Working on a busy cattle station as the cook has taught me a lot of lessons. One of them is waste not want not. Out here we don’t have the luxury of running down to a shop every five minutes. If we run out of something or if something doesn’t turn out right we may have to wait for weeks to replace and restock. By no means am I an expert. I have only been here for about three months now, but I am learning slowly and want to share the following with you.
So far on my journey these are my three most frequent left overs:
- rice
- mashed potato
- cake
Why do I love having these left overs? It means I can do something simple the next day. It means I can stretch one meal over a few days in different ways. It keeps everyone happy. Variety is the spice of life. Or so they say.
RICE:
Now I always cook too much rice. Always have always will. Plus I know I am not the only person out there to be guilty of this. Even if I learnt the trick of how to cook the right amount I would probably still cook more. Why? Because of what to do with leftover rice. Here are my favs!
- Rice Croquettes. Mmmmm! Delish. Easy and so yummy you won’t even have to try to get rid of them.
- Fried Rice. Excellent to serve with a Chinese style stir fry the next night or even as a side dish for a BBQ!
- Spicy Rice Salad. Excellent accompaniment for a meat dish or BBQ.
MASHED POTATO:
This is rarely a big left over provider. However, I always cook a little extra because everyone loves potatoes. Right?
- Hash Browns/Potato Cakes. Good to add to a bacon and egg breakfast or even a smoko snack.
- Shepard’s Pie. Everyone loves this dish. It is so simple.
- Cheesy Mashed Potato Bake. Yummo.
CAKE:
Leftover cake you ask? Never! Well sometimes but this one is more importantly for those never-fail failure cakes. Ones that crumble as they come out of the tin. Or those that are slightly burnt but still good. I have tried and tested the following three ideas and all of them are delectable.
- Cake Truffles. A combination of crumbled cake and melted chocolate and whatever else you might like. My fav so far is mixing the crumbled cake with cream cheese and dipping in chocolate icing. Yummo.
- Slice. Adding crumbled cake to any refrigerated slice is a good way to not only save a failed cake but also extend it.
- A New Cake. This one I have done a few times and successfully. Who would have thought. Simply beat the cake with another egg, some milk and extra SR flour. It comes at as a moister, denser cake and doesn’t fall apart. Brilliant.
What are your favourite leftovers or failures?
Norris Around Australia 
Great ideas Sarah. We can sure use them in our home. The cake one sounds brilliant! Thanks.
Thanks for the comment John. The cake truffles are delish. Let me know how they go!
Can’t beleive you have been out there 3 months already. What an amazing learning curve. How much longer are you staying?
I know. It is amazing how time flies when you are having fun. We are not sure how long we are staying now. We were meant to stay for only three months but we love it out here and have no immediate plans to leave other than to go home for a visit at the end of this year’s muster (around September) It is certainly a learning curve. I am going to post some photos on the blog shortly of some our times out here on the Plenty Highway. Take Care.