with some bread or crackers. Not perfect and not always the same style of food but just do the best we can after a long day and at least we don’t throw too much away. I notice you use pork neck quite a bit, not many people I know use it but my parents have always loved it. When I was eating meat I use to love it minced and mixed in with the small dried Chinese prawns and stuffed in bitter melon, I guess that’s the teochew in me coming out! :)
Stefanie, being teochew as well, I’m sure we grew up on similar foods at home! I love pork neck as I can roast it and end up with incredibly tender meat, but there’s very little fat on the cut at all. Your leftovers soup sounds very similar to our “emergency soup” – we usually make it Italian style and throw in a few lentils and short pasta as well! :)
https://figjamandlimecordial.com/2010/03/17/survival-soup/
Hi Celia, just had a look at your soup recipe and yes it’s very similar :) Great too with the Parmesan rinds, I will try that next time.
Great stuff Celia. For us, dinner becomes lunch the following day. Leftover vegetables from dinner get spread on sandwiches or put into salads. Poached fruit made for breakfast also gets put into cakes. Bread bits get toasted and put into salads. Gravy goes into casseroles or pies. It is constantly revolving! x
Jane, nothing gets wasted in your kitchen! And I’m sure you’ve got good eaters – farming is hard work! We were just talking about all the food Pete’s grandmother used to cook to feed her husband and four sons every day – she’d get up at 4am to chop wood to start her oven – which would then burn for the entire day. She’d cook a hot breakfast (steak, eggs, bacon) which they’d eat after they’d been out working for a few hours, then lunch would be a full roast with two pies every single day. Amazing stuff!
You truly are a pro!
We do try to cook like this albeit not as successfully as you! I generally start the week simply. For example maybe a roasted chicken. With the leftovers I might do chicken Caesar salads or chicken soup or curry or taco etc. With just two of us there are always leftovers so it is inevitable that one night towards the end of the week there is a pot luck leftover night where everything comes out of the fridge and we each make a plate with whatever bits we want.
Lauren, the pot luck bit is so much fun! We freeze a lot of leftovers in meal sized portions, and when things get really hairy here, we’ll each pick a leftover to defrost for dinner. :)
I call these Merry-go-round meals Celia, and you are the Mistress of them all! I love the seamless transition of flavours you find and that there’s no wastage. At work, any leftovers are repurposed into staff meals and you become quite adept at creating something new and tasty from ‘nothing’. At home I like to really play and create, so I tend to freeze leftovers for days when I’ve less time on my hands or to give frugal feeding lessons to the girls. Last week’s roast lamb into pot pies, extra chicken turned into soup etc. And of course, anything I can’t identify or a bit freeze burnt can be curried! :) xox
Becca, I bow to the queen of creating old from new! You do this so well! :)
I love your phrase ‘sliding meals’. It is so satisfying to make the best of ingredients while not compromising on quality. Some great ideas there!
Pat, thank you! It helps enormously to have a freezer, so that we don’t have to eat the same thing for three days in a row! :D
So true Celia. I dont have too much left over but I also cant stop dreaming up things to make . I am so bad
We just need to find more eaters for you, darling x
Brilliant, Celia! I love it when meals segue seamlessly into the next…it doesn’t always happen, but it’s great when it does! I’ll keep practising! I recently made a wonderful soup with the hambone I had put in the freezer, some stock from the Christmas turkey, puy lentils from the pantry and whatever veggies we had on hand. Finished off with fresh herbs from the garden it was absolutely delicious! This is the way my parents (who live on a farm) cook and eat all the time. I hope that I will be able to do this more and more….viva la sliding meals!!
Jaqi, bet your soup was the best thing ever – I love it when we can make use of stuff we find in the freezer! I uncovered the backbone of a turkey recently – just the backbone – but it was enough to flavour a soup for lunch! :)
Impressive on so many levels, economy, sustainability, cooking ability and just great food too. The bread looks amazing too.
Thank you! Bread was great – even defrosted! :)
This is my kind of cooking too! I have a huge pile of cookbooks that I love to read but I rarely follow a recipe. Nothing like a bit of stale bread, some leftover spag sauce, the ends of cheeses and some egg and milk to make a savoury bread pudding that’s never the same from one time to the next.
