Master of leftovers

I think I'm fairly good at using leftovers.  It came from years of cooking for hungry men when we owned the cattle stations.  In the first few years we had very little fridge space so it was a matter of having to use up what was in the fridge to make way for the next meal leftovers.  I graduated from bubble'n'squeak to pan curries and when we could finally purchase ready made puff pastry it was like god's gift to cooks.  Anything can be wrapped into puff and pastry and come out tasting delicious.  The ringers loved those little pastry bites for smoko and they were always demolished.
I really dislike wasting food and these days, with groceries being so expensive, it pays to be frugal with leftovers.
This week I hosted a ladies lunch for some wonderful friends and I decided to make some pita breads and have a choice of fillings.  I made Falafels, Beef Fajita and one of my friends brought a cooked chook that we pulled apart and I had sides of shredded lettuce, sliced tomato and cucumber.  I also served three dressings:  Hummus, Tzatziki and Sesame Satay.  I think everyone enjoyed the informality of the meal and I enjoyed it because it was so easy.
Of course I had leftovers that I quickly turned into some really interesting dishes.  The leftover Falafels I turned into a curry made from Coconut Milk, Passata and baby spinach and the leftover pita bread was perfect to be dipped into that delicious curry.

The leftover Beef Fajita I decided to make into Sausage Rolls. I put the meat mixture into the food processor along with a little leftover gravy from another meal and processed until it was the right consistency to be wrapped into puff pastry.  I will now freeze these for another time when we are looking for a snack.

Last week we had Miso fish fillets with a side of asian greens.  I cooked extra fish so that the leftovers could be made into fish cakes that we ate with a tossed salad.  It was yummy.

So there is no excuse to waste food.  You just need to be a little bit creative and it doesn't hurt to always have a packet of puff pastry (or filo) in the freezer.