Depends on the ingredients!

Onion can be chopped and frozen; cheese, grated and frozen; etc.

Other things – I try and plan my menus so that the ingredients are used up. For instance, if I want spinach for something, I might make stirfry the next night to use more of it up.

And soup. Soup is always good for leftover veg!

Or did you have other, specific ingredients in mind?

...
You’ve got a bucket of flour right?
You use two cups of flour to make a loaf of bread.

What are you going to do with the rest of it?
Throw it away?
Personally I’d put it back where I found it.

Jeez, and if you want a more specific answer…
Try asking a more specific question!

Depends what the ingredients are.

If they’ll freeze, I do that and use them later. You’d be surprised how many things will. Here is the usda website on what’ll freeze.

Or I’ll alter my meal plans and try to use the ingredients in lunches, dinners, or sometimes breakfasts later that week.

Are the ingredients you’re referring to perishable or non-perishable?

The non-perishables can be stored in air-tight containers for future use.

If you’re talking perishables, though, it’s a bit more complicated. Some stuff can be refrigerated and used for another recipe. Some stuff can be frozen for use at a much later date.

If you can give me a little more information, I’ll give any suggestions I can.

As the others point out, many ingredients can be frozen, refrigerated, or stored in the cupboard until the next time you need them. For perishables, I second (or third) the suggestion of planning your menu to use the same ingredients multiple times in a week. Making steak in a brandy cream sauce tonight? Tomorrow, make a pudding or some homemade ice cream with the leftover cream.

Another trick is to barter with friends and neighbors. I regularly offer my neighbor leftover ingredients and ask her if she has any __ when I need something. It saves both of us from wasting food or going out and spending $3 on a bunch of cilantro when we only need 1 tablespoon of it.

Remember the holy trinity of cooking…celery, carrot, and onion. Always good to have on hand.

My friend once told me that all you need is milk, eggs, and cheese…then you can have an omelet any time you please.

Honestly you shouldn’t have leftovers if you make soup… you should just have made more soup and frozen if for a rainy day. Ok, I know some soups are better if you respect proportions. But they are usually very good if you change them too. And they keep for a week in the fridge.

If you have anything cooked left over, meat, fish or veg, you can always make a quiche.
Ready made or home made pastry dough in a tin, prick with a fork, place your leftovers and cover with a cup of cream whisked with an egg and half a cup of grated cheese (or a Bechamel with egg and cheese if you are courageous). Hot oven for half an hour.

In the restaurant industry, chefs and kitchen managers try to plan their menus so that they have over lapping ingredients. You don’t want to have a ingredient that you only use in one dish unless you can purchase that ingredient in a way that you can use it up when making a single dish. For example, you could pick several dishes to eat during the week that use carrots, onions and celery so that you use it up during the week or you would need to plan a single dish large enough to use up all of those ingredients. In French cuisine, a combination of celery, carrots, and onions, is called a mirepoix. A LOT of French dishes call for mirepoix, so I would recommend buying a French cookbook or researching French recipes online if you find yourself using mirepoix ingredients a lot.

Most things can be added to a soup or a stew, except the heavily tomato leftovers. Thos though can be mixed either into a new marinara sauce or a chili. They can also be put on garlic bread with some mozz and baked in either a toaster oven or conventional oven. Oriental foods can be remixed as well, or added to ramen for a decent oriental soup. Leftover chicken can be chopped up into either a chicken salad, soups or cut larger and put into an alfredo. These are just a few ideas. Omlettes are a good use for many leftovers too.

i go to this site, every time http://www.lovefoodhatewaste.com/

and then after that i go to this site to deal with waste (peelings etc) http://www.recyclenow.com/compost/

One of the joys of raising rats….WHAT leftovers?

The best choice is to use them right that day for salad or so. It is really easy you just have to adjust the recipe a bit. Or for dessert in some cases.

I, personally, would just make more soup and freeze that, if I had a lot of leftover veggies.

Another great dish for veggies that also freezes well is ratatouille. There are so many variations of this dish, it keeps it fresh and exciting. You can make Asian ratatouille (with things like sesame oil, ginger, & soy sauce added); Mexican (with cumin, chiles, jalapenos & cilantro); Italian (throw in some pesto sauce—it’s great!) or the traditional French variety.

yeah~