I mentioned that we'd try a part two to last week's question on any ideas to use less of something, or make use of something that might go to waste.
The first is tea.
Do you drink tea? Your teabag is probably not spent after your cuppa'. Here are some things to do with it, food-wise:
Let it steep in fresh hot water, and use the water to makes cookies, cakes, sauce for chicken, etc.
If you ever make ice cream, you can take teabags and put them directly into the ice cream base for a while, then remove them.
And, of course, they are good for beautification and gardening purposes.
Tomato Paste.
Have you opened tomato paste, and not needed a whole can? You can open both ends, place them back where they belong, put it into a Ziploc baggie, and freeze. Then, when you want a tablespoon or 2, you just treat it like a push pop, removing one end,pushing from the other end, cutting off the amount of paste you want, replacing that end, and putting it back in the freezer.
Leftover spaghetti sauce:
You can put it over pasta, over rice, over mashed potatoes or baked potatoes, etc. Also, use it as part of the liquid when making instant rice for an Italian-style rice.
It's also good to cook over chicken. You can put it over chicken pieces, with or without a piece of cheese on top, and finish in the oven. Or, add it to shredded or diced chicken for a cacciatore-like treat.
If it's thick enough, you can turn it into pizza sauce...maybe by adding a little paste to it, if it's too thin.
If you have some leftover beef stew, a little crust will turn it into instant beef pot pie! If it's more meat than anything, you can add frozen or canned vegetables to stretch it into an extra pie or two.
If you like, leftovers can also be served over noodles, mashed potatoes, or rice. And, if it really is only a very little, it will make a good topper for baked potato night, as a topping, perhaps even with a touch of cheese on top.
Extra bread bits? Is it going dry? Even if not:
If it's savory, it can become croutons, crumbs, breading, mix-in for meatloaf or meatloaf burgers, topping for little casseroles, stuffing, etc.
And, finally, if there are any bits of fruit left, you can cook them up together for a quick, refrigerator jam to use though the next week. You can use pectin, but for the 'fridge, it's not necessary.
Also, you can make a mixed fruit cobbler or crisp.
Or, make a fruit salad with your favorite fruit salad dressing.
Well, that's all for now!
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