Using up the bits and bobs

I'm going to cheat today and post a couple of recipes I used over the weekend that are terrific for padding out and using up leftovers, providing they start unadulterated. By which I mean they won't help if you have leftover cauliflower cheese or lobster thermidore, but are great for the end of a roast and the leftover vegetables from the same meal.

Chicken caesar pasta

Very easy, this. All quantities are approximate.

Ingredients:
250g pasta
Left over roast chicken for 5 (on the light side if necessary), chopped.
Vegetables for 5 (anything that cooks quickly that you may happen to have about), chopped.
half a small tub of creme fraiche
a few grinds of pepper
parmesan shavings
balsamic vinegar.

Boil water for pasta and tip the pasta in once boiling; then put on the lid and turn off the heat. Set the timer for advertised cooking-time less 5 minutes; when it beeps, drop in the chopped vegetables and chicken and put the lid back on quick. Leave it for the remaining 5 minutes.

While you wait, put the creme fraiche in a big bowl and grind in a little pepper. Amuse yourself making interesting parmesan shavings using a block of parmesan and a vegetable peeler.

Drain the pasta and bits, plop into the bowl with the sauce, mix well and sprinkle with parmesan shavings. Serve with a drizzle of balsamic vinegar.

My 6 year old had three helpings of this!

Left-over lamb stew (based on the summer lamb stew recipe in Good Meals on a Small Budget by Gladys Mann, 1964).

Ingredients:
leftover scraps of lamb
a few carrots, chopped to baby-carrot size
a couple of spring onions, chopped
left-over spring veg of any other kind (peas, beans, greens etc)
Lamb stock
mint sauce

Put the lamb stock in a saucepan with the lamb, spring onion and carrots; bring to the boil and simmer for 20 minutes. Add the other veg and leave for 5 minutes with the heat off and the lid on. Stir in a teaspoon of mintsauce just before you serve. If you find the gravy a little thin, thicken with two teaspoons of cornflour and water. Serve with mashed potatoes.

I have also served the lamb with new potatoes cooked in the stew - just place small new potatoes in at the same time as the carrots and carry on regardless.