I hate throwing food away.

Left-overs should be reheated, frozen or used as part of a new meal.

The last option is what I’m focusing on this time; using left-overs as part of a new meal and adding just a couple of items in order to use everything.

(This isn’t the healthiest example, but it sure was delicious!) 😉

It started out like this:

Meal # 1:   Tacos.  I made a pound of taco meat. (Since I had all the ingredients for tacos, there was no additional money was spent.)  A pound of meat was way too much, so I froze half of it, like I discussed in Saving Money With Big Batch Cooking and Baking.   What didn’t go into the freezer, I put in the fridge and the next night, we had…

Meal #2:  Nachos.   We made a big plate of Nachos Supreme with cheese, taco meat, onions, and peppers.  I bought some nacho cheese and chips. ($5.00)  Now on to…

Meal #3:  Nachos again.  Because Nachos Supreme is that good!  But, we still have chips left.  So…

Meal #4:  Chips and hot sauce.  Bought hot sauce ($3.00)  This is more of a snack than a meal, but we love chips and hot sauce and it’s a good way to use up those chips!  Any hot sauce that’s left over can be added to a chili or soup recipe.

There you have it!  For an additional $8.00, we had 3 extra meals for 2 people.  Those extra meals cost us just $1.33 per person.  Plus, we didn’t waste anything!

BENEFITS:

• Using left-overs in a delicious way
• Not wasting any food
• Using food money wisely

Assuming that the average home cooked meal is around $5.00 per person, we were able to stretch those dollars and save some money!  (3 meals x $5.00 per meal = $15.00 x 2 people = $30.00.)  / (3 meals x $1.33 per meal = $3.99 x 2 people = $7.98.)

MONEY SAVED:  $22.02!!

🙂