Like a lot of things in life, leftovers are inevitable. Death, taxes and leftovers. Either you threw a party the night before, or your neighbors were very generous over Christmas or you just cooked too much beans because you didn’t think your sister would eat something else, leftovers are a thing that happens in most homes.

Unlike jollof rice that tastes better the next day (this is a proven fact), it might be a little overwhelming trying to figure out what to do with leftovers - especially when you do not like wasting food and with those dishes that are unappealing when cold, not to speak of a day old. Not every dish has the fortitude of jollof rice after all.

If you’re like me and do not like throwing food out (seriously, I hate being wasteful, especially with food), here are a few creative ways to revamp leftovers and make new meals out of them.

Repurposing your boiled yam

I’m personally not a fan of boiled yam, I’d rather have it fried; but leftover boiled yam can still be made into something nice. Yamarita is basically fancy fried yam, coated with eggs or battered and fried. If you’re not with all the hassle, you could just cut the already boiled yam into chips, add a little salt and fry it. The fact that it is already boiled makes the yam crunchy on the outside but soft on the inside.

White rice and stew into makeshift jollof rice

This is really easy, and just as tasty as intentional jollof rice. All you have to do is heat up the rice, add ths stew, maybe a few spices to enhance the taste, stir and stir and viola!

P.S : this can also be done with spaghetti.

Bread into breadcrumbs

Bread doesn’t take long to go stale, but before it does; if you happen to have a large loaf without a large family, you can freeze half of it immediately to use as breadcrumbs later. Breadcrumbs give a delightful crunchy texture to certain meals, it sure doesn’t have to waste!

Bananas, into so much more!

Bananas are quite rude, they ripen too fast and get mushy and disgusting (especially those fat red ones), but they don’t have to go to waste. You don’t have to eat it in such a gross state either. Overripe bananas can be used to bake banana bread, banana ice cream, banana pudding, banana pancakes even smoothies. Don’t throw those overripe bananas out, employ other ingredients like nuts, coconut, chocolate, flour, peanut butter, cheese, and put them to good use!