Savoury bread pudding! I’ve only ever made a breakfast version, but one made with leftover spag sauce is a brilliant idea! Thanks Liz!
Another “winning” post, Celia! Your inventiveness, confidence, and brilliant articulation supported by beautiful pictures are so inspirational. Having discovered your blog, I think I should disregard trawling through all the numerous food related magazines and books I compulsively acquire and just rely and refer to your blog for preparing and serving delicious meals. Thank you so much for sharing. Actually, it’s a wonder some media person hasn’t discovered you for a book, e-book or otherwise, or, indeed, a cooking program on TV. Who needs a Naked Chef or a Domestic Goddess…you’re the real deal ;-)
Charmaine, such a generous comment, thank you! We just do what we can, and I’m grateful to have the opportunity to share our ideas with likeminded folks! :)
I hadn’t thought of the way I cooked as ‘sliding’ but that describes it perfectly. I too tend to see what is left from previous cooking and add new to make it acceptable to The Management. As long as he hasn’t been told what is going in he eats it!
Hahaha! The problem is, he might like it, and then you’ll struggle to replicate it! :D
It has happened! :)
Great post indeed Celia, I usually make a recipe and Maus and I have it for several dinners. When there is not enough leftover for a dinner, we have it for lunch. When it is gone, I make something else.
Glenda, you are the poster girl of not letting anything go to waste! Which is why your struggles with being an incredibly successful gardener make such good reading.. :D
All of those look amazing, especially that pork roast.
Thank you!
Was the monster squash tasty? We bleed our meals together all of the time. “Leftovers” are just another meal in disguise and it’s both a challenge and a pleasure to incorporate them into something that often only vaguely resembles it’s origins. I LOVE your weeks worth of meals! I reckon you should open Chez Fig Jam. I think you would make a killing on the leftovers alone ;)
Thanks Fran! And yes, it really was! It tasted like a Jap pumpkin – not quite as sweet as the butternut, but very nice nonetheless. I roasted the other half, then froze all the pulp to make something clever with it another day (no idea what yet, though :)).
What variety of squash was it Celia? Most interested in trying that one in the garden. I love the shape of it, sort of a long Jappy squmpkin (or is that a pumpsh? ;) )
It’s a mutant, Fran. I doubt we’ll ever grow anything like it again. :)
I love these sort of meals Celia and am a huge fan of leftovers meals, so frugal and satisfying in so many ways. Brilliant post! Your pulled pork looks amazing once again.
Andrea, thank you! The Romertopf gets a good workout at our house, particularly as the weather cools down.
Celia, who needs Jamie Oliver to tell us how to cook and save when we have you in our midst. I love how you use everything and you are simply an inspiration.
Such a kind comment, thank you! Jamie Oliver is a star though – I get heaps of inspiration from him! :)
I love sliding meals! I hate to see anything go to waste and with just the two of us, there’s often lots left over :D
Yes, it’s tricky when there aren’t wolves to feed, there’s only so much blue jelly one man can eat! :D
I am not good at repurposing leftovers so over the years I have gotten better at making sure there aren’t too many. The husband usually takes most leftovers for lunch the next day but this year I have decided to be cleverer about how I use food so this is a timely post for me. So far I have managed to repurpose leftover mash and paella that may have ended up as chicken feed. I use my freezer a lot but never thought of saving leftover juices etc for stock. Brilliant. I do freeze excess ricotta after draining. It freezes brilliantly and means I always have drained ricotta on hand. I love the idea of baking it though. Must try that. Great post as always Celia.
