Waste Not, Want Not. Yes, even leftovers....

Leftovers. They get a bad rap. I personally have never had an aversion to leftovers, but I hear of countless people whose leftovers get tossed in the trash because apparently round 2 just doesn't cut it. When there are enough leftovers, we have CORD-clean out (the) refrigerator dinner. Use up leftovers + no cooking for mama? Win-win!!!! I will admit that because most everyone in our house is gone for lunch (which is when we tend to eat up a lot of leftovers) I get stuck eating the bulk of leftovers around here. And sometimes, 4 days in a row of reheated spaghetti is enough to make a girl cranky.

So like a prison warden trying to prove that prisoners can be reformed, I set out on a mission to "reform" some leftovers. I had three goals in mind. One, that the leftovers don't taste, well, leftover. Two, that I use up as much in the frig as possible. Simple logic, but not throwing food out saves money. Easy peasy! Three, to stretch the leftovers to make a meal that would feed the whole family.

Today's mission-to turn leftover turkey, mashed potatoes and some veggies into a Shepherd's Pie using a pre-made pie crust that also needed used up. Now, I've never made a Shepherd's Pie before, but it sounded like the ultimate comfort food. And heck, I love anything with "pie" in the name!

I'm not one to usually follow recipes when cooking, but I needed a basic idea of what went into a Shepherd's Pie though. I looked up a few different recipes (and trust me, there are lots out there with the soul intention of using up leftovers!) I realized that most Shepherd's Pies don't use an actual pie crust and since traditional Shepherd's pies use ground meat, I decided that this concoction would be somewhere between a Shepherd's Pie and a Turkey Pot Pie. So, to combine the two recipes we will just call it Pie Pie. Hopefully Pie Pie will be edible enough to go bye bye.

Off to make Pie Pie now. I'm sure my teenager son could turn that into a joke. Anyway, I'll finish this blog after we eat Pie Pie!

(Insert elevator music for your wait....)

So, dinner is done and it was a hit! Every kid loved it! Success!!!! Aside from adding a little sour cream to the potatoes, a can of carrots to the turkey/veggie mix and a little paprika on top for color, everything was leftover! Felt like a free meal!

What "prisoners" are lurking in your frig today just waiting to be "reformed"? Get creative (or just use Google!) and see what those bad rap leftovers can be transformed into. And as the motto goes, "waste not, want not."