Six Cheap Recipes for Cupboard Leftovers

Payday is tantalisingly close now, and until then I’m simply hanging on and trying to eat everything left in the flat. Doing a big food shop during the last week of the month is out of the question, so dinnertime becomes a battle to create something even vaguely appetising out of fridge leftovers (crisp sandwich anyone?).

To avoid subsisting on bowls of cheesy pasta until Friday, I have found six different recipes that can be created from things lying around at the back of the cupboard, like chopped tomatoes, potato and tuna. Hopefully you’ll find something to tide you over until the end of March!
Cheese, bacon and onion puff
A fantastically versatile recipe, you can basically adapt most of the ingredients to match whatever you have left in the cupboard, as long as you keep the basic batter mixture. We suggest switching the parmesan for extra cheddar cheese, and the spring onions for the regular variety. Ingredients include:
– Batter mixture
– Parmesan cheese
– Streaky bacon
– Spring onion

– Cheddar cheese

Thanks to BBC Good Food for the recipe.

Tuna pasta bake

I always have tins of tuna hanging around the back of my cupboard, and this bake is a great way of using them up. The BBC Good Food recipe suggests making your own cheese sauce out of milk, butter and plain flour, but you could always cheat and pick up the packet variety for 50p at your local corner shop. Ingredients include:

– Cheddar cheese
– 2 cans of tuna
– Pasta

– A can of sweetcorn

Serving 6, the bake could be divided up and eaten every night until payday (in theory).

Leftovers Pilaf

Whilst this recipe from goodtoknow.co.uk suggests using carrots, peas and spinach leaves, you could easily swap them for whatever vegetables you’ve got lurking at the back of the fridge. The same applies to the chicken: leftover pork or bacon will probably work just as well. You will need:

– Cooked chicken
– Basmati rice
– Chicken stock
– Onion
– Carrots
– Peas

– Spinach leaves

The great part about leftovers pilaf is that you can squeeze in at least 3 of your 5 a day into one simple meal.

Tray bake vegetable pizza

You may need to splash out on a packet of bread mix for this recipe (because I doubt you have any in the cupboard) but we reckon it is totally worth it. Use up leftover vegetables from the fridge to top your pizza, and add bacon, ham or cooked chicken for a meatier option. Ingredients include:

– Packet of bread mix
– Tin of chopped tomatoes, and 2 real tomatoes
– Leftover veggies like peppers and onion

– Cheddar cheese and mozzarella

Thanks Love Food Hate Waste for the idea.

Multi mince

Good to Know has come up with this great idea for multi mince: making a basic mince recipe and then storing different portions to create Bolognese, chilli con carne and cottage pie at a later date by adding different ingredients. For the basic mince you will need:

– Mince beef
– Onion
– Chopped tomatoes

– A stock cube

Fancy eating chilli con carne tonight? Simply add a tin of kidney beans a fresh chilli and tabasco sauce and voila!

Potato, bacon and feta tart

This tart is ideal for using up leftover potato, and the feta cheese adds a really delicious kick. Ingredients include:

– Onion
– Bacon
– Leftover chopped potato
– 6 eggs
– Cream

– Leftover cheese like feta

Thanks to Channel4.com for the recipe.

What’s your favourite recipe for using up things you’ve got left in the cupboard? We’d love to hear it!

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