When it comes to losing weight, you have to spend some time in the kitchen. It’s a fact.
You may love it or you may hate it… Maybe you fall in the middle like me.
Most of the time I like it. It’s only when I have a million things going on and am feeling utterly exhausted that I hate it. But either way, in order to get truly sustainable health, you gotta get in there! We’ve said this like a billion times but no one is going to look out for you in the kitchen like you will.
The good news is once you master a few skills, you can be in and out. AND, you can make the most of the things you do cook.
Below I’m sharing some of our best tips on how to be more efficient when cooking… Cook once eat twice kinda thing. You have to learn how to turn those leftovers into meals or at least let them help you out a little.
Once you master that nothing will be able to stop you.
Re-Purposing Leftovers
Below are the things we usually have left over in our fridge, and how they can be re-purposed into something else. I hope you find this list helpful & maybe it will inspire some creations of your own!
Brown Rice
Say you made brown rice to eat with soup. You ate the soup but now have 1 cup of rice leftover. Here’s what you can do with it:
- Serve it with a salad. Say you’re packing a lunch, put the rice on the bottom of the container and stack the salad on top. Dressing in a separate container. Stir it all up when ready to dive in.
- Make a grain bowl.
- Heat it up in a frying pan with some vegetables and tamari for a fried rice type dish.
- Make more soup and add the rice into the pot, like a Spanish Rice style soup.
- Make a rice pudding, add some coconut milk, cinnamon, apples and a little coconut sugar.
- Eat it plain with scoop of hummus and some chopped veggies.
Stir-Fried Vegetables
You stir-fried some vegetables for stir fry, but you have a lot leftover. Here’s what you can do with them:
- Add the vegetables on top of a salad, you don’t even have to heat them. Try them with an Asian dressing or Balsamic dressing.
- Add them to tacos, trust me. Heat them up first, and serve like you would fajitas.
- Cook up some quinoa and serve the veggies on top of the quinoa with a little tamari.
- Make some pasta and run it under cold water and stir in the vegetables with a little olive oil – makes a great cold noodle salad.
Slice of Pizza
You have one piece left. It’s not quite enough for a meal, but here’s what you can do:
- Serve it with a big salad, like a our Tahini Balsamic Salad.
- Heat it up, slice it up into strips and serve it as an appetizer or snack, maybe with some carrots and hummus as well.
Beans
You make a big batch of beans for black bean burgers, but you have 3 cups left over. Here’s what you can do:
- Add them to salads
- Add them to grain bowls
- Add them to tacos
- Add them to pizza (yes, pizza! Just add them at the end after baking)
- Make hummus
Extra Toppings from Tacos
You make tacos but cut up too many toppings. Here’s what you can do with them:
- Add them to salad (think taco salad)
- Add them to a grain bowl
- Add them to pizza
- Add them to wraps
Two Slices of Cornbread
You make cornbread but only have two slices left. Here’s what you can do with them:
- Top with with almond butter and sliced banana
- Serve them with a bowl of soup
- Serve them with a big salad
- Heat them up and have them as a snack
Cooked Macaroni Noodles
You make pasta salad but cooked too many noodles. Here’s what you can do with them:
- Add a little olive oil to liven them up, then add them to an Italian Salad to make it more filling.
- Add them to a pot of soup
- Heat up some spaghetti sauce and stir them into it.
- Throw them in a bowl with beans, fire roasted tomatoes, green chilies, some salsa and nutritional yeast and make a Mexican Taco Bake.
Coconut Milk
You buy a can of coconut milk but only use half of it. Here’s what you can do with the rest:
- Add it to soup
- Add it to oatmeal
- Add it to cornbread, or another baking recipe that calls for milk
- Add it to smoothies
Salsa
You buy a container of salsa but only use 1/2 of it. Here’s what you can do with the rest:
- Use it as a salad dressing
- Mix it with tahini for a creamy Tex-Mex Sauce
- Make more Mexican
- Add it to a grain bowl
- Add it to pasta
