Leftovers Shelf

I have a leftovers shelf in the fridge where I put all the bits and bobs from eating through the week onto the one shelf (that is apart from fresh veggies, and then I usually dig them out once a week to put into a home made stir fry).

There is pork dripping, ideal for making roasties, there is a load of gravy, a load of beef and some pork.  There was chicken as well but that has been turned into a couple of meals.

The first meal of which was Roast Chicken, a large chicken that was £8.90, I cooked that as a proper Roast Chicken, with all the veggies, but this time round did not do any extra veggies.  As a result, I  then ended up with loads of meat off the carcass.  

Half of the meat was turned into a Chicken Tikka Masala which was served with Pilau Rice and a Naan.  It could as easily be turned with the help of a sweet and sour sauce into a Chinese sweet and sour, yet again served with Rice, or indeed a home made stir fry.  Very tasty the Chicken Tikka Masala was too.  All ways of making a little go a long way very cheaply.

There is still half of the meat left and that is destined for a Chicken stew.

I have a couple of lots of made up gravy in the fridge as well (do not waste anything), so that will be tipped into a big saucepan and carrots, onions, a little potato (to thicken) and some peas will go in and then it will all be cooked up together.  That has now been done.  In fairness I added other vegetables such as broccoli stem, carrots, peas, potatoes, swede, onion, kale and a little courgette.  We like our soups and stews to go cold after cooking, as we think that you get more flavour from the stew or soup standing for a while and then being warmed up.  It is already for warming up tomorrow and serving either with some mashed potato, Colcannon, or just with plain bread.

  

It is a cheap way of getting something warming into your stomach during the cold weather.  I frequently serve it with some mashed potato and some plain bread for mopping up the tasty gravy.  Food that does more good than harm.  One of my Mum's recipes and one that we used to love.  

Equally you could make this into a Chicken Pot Pie or into a Chicken and Mushroom pie (an Internet friend Crafty Nan on Instagram suggested this one to me).  Especially if you have one of the electric pie makers as you can make individual medium sized pies (the size you would get at the Fish and Chip shop).  There are lots of other things besides these you could make with the left over chicken.

I also have the Chicken Carcass left over.  It would be a pity to waste the goodness of this and so I am going to leave it in the slow cooker overnight to extract all the stock from it. I will then use this in gravies and soup.  All I shall do is add water, some carrot, bay leaves, onion and a Bouquet Garni and leave it to do its stuff overnight.  I shall then strain off the bones and skin, and store it in a Kilner jar in the fridge for use during the week.  Food is getting that expensive so using up what you can makes more sense as it helps the purse strings.  Good old traditional meals are good mainstays and good for keeping people warm in the colder months.  People's work used to be more physical years ago, to what it is today, but warming food that lifts your mood returns the investment double whammy.

The carcass is now in the slow cooker for cooking overnight.  I am looking for some good stock from this for use during the week in soups, stews, gravies and wherever needed.

So in this day and age, it pays  to use up the leftovers as well as really it is like a freebie meal, but each thing you make with it reduces the cost of the meals you actually had.  Out of this very large Chicken I have managed to get three generous filling meals and the stock from the carcass for soups, gravies and stews.  That is a "win-win" situation in my book.

Catch you soon.

Pattypan

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I then have all the trimmings