So I’ve been trying to do a little better with food waste. I’m letting go of that fear of not having enough when it comes to family dinner, which means I’m having fewer leftovers. And the kids, good sports that they are, never complain as leftovers work their way into lunchboxes. All of this means that we are throwing away less spoiled food than we used to–but we are not anywhere close to “zero food waste.”

Part of the problem, I’m sure, is my resistance to having clear-the-fridge leftovers-for-dinner night. I’m pretty bound, for better or for worse, to the notion that any night’s dinner should be its own, not a rerun of the night before.

The solution? Recomposing leftovers into something new.

It’s not the first time I’ve done something like that (that’s what quesadillas are for, right?) but I was pretty pleased with the number of leftover dishes I tackled in one go. Some leftover chicken broth, combined with the last two slices of ham, some roasted potatoes, and leftover beans all combined into a very tasty ham and bean soup.

Of course, that doesn’t mean we managed to eat all of the soup. Now we have leftover leftovers.

So you can guess what I am having for lunch tomorrow….