What’s on my plate – using leftovers

Well hellooooo!

What’s on my plate you ask?

Not much is my answer!

Why?

I need to do my shopping and, as such, the cupboards are quite bare. Reminder to go shopping!

In another way of looking at things, I have a lot on my plate, just not in a food way. I won’t bore you with the details but it involves medication, constant surveillance and it’s getting me down a bit to be honest. But I’m also lucky because I’m healthy, active and have good medical care nearby. Lots of people have far more serious things they’re dealing with so I’m not going to complain.

In lieu of any other meaningful recipes in my post, I offer up this lovely recipe for a long and happy life by Ruth Bernhard. I thought it was very appropriate 🙂

Recipe for a long and happy life by Ruth Bernhard
Recipe for a long and happy life by Ruth Bernhard

So what can I dish up for this month’s What’s on Your Plate challenge?

I really don’t know where to start or where I’m going with this post so bear with me – I’m like an author who lets the characters write the story.

After the success of our previous online book club cooking sessions, I was a bit worried about the baking for Anne Brontë’s The Tenant of Wildfell Hall, but I needn’t have been worried. I nailed it, as did we all! We get such a blast out of our Zoom cooking sessions, we immediately shared our results on our various social media platforms – as you do! Thanks to Jo for her expert leadership in all our cooking sessions. You can find the recipe here if you’d like to give it a go.

I included my before and after shots on Instagram for my Day 24/30 ShareSeptember2021 one word photo challenge with the word for the day ‘being’. I said I was ‘being a Domestic Goddess’ and channelling my inner Nigella!

In case you missed it here are the before and afters as mentioned in my wrap-up post – Enjoying being touched with compassion while reflecting and growing, then you can celebrate your freedom. The long winded, and slightly creepy title (I’ll admit), was my way of being creative by combining all the one word prompts. Did it work do you think?

Leftovers

So then as the shortcrust pastry, a pack of 5 sheets, had been frozen and I only used approximately 2 sheets, I wondered what to do with the leftovers, as I couldn’t re-freeze it.

I consulted with a good friend, who is a real Domestic Goddess (thanks Cathy) and came up with a few ideas which turned out to be fabulous! Mini frittatas and an apple pie.

I found a muffin pan, pressed some squares of pastry into the pan, mixed up some eggs, milk, shallots, ham, cherry tomatoes and capsicum and then poured the mix into the pastry cases. I cooked them for about 10-15 minutes and they were perfect for a light lunch on the verandah, in the spring sunshine, with a cup of tea.

mini frittatas
mini frittatas made with leftover shortcrust pastry

They look a bit rustic and maybe I should have trimmed the pastry, but I can assure you they were delicious!

I was inspired by the success of my mini frittatas so then launched into an apple pie.

I could have popped to the shops and bought some real apples, stewed them up, let them cool and then use them for the pie, or I could have bought a tin of pie apple and cut out all that middle man stuff!

Either way the pie was a hit with the Mathematician.

I put a sheet of pastry in the bottom of my pie dish, spread a layer of raspberry jam onto the pastry, then added the apple and used the leftover strips of pastry as a grid on the top and baked for about 30 minutes – I’m so creative!

apple pie
apple pie made with leftover shortcrust pastry

How do you use leftovers or do you just chuck out the excess stuff? I’m always keen to learn new things so let me know in the comments.

Feel like joining in?

It’s fun joining Canadian bloggers Donna and Deb for their What’s on your plate challenge series each month. These posts go live on the first Wednesday of each month and you can join in too.

It’s not a hard challenge and I can assure you it’s not just for ‘proper’ cooks – I’m joining in so how hard can it be?? It’s fun looking at what others are making and how they do things.

My What’s on Your Plate posts so far:

What’s on my plate for breakfast?

It’s time to join blogging friends with a What’s on Your Plate foodie challenge. No I’m not a foodie but I do cook sometimes and I’m sharing a yummy breakfast.

Keep reading

Don’t miss these What’s on your Plate posts from my blogging friends:

I hope you enjoy reading the other bloggers who are sharing posts for #whatsonyourplateblogchallenge too.

Deb from The Widow Badass (co-host)
Sue from Women Living Well After 50 
Jo from And Anyways
Donna from Retirement Reflections (co-host)

I did it! I let my characters write the story and I think it worked out OK!

Deb 🙂

What's on your plate contributor
What’s on your plate contributor badge

You can also find Deb’s World in lots of other places – stay in touch by clicking any of the buttons below.

You can also find Deb’s World in lots of other places – stay in touch by clicking any of the buttons below.

Everyone has a story to tell!

Debbie - mother of a 40 year old

Deb is a young-at-heart & active 60+ blogger/retiree, after being made redundant from her 22-year career managing education programs in a men’s correctional centre (jail). She now spends her time reading, blogging, riding her ebike and travelling. Deb was awarded a Bravery Award from the Queen when she was 17 after a tragic accident – a definite life changing moment! She is married with 3 grown-up daughters & has 4 grandchildren. You can read more of Deb’s story here

Copyright © 2024 debs-world.com – All rights reserved

21 Replies to “What’s on my plate – using leftovers”

  1. I can’t believe you consider yourself “not a good cook” – your creations look absolutely delicious! and to use leftovers as well, as opposed to shopping a list to make a recipe! That is an achievement indeed.

    My favourite ways to use leftovers in my fridge are stir-fries & soup noodles. If I have pantry items to use up, I would look up that ingredient online to see what people are using it for.

    Liked by 1 person

    1. Many thanks for your kind words Ju-Lyn, I’m trying hard to improve my skills and think I’m going quite well! Stir-fries are a wonderful way to use up leftovers, well done.

      Like

  2. Hi, Deb – You are creative and very, very clever. I usually make it my mission to use up ever single leftover we have, without wastage. But in this case, I panicked when I saw the leftover pastry that I could not refreeze. Before I could talk myself out of it, I quickly composted the leftover dough. Fraidy-cat, I know — but it did solve the problem! 😀
    Thanks so much for joining in!

    Liked by 1 person

    1. I appreciate your efforts in reducing wastage Donna! I had fun making these extra little things using the leftover pastry, it just shows how I’m improving! You are all so supportive.

      Like

Leave a reply to Debbie Cancel reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.