We try not to do takeout meals often at our house except for our weekly pizza. There’s always a lot of packaging waste with takeout food and the nutrition value is usually poor. Somewhere along the line however, we started the tradition of getting Chinese takeout on the first day of school. And yesterday was it.
I’ve been paying much closer attention to the amount of food waste that my family of four produces lately. As I wrote about in The Shocking Statistics of Food Waste, about 30% of the food produced in America gets thrown away. The environmental impact of wasted food is immense.
As I cleared the table after dinner last night, I thought about the three cups or so of white rice that came with our takeout that nobody touched. Nobody ever touches it. It usually gets put in the refrigerator only to be thrown away a week later.
It’s perfectly good rice so I decided to spend a little time finding some recipes that could use it up. Here are five recipes that you can make using leftover, cooked white rice next time you faced with one or more of those uneaten containers.
- Garlic Rice – This is a simple Philippine fried recipe that calls for adding pantry staples plus some ground pork, but after reading comments made on the recipe from users, the pork can be omitted and vegetables such as mushrooms and green peppers can be added.
- Calas – A sweet rice fritter made with leftover rice, flour, sugar, vanilla and eggs. Like the garlic rice above, this too can be made with things you most likely already have in your pantry.
- Tomatoes Stuffed with Rice – If you’re looking to use up your leftover rice and the baskets full of tomatoes you’re bringing in from your garden, here’s a Giada De Laurentiis that will help you. I’ve never made a recipe from Giada that I didn’t like.
- Anything Rice – This recipe takes your leftover rice, some eggs, onions, green peppers, and anything else you have leftover in your frig and creates a meal out of it.
- Rockin’ Rice Pudding – Tyler Florence’s recipe for rice pudding using three cups of cooked rice. Hmmm. I have three cups leftover from last night. Guess what I’ll be making tonight!
One other tip – Cooked white rice can be frozen after it’s cooled, so if you can’t use it right away, put it in an airtight container and freeze it.
The majority of these recipes use things that you probably already have in your refrigerator and pantry. Instead of tossing your leftover rice, next time use it up and make a very inexpensive meal.
Do you have a way to use leftover, cooked white rice? Share it in the comments, please.
Read more about using leftovers:
- What to do with Leftovers? Scramble Them!
- Nine Money Saving Tips for Eating Greener
- Leftover Mashed Potatoes? Make Potato Pancakes
[Image courtesy of Wikimedia]
Robin Shreeves
Robin and her family began to take a look at how their actions affected the environment a couple years ago when her son (who was six at the time) wanted to know why they were killing the earth with their SUV. They traded in the SUV for a hybrid, and Robin began educating herself and making small changes in how the family did every day things. She also began to write about those changes for various magazines, websites and blogs including her own blog www.alittlegreenereveryday.com. She is committed to sharing what she learns about sustainability and being green because she believes that if she can make these changes, anyone can. Robin holds a B.S. in Bible from Philadelphia Biblical University and a K-12 English teaching certification from Rowan University. She taught high school English before leaving that career to raise her two sons. She now has a successful freelance writing career, writing about many things green and a variety of other topics.
19 Responses to Thrifty Thursday – Five Ideas for Using Up Leftover, Cooked White Rice
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My Dad loved to have leftover rice as cereal in the morning..
Just put the rice in a bowl with warmed milk, add nuts (walnuts, etc.) raisins, 1 tsp of sugar (brown or white) or maple syrup, and away you go!
I do this! It’s one of my favorite breakfasts. I thought I was either really weird or really innovative; looks like your dad beat me to it!
You can make this with fish but I veggie so here it is.
Rouge (brown butter and flower) in large pot.
Add Onions and lots of garlic.
Add stock and pureed tomatoes (cans is fine).
Add rice and any veg you have left over, simmer 10 min and done.
Add hot sauce or put it on the table.
[...] Leftover white rice from Chinese food? Here are five ideas for using up leftover, cooked white rice. [...]
Thanks for that , very interesting. I get bored of plain rice recipes but I’m not exactly very skilled in the kitchen.
Mix the rice with cheese whiz, cream of mushroom soup, cooked broccoli, and boiled chicken that has been torn apart. Bake at 350 for about 30-45 mins then add Frenches fried onions to the top and put back in over a few mins to brown. You have a full meal–meat, veggie, and starch.
[...] Rice: This one is a no-brainer, since so much of the world population’s diet is based on rice. When combined with a legume, whole grain brown rice forms a complete protein providing the body with necessary amino acids. Lundberg Family Farms is a Sacramento-based rice producer which offers certified organic and eco farmed varieties of rice. You can read about their sustainabity practices here. Also, since Lundberg rice is packaged in a dedicated facility, there are no worries about cross-contamination. [...]
being a broke college student, cheap food shopping is key in mine and my boyfriends lifestyle. we like to make a make shift fried rice.
~ white rice (cook and measure according to box/or use left over…it's just as good)
~ soy sauce
~ veggies (we like to use sugar snap peas, shredded carrots, onion, purple cabbage, water chestnuts, broccoli, and egg. however, experimenting is always fun. we found asparagus, green beans, green/red peppers are also delicious)
~ if you want you can add chicken, beef, or shrimp. it's still delicious without though.
~ start buy putting just a tiny, tiny bit of veggie oil in a pan and sautee. don't add too much though because you are going to eventually add soy sauce in the pan to give the veggies flavor.
~ once the veggies have browned a little bit, add the soy sauce. let the veggies soak for about ten minutes.
~ if using meat of any kind, you want to add this next.
~ then throw in the rice and add more soy sauce. i like to add a lot, but it's all in personal taste how much you want to add.
~ afterwards, remove from the heat, let cool a little bit and then serve. i like to add some pepper for taste, but that's just because i'm a pepper fanatic!
if your daring, and want to spice it up a bit, go to your local food store and buy chinese egg roll wraps. try to roll your own egg rolls!! it's very easy to do and a lot of fun. and since i don't own my own deep fryer, i just put a little bit of veggie oil in a pan and cook them over the stove. they turn out awesome!!
hope you guys enjoy!
Here is a simple recipe.
fold in 1 egg into the left over rice and set aside.
unshell a few shrimps, a saute them in vegetable oil.after a few minutes, remove the shrimps and in the same remaining oil, fry some garlic careful not to overcook.Then toss in the rice with egg regularly mixing and tossing to avoid sticking. mix in the sauted shrimps. garnish with some green peas and finely chopped carrots and leeks.Season with salt to your taste. VOILA
Sorry the show is Dumpt TV (http://www.dumpttv.com) – just realized the Website field does not show up in the Comment!
I came across your great post and wanted to share a new TV show that we are shopping to networks that also talks about great ways to use up those leftovers!