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When looking for a way to make packing lunches easier, look no further than your fridge. Dinner leftovers, whether intentional or not, are a genius way to fill lunch boxes without doing lots of extra prep work. You can partner leftovers with a few quick extras from DoorDash to turn last night’s leftovers to something new, delicious, and satisfying. Here are nine ways to take some dinner basics to make meals for lunch using the leftovers.
Turn leftover meatballs into a gyro-style sandwich.
Meatballs are the kind of dinner that is best made in big batches: they taste even better the next day and freeze well. If you keep the base flavors simple — think garlic and onion — then you can dress them up however you like for lunch. One of our favorite hacks for using up leftover meatballs is to pan fry the slices for a crispy gyro-like filling that can be turned into a pita sandwich. Add whatever toppings you like to the sandwich and pack flavorful sauce like tzatziki on the side.
Make your take-out rice into a veggie forward fried rice.
Not all leftovers need to be homemade! Sunday’s take-out rice is perfect for making a big batch of Friday rice for lunch packing. Adding some frozen stir-fry veggies makes this super easy, but you can add protein with other leftovers (chicken or shrimp) or use frozen edamame. Send fried rice cold and it will be room temperature by lunch, or send it in a pre-heated thermos.
Turn uneaten chicken tenders into a sub sandwich.
Leftover chicken tenders are kind of perfect sandwich fodder — they pack protein and flavor into a vehicle for sauces. We like to toss them with buffalo sauce and stuff in a sub roll for our tweens and teens, but they can also be dressed with honey mustard and packed into a sandwich with shredded lettuce and tomato for younger lunch eaters.
Or, turn those chicken nuggets into homemade orange chicken.
This hack works with both chicken tenders and nuggets. Order a bottle of your favorite orange sauce or sweet and sour sauce. Heat up a skillet, add some frozen veggies, and your favorite nuggets. Then, toss with your sauce once cooked. Pack this one in a thermos over rice or alongside rice crackers for a filling hot lunch.
Bake leftover spaghetti into easy to eat pasta cups.
This leftover hack is especially great for preschools and elementary school kids. Whisk up an egg and some extra cheese, then toss pasta in this mixture. Portion the egg spaghetti mixture into greased muffin tins and bake. Before baking, add ingredients like broccoli and spinach, or add some protein with your go-to cottage cheese. Bonus: These are easy for smaller eaters to pick up and eat.
Turn last night’s ground beef into tomorrow’s crunch wrap lunch.
Here’s another protein worth batch cooking to make intentional leftovers. Ground meat is affordable and flexible. If you made beef tostadas one night and cooked extra filling, then you could zhuzh those leftovers into a copycat crunch wrap by wrapping the ground beef, cheese, and a tostada shell in an extra large burrito. To seal it all up, brown the burrito in a skillet with a bit of olive oil for a couple of minutes. Pack this one with your preferred store-bought salsa.
Transform leftover tortellini into the most filling pasta salad.
Pasta salad is one of our favorite ways to use up cooked pasta, but you can make it even heartier with leftover tortellini. Dress the pasta simply with your favorite store-bought pesto or Italian dressing. Add some diced salami, bite-sized mozzarella balls, and halved cherry tomatoes to make this lunch a complete meal.
Use leftover roasted salmon for salmon patties.
This is a great way to use up two leftovers: cooked salmon and rice. Whisk up an egg, add a bit of flour and your favorite seasonings (we like furikake here). Then, add the salmon and rice. Scoop into patties and pan fry. These hold up really well in a lunch box and can be eaten cold or at room temperature.
Stuff leftover frittatas into breakfast burritos.
We’ve mostly talked dinner up to this point, but Sunday brunch is another great opportunity for some batch cooking. You can make a sheet pan frittata packed with veggies, plus some crumbled sausage or your favorite bean. Then turn the leftovers into a breakfast burrito — adding a little cheese and hot sauce — and send it as breakfast for lunch.
PHOTO CREDIT: Courtesy of the authors
