Recycling Food - Leftovers Turned Into More Leftovers - 3 meals - 3 days

Lunch today, Risotto Cakes,  Fabulous.

In the weekend, I whipped up some soup from the vegetable bin, in the fridge,
Celery, Butternut, onion, some leftover chicken stock, Very Simple
Plenty for 4 people
We didn’t eat it all, we were off to a party and thought we should have a small bowl, to line our stomachs. The remainder went into the fridge.
So last night, I thought I would be a little more creative, than just a bowl of soup and toast for dinner.

Let’s make risotto.
I also had some leftover marinated feta, that I had bought from Farro Fresh in the weekend.
Also for  a little extra zing, a dash of Sriracha Sauce

It was really tasty and very easy.
1 onion finely chopped
Sea salt and Freshly ground black pepper
2 tablespoons Olive oil
2 cups Arborio Rice
Slosh White wine
4-5 cups of leftover soup. You may need to thin it down so that it is the consistency of stock

2 tablespoons Marinated Feta in Olive Oil
Dash of Sriracha Sauce (optional)

Gently saute the onion in olive oil till translucent
Season with S & P
Add Rice and stir well

Cook about 2-3 minutes to toast it a little
Add wine, cook till absorbed
Meanwhile, have the soup gently simmering on the stove

Start adding the soup, gradually,
A ladelful at a time
stirring well till liquid absorbed
Continue cooking, till rice is just cooked and the risotto is creamy, almost soupy in fact
Add marinated Feta and extra olive oil
and dash of Sriracha Sauce if you are using it.

Serve in bowls, best way to eat, this kind of food I think.
Of course I made too much

Solution. Risotto Cakes

Take your leftover Risotto
There was about 2 cups left
2 rashers bacon chopped finely and sauteed till crisp
1 tablespoon chopped parsley
Add an egg to bind

1 cup Breadcrumbs (I used Panko Crumbs)
4 tablespoons finely grated Parmesan Cheese

Mix the breadcrumbs and Parmesan together on a plate

In a large bowl, add risotto, sauteed bacon and parsley

Add beaten egg
Mix well this mixture was quite wet
So I added 2 tablespoons of the breadcrumbs mix just to dry it out a bit

Roll into cakes and pat them flat
Coat with the remainder of breadcrumbs

Pop into the fridge for an hour or so just to solidify

Fry till crispy and golden in some vegetable oil
Voila Lunch

I served them with some Pear Chutney, supplied from our friends Derrick and Lorraine Woods
Actually you don't need much chutney, they are very tasty on their own

On Sunday, the family came over, so I made Italian Meatball Soup
Click here for the recipe
There were 9 of us
I had preceded the soup, with a very tasty Aubergine Salad 
Read the recipe in this post
Threw some beautiful baguettes on the table
Great lunch

I didn't add pasta to the soup, before serving, as I wanted to keep it gluten free
At lunch, I cooked the pasta and only added it to those who didn't care
So there was at least 3 cups of soup left
So on Monday, I cooked up 2 cups of penne

Mixed together with the Meatball soup
Placed it into a Gratin dish
Meanwhile, I made a Bechamel sauce which I flavoured with the Marinated Feta

Smothered the penne mix and baked for about 30 minutes at 180C
There was enough for 4 people.
So half of it went into the freezer for another day

As my friend Mary said
Great budgeting, absolutely no waste