Roast Lamb turn into Shepherd's Pie

For this you need roast lamb or beef (minced), potatoes, butter, milk, olive oil, finely chopped vegetables of your choice (carrot, celery, zucchini) or use frozen mixed vegetables to save time, onion and garlic (finely chopped), tomato sauce, Worcestershire sauce, beef stock and grated cheddar cheese.

Boil potatoes until tender then drain them. Add butter and mash until smooth. Add milk and beat to combine.

Heat oil and fry the onion, garlic and vegetables until they are soft. Add minced lamb/beef, sauce and beef stock. Keep on stirring until mixture comes to the boil. Simmer for 3 minutes. Set aside to cool.

Preheat oven to 200oC. Sppon mixture into small ramekin dish if you prefer personnal size or big oven dish if you want to serve them together. Top with mashed potato. Rake the top with a fork then sprinkle the cheese. Bake for 15-20 minutes or until golden.

Risotto turn into Risotto Cakes

If you have risotto left over, you can turn them into risotto cakes.

All you have to do is mixed the risotto leftover with some crumbled fetta cheese. Then shape them into risotto cakes.

Heat oil in non stick pan and cook the risotto cakes for 3-4 minutes on each side until golden.

Serve with bread and salad.

Spaghetti Bolognese turn into Beef Ravioli

If you cooked spaghetti bolognaise and has some left over of the minced meat with bolognese sauce, you can turn them into easy beef ravioli.

You need to get gow gee pastry wrappers. Place 1.5 teaspoon of the minced beef in the centre and brush the edge with water. Top with another wrapper and seal. Do this until you finish all wrapper. Place them in a single layer on a lined tray.

Heat oil in saucepan and cook onion and garlic (both finely chopped) until golden. Add 1 canned tomatoes and 3/4 cup of beef stock. Bring to boil. Then reduce heat and simmer until thickened (about 10-15 minutes). Stir in basil.

Boil salted water in large saucepan. Add ravioli and cook for 2 minutes. Drain and spoon over sauce. Enjoy.

Stir fried Noodle turn into Spring Roll

If you have stir fried noodle (both the yellow noodle or the rice noodle one) left over, you can make spring roll from them.

You can also use any left over stir fry on its own if you want. Just make sure to put only the dry part of the stir fry.

Get the spring roll wrapper. You can find them in chinese groceries, but many supermarkets now have this in their frozen section.

Defrost them according to packet instruction. Once they are defrosted, lay flat one wrapper and fill in with the noodle, a piece of meat and vegetables.

Warp them in the shape of a spring roll and seal the edges with water.

Deep fry the spring roll until golden and enjoy with your favorite sauce

PS : you can also bake the spring roll in the oven, just spray them with some oil first. But I find that the end result is not as crispy as it would compared to when you deep fry them.

Beef stroganoff or casserole turn into pie

Just a note on beef stroganoff or beef/lamb casserole.

You can use the left over to make pie.

Defrost some ready made puff pastry. Line them inside pie dish. This can be the individual small one or the big shared one.

Put the stroganoff or casserole inside puff pastry, but make sure you do not put too much liquid or it will be a mess later on.

Then cover the top of the pie.

Bake according to the pastry direction and you've got yourself a beef pie.

Another cheap way to make chicken stock

On the topic of chicken stock, you notice that we do not eat the pointy end of chicken wings, right?

That's why when I buy chicken wings, I always cut the pointy ends and keep them to make chicken stocks.
If you only buy a small amount, don't discourage. Keep them in the freezer until you think there is enough amount to make stock.

If you want, you can make large quantity of stocks all in one go, but what I like is to keep them in plastic bags in the freezer, just in the right amount to make one pot of stock. This depends on how much your family needs. This way, every time I need to make a pot of chicken stock, I just boil the water and take out one plastic bag containing enough wings end to make one pot. Easy.

BBQ Chicken Carcass turn into Chicken Stock

When you make BBQ chicken, you can use the chicken carcass to make chicken stock.

First you need to clean them from the stuffing to avoid making the liquid cloudy. Then for 1 BBQ chicken, you put the bones with 3 litre of cold water in a large pan and cook over medium heat.

Bring them to simmer, then turn the heat down to low and let it cook for 1.5 hours to reduce the liquid.

Strain the liquid through a very fine sieve.

You can use this chicken stock for cooking straight away, or you can freeze them for later.

For extra taste, you can also add carrot, celery, leek and onion. Just boil them together. But if you do want to add anything at this moment, you can always put the vegetable later when you cook like I always do. This way you make sure you put what you need according to what you want to cook at that time.

Roast Beef turn into Beef Stroganoff

For this recipe I cheat by using a can of mushroom soup. It's just make the cooking a whole lot easier.

Start by cutting the roast beef into bite sized pieces. Fry the onion in oil and butter. After they are translucent, put in the roast beef, mushroom soup, water (enough to dilute the soup so it makes a sauce), sour cream, a bit of paprika, salt and pepper.

Cook over low heat, but since you already have cooked meat, it will not take that long.

Serve with pasta.

Roast Beef or Lamb turn into casserole

For this casserole you need :

Roast beef or lamb left over

1 onion and 1 carrots, diced

1.5 tbsp plain flour

2 cups beef stock

Worcestershire sauce

soy sauce

4-5 sprigs of thyme

Put oil in a pan, add vegetables and cook for 1-2 minutes, stirring occasionally.

Sprinkle flour and still until the vegetables are coated. Gradually pour in stock while still stirring.

Add the remaining ingredients, stir until boils.

Put in the roast beef or lamb, cut into bite sized pieces.

Then you can continue cooking the beef in a casserole dish in the oven, or keep in on the stove. Just make sure you stir it now and then and put more water to keep the ingredients just covered.

If you cook beef or lamb casserole from the beginning, you need need sometime for the meat to get tender, but because you put in cooked meat, it will not take that long for your beef or lamb to be ready.

Serve with pasta or rice