Did You Know...

that you can safely keep leftover cooked veggies, soups or stews for three or four days in your refrigerator? That's right. You don't need to use up your leftovers the next day. Part of our aversion to leftovers is sometimes the fact that, well, we just had that dish the night before!

Most experts agree however, that as long as you refrigerate the leftovers quickly after first-use, they can stay "fresh" for up to four days. Of course, the best thing to do for leftovers is to repurpose them altogether. In other words, create another dish by adding or combining freshly made ingredients with the leftovers.

Of course, a lot depends on which veggies you have leftover and your individual tastes. As an example, you might want to cook a nice wild or brown rice; throw in some garlic and onion and then top it off with the leftover veggies from the fridge. It makes a nice little stir fry or rice pilaf and helps you use up the leftovers.

Another great way to use the leftover veggies is to cook a whole wheat pasta and use the leftovers as a topping to combine with the pasta rather than using a red sauce. Or, if you have some veggie sausage in the freezer, thaw it and cook it in a skillet with a tiny bit of olive oil. Then heat up some of the leftover veggies and combine them all on a hoagie bun or kaiser roll with ketchup - a great sandwich idea.

You can also make some vegetarian chili and top it off with leftover broccoli florets and serve it over rice.

Of course - never ever leave food sitting out for more than two hours after cooking. This can lead to the development of dangerous bacteria growth and cause serious illness. We all hate to waste food. That's one more reason to make our portion sizes smaller and cook less.

But remember, when in doubt about the safety of your leftover food items, it's better to discard them than to take a chance.