Meals for Nothing

OK so now I have your attention, it is not nothing but costing almost nothing as they are made out of leftovers or by deliberately taking a spoonful or two from a main dish and keeping it aside.

I keep these in the fridge in some small containers. I have some very small plastic tubs that originally held an individual sponge pudding some years ago. Individual ramekin dishes are a good size for this too or even just on a saucer.

Most of us have at the back of the cupboard a sandwich toaster machine that we have forgotten about. Mine is in easy reach especially with the cold weather.

So what do I put in toasties?
I could make a list but it would be endless because the answer to that is just about anything. All these ideas below are rarely missed from the main dish you have made and yet allows you to get a whole light meal from it with just the addition of a couple of slices of bread.
Left over scraps from roasting a joint or bird, those bits that are left on the carving block that you would collect and probably bin, if they seem a little on the hard side I mix them with a bit of gravy and leave to soak up and soften over night.
Sometimes the opposite problem arises so if a meal I’m making seems to have a very loose sauce sometimes pasta or rice can be added to ‘carry’ the sauce and make it suitable. I once tried adding breadcrumbs but this just didn’t work it was far too sloppy and not enjoyable at all, there maybe an occasion when this would be right I suppose but I’ve not come across it yet.
I love to make a batch of pasta sauce and put aside a spoonful or two, the same goes for stews, curries and savoury mince.
Scraps from the end of cheeses, and adding a finely chopped small amount of onion or chilli saved when making something else.
The meat off bones used for stock could be mixed with gravy, baked beans, left over vegetables or anything that might go that is lying around. I prefer to mix this meat with something as I find it has lost a fair bit of the taste it originally has into the stock. It is more for bulk than flavour.

Soup, either with or without pulses depending on taste and availability, out of a few left over vegetables, is also very easy to make with home made stock which costs nothing other than 1 onion. You can use up left over cooked vegetables by dicing them and adding them to the stock (with or without pulses) to warm through, which will make the cost of the soup even cheaper even for free.