Repurpose your leftovers

By Taylor Sutton, MS, RD

United Supermarkets’ Lifestyle Desk

It’s now the odd time between holidays and your refrigerator might be feeling it. Between hosting and attending gatherings, normal cooking at home, ordering in, and everything in between your refrigerator might have quite a few leftovers building up.

No need to panic though, we love helping you make the most of your leftovers as we navigate a healthier holiday season while decreasing food waste.

With the leftovers that can accumulate, we encourage you to think through some easy ways to repurpose them in a more healthful way by adding additional protein, fiber, and color when you revamp them. For example, if you have a few extra random vegetables try making a stir fry. Veggies absorb these flavors really well and when you add in some brown rice and ground turkey it all goes together seamlessly.

Yes, you can wilt your salad greens too and it will work just fine! If you have a little bit of protein left, add a can of beans or legumes with some taco seasoning to stretch your protein as it adds a plant based source of protein that is inexpensive and has a similar texture in tacos, nachos, salads, and so on.

If all else fails, freeze it! Most protein can be added to soups; vegetables can be thrown in a soup at a later time or added into a stock or even shredded to add more moisture to your next batch of oatmeal or baked goods; fruits can be pureed down to be added to a smoothie, baked good, or made into a sauce.

When you do opt to freeze the leftovers be sure to write on the bag what item is filling it as well as the date you added it to the freezer. This also brings up an excellent point, freezer produce is just as good as the fresh and canned options but has a few limitations on their cooking properties.

For example, roasting frozen vegetables is very different from using their fresh counterparts. Getting back to the original point though, there is very little difference between the two nutritionally. So if you have a little bit of frozen broccoli to use and need more for your recipe, grab a frozen bag for a budget friendly option that’s easy to use and will also have a similar texture to your leftover frozen broccoli.

If you’ve got any leftover turkey to use before it goes bad we want to encourage you to love up on those leftovers with canned goods! They are an inexpensive and flavorful way to create a healthy meal for the family. If you have any extra veggies like carrots, zucchini, cauliflower, or beets these would be great to use in this recipe as well. Don’t let us hold you back! Use those leftovers.

Leftover Turkey Chili

Ingredients

1 lb. Turkey

1, 14oz can low sodium Black Beans

1, 14oz can low sodium Kidney Beans

1, 14oz can low sodium White Beans

1, 28oz can tomatoes

2 Tbsp. Chili powder

1 Tbsp. Cumin

1 Tbsp. Garlic

1/2 tsp. Cayenne

1/2 tsp. Oregano

Salt and pepper to taste

Optional toppings: time, cheese, greek yogurt, tortilla chips

Directions

1. Shred leftover turkey and place in crockpot

2. Drain and rinse beans and add them to the crockpot

3. Add tomatoes and additional spices

4. Cook on low for 8 hours or high for 4 hour