Leftovers Lunch

In my eyes a good experimental recipe is one that gets eaten so quickly that you don't have chance to photograph it for a blog post first. That's exactly what happened to the lovely lunch that Mr C made us all earlier today.

One thing that I am awful at is keeping food leftovers and then doing nothing at all with them. There is far too much food waste in this house and if I'm honest I'm to blame for most of it. There are some dinners (mainly pasta dishes) where I plan carefully and ensure that we have enough left over for LMC and I to have it for lunch the next day too. Where I come unstuck though is where there are smaller quantities of things, or where I've had to buy a larger quantity than I really needed. Then bits of food can end up sitting in the fridge for a week or so until they get thrown out due to developing some strange growth. With Mr C having been off work this last week I've tried to only plan our evening meals and to allow our lunches to be a bit more free-form, based around whatever else we can find in the fridge or cupboards. This has meant that sometimes we've all eaten different things, but I don't see that as a problem. I've not had to throw away any containers of dinner leftovers and that is a big improvement over some weeks.

Now that we're at the end of the week the left-over supplies were running low and the previous night's dinner only resulted in some cooked broccoli and new potatoes left in the fridge. Mr C managed to work his magic on these though and made up a fantastic lunch for all three of us based around them.

First he made a quick cheese sauce on the hob using some milk, soft cheese, grated cheese, plain flour and a touch of seasoning. Into this he mixed the chopped up potatoes and broccoli, along with a handful of cooked ham (the sort you put in sandwiches). This was then all put in an oven-proof dish, grated cheese and breadcrumbs sprinkled on top and then it went under the grill until it was all bubbling and crispy on top. Served up with some bread it was delicious, filling and came with a feeling of satisfaction at not having wasted yet more food. It also ticked the box of being a family meal that really didn't cost very much to make at all – bonus.

My next challenge is to try to use my child-free time tomorrow to come up with similarly easy meals using what is now lurking in the fridge. I really want to try to nip this food waste problem I have in the bud now once and for all, so I'm on the look-out for recipes to use things up. Any tips you might have are gratefully received! If I can do so and also cut our food shopping bill at the same time then it'll be a thrifty bonus.