Ooh, I didn’t know about freezing the leftover ricotta, thanks Tania! :)
Now I’m definitely one to select a recipe and make it. Then serve it up just as it was for leftovers the next night. Very uninspiring after reading what you do. I think it’s a great system you’ve got going, very frugal and truly creative. I think it’s something I’ve never quite got the hang of. I think there’s room for a cookbook like that with the week’s menus done up for us.If you wrote that book.. I’d buy it. But you’d have to have your chocolate making recipes at the back too:D
Barb, you’re a sweetheart, thank you. I’ve seen your meals, so I doubt there are many leftovers! :)
If we have leftovers either Dave or I have them for lunch the next day :)
I’ve been known to eat leftover curry for breakfast (much to Pete’s disgust)! :)
Brilliant! That’s impressive. Big fan of turning leftovers into a whole new dish, however I’m so naughty these days, I eat majority of my meals at work, and when I do eat at home, it’s quick & easy (zero fuss food). Again, I thank you for the reminder to get my butt back into the kitchen. Have a wonderful week. :)
Anna, you’re so busy with all the events work, I’d be amazed if you ever get much time to cook. So nice to see that life is going well for you!
You eat well and deliciously. Our meals definitely slide into one another. Some of the best dishes I have created are from what I have left from another meal turned into something entirely different.
Karen, sometimes it’s the bits and pieces – the fat and leftover stock for instance – that are the true highlights for me. They’re like secret treasure! :)
You make me so hungry…I am going home to cook up a meal..
Bet it was wonderful too, Norma! :)
I go through waves of inspiration where I create new and interesting dishes out of what is left in the fridge, but I also go through times when I am loathe to open it because so much has to be thrown away. And I hate it!
I always tell myself I’ll plan meals out better but hardly ever end up doing it. You post is definitely an inspiration. probably feeling like crap this last week has something to do with that though….I sneezed five times writing this comment!
Bernie, you need chickens and worms! Almost nothing gets wasted here! I guess dogs would work too.. ;-) Hope you’re feeling better!
Ah..I checked! we’re not allowed to have chickens in the city :( would be nice though. It would give the dogs something to do!
Oh I wish I had your cooking skill. I am often found staring in the fridge letting all the cold air out, why I struggle to think what I can make out of the ingredients before me. As we grow our own food this becomes doubly hard as you never know what you are going to get. This is why I think gardening and cooking skill are so important to be taught to children.
Jason, our garden definitely dictates a lot of our eating – at the moment it looks like we’re going to be swamped by mutant pumpkins! We have more of the monsters growing in the garden! It’s definitely trickier to cook when you have to go from ingredients to recipe rather than the other way around! :)
I love the stuffed squash. You think and plan ahead beautifully. I could do a little better in that department. :-)
Thank you! I don’t really plan all that well – we do a lot of flying by the seat of our pants.. :)
Celia you are an inspiration. I really do try to make use of leftovers but sometimes I’m just stumped. You seem to make it look so easy & every time I read your posts, I think – now why didn’t I think of that. I guess I’m not as confident in my kitchen skills. But I do try my best. For example tonight I’ve got a stuffed chicken roasting in the oven with some baked potatoes. The chicken & stuffing will go into sandwiches for lunch and I (hope) to dump the bits and pieces into a crock pot for a batch of chicken soup (unfortunately a 2nd round of serious colds & flu seems to be going around & I think I’d better be prepared). I’ll make the noodles for the soup to dry out tomorrow morning & have that for a dinner another night & freeze some for when someone’s not feeling well. Somehow I don’t think that’s quite as creative as you but with you as my guide …. like that stuffed squash – oh how I would love some of that.
By the way, I had no idea that you could bake ricotta – excellent.
Diane, it helps to have willing eaters. Sounds like you’ve squeezed every last bit of goodness from your roast chicken! :)
You’re incredible, Celia! I guess I’m lucky. Living alone, the only person I have to worry about getting bored with my dinners is me and I love leftovers. I always make too much of everything. Depending upon how much I have, I’ll use it for a light lunch or hearty supper, though I may whip up a fresh vegetable. And, of course, when all else fails, I’ll make a frittata or pasta with the leftovers. My system is a far cry from your inventiveness but the end results – less food wasted — are much the same. :)
John, Big Boy now has evening lectures three nights a week, so I’ve taken to freezing single meal leftover portions for his dinners. Works really well, although often he ends up eating two dinners! I’ve never been much good at turning leftovers into pasta – I shall try harder! Thank you.. :)