Leftovers can be challenging. Occasionally, youll have a meal so good that you actually look forward to scarfing it down cold the next day, but that's not always the case. I usually have bits and bobs of leftoversthings I didn't care for in the first place, or stray ingredients I cant seem to get rid of. My curse however, is that I hate (hate!) tossing edible food. So over the years, Ive gotten better at reworking leftovers, and you can too. Here are my favorite ways to repurpose leftovers into incredible new meals.Recipes for using leftoversI run into two types of leftovers: leftover meals and leftover single ingredients. Lets start with leftover meals. This section is how I like to transform prior dinners or luncheslike sausage and peppers or chicken salad to give them a new life.Leftovers as pizza toppings Credit: Allie Chanthorn Reinmann Do I have a borderline problem with eating personal pizzas? Whos to say. But that continual experience has given me the confidence to say leftovers make for great pizza toppings. If pizzerias can put chopped chicken cutlets and penne on their pizza, so can you. Heres how I like to pizza my leftovers. All you need is a ball of thawed pizza dough from the grocery store and a bit of cheese to act as your glue.Egg roll emWhat do the stray container of leftover brisket, the green curry chicken from three days ago, and the sausage and peppers from Sunday have in common? Theyd all be great with a crispy egg roll shell wrapped around them. Egg rolling your leftovers is extremely simple with a pack of premade wrappers that you can buy from the refrigerated aisle of your grocery store. Once youve secured your delicious leftovers in the center, deep fry or air fry them for a wonderful lunch or dinner.Stack leftovers into a lasagnaIt helps to think of leftover food as a component that needs a new vehicle to carry it, like pizza dough or an egg roll wrapper. Pasta noodles are a versatile main ingredient too. While you could toss your leftovers with spaghetti, turning it all into a stacked lasagna is more impressive, and personally I think its more appetizing. While Im using Thanksgiving leftovers here, you certainly arent limited to that. Boil the pasta noodles and use them to sandwich each layer of leftovers, like thinly sliced meatloaf, creamed spinach, or vegan steamed dumplings. (Its okay to layer carbs with carbs.)Make a delightful brunch casserole Credit: Allie Chanthorn Reinmann Casseroles are always a wondrous mish-mash of ingredients. What makes them sliceable is the addition of some sort of flavorful binder, like eggs or cheese. I added a few eggs, a torn up English muffin, and shredded cheddar to the leftovers of my seven-layer dip recipe and baked it for about 20 minutes at 350F to make this absolutely scrumptious casserole. You can casserole anything from leftover waffles to rice and beans with this method.Risotto your leftoversI showed you how to fake risotto with leftover rice, but you can also throw your leftovers into risotto. Risotto is another one of those helpful carbs that act as a vehicle for your once-fresh food. Though this recipe is geared toward Thanksgiving leftovers, the concept stands for any leftover protein and veg. Make your risotto as usual and just after you ladle in the last bit of stock, drop in your chopped leftovers to warm up in the pot.Build a satisfying sandwichSandwiches are like old episodes of your favorite showits your back-up when you dont know what to watch (or eat, in this case). A leftovers sandwich is the solution when you cant figure out what to do with that massive casserole from your cousins brunch party. Since leftovers can be irregularly shaped (as opposed to sliced deli meats), I suggest grabbing large slices of bread and potentially leaving them untoasted. Then the soft texture can hug and hold onto the fillings better. Here are some ways you can tweak a sandwich to make it even more delightful.Make the best oatmeal of your life Credit: Allie Chanthorn Reinmann For the longest time, I thought I hated oatmeal. It turns out, I was just not adding enough fun stuff to it. Oats are bland, which makes them a terrible main event, but a great supporting act for other bolder ingredients. Your leftover dishes from the week are already cooked and full of flavor. Simply make a batch of savory oatmeal and nestle your chicken parmesan, Thai gaeng keow-wan curry, or vegetable korma into the bowl with it. Here's my recipe for spicy, savory oatmeal with herbs and kimchi. Recipes for common leftover ingredientsThis section is devoted to my most common leftover ingredients. These are things that maybe havent made it into a full meal yetlike raw celery or cooked leftover ricebut theyre living their last moments in my fridge. Ill lean on these recipes to keep them from becoming trash.The many iterations of leftover rice Credit: Allie Chanthorn Reinmann There was a year or two that I would order Chinese food take-out frequently, and end up with tubs of extra rice stacked up in my freezer. A day of reckoning would come once a month when I would have to figure something out, or Id have no freezer space. So I have more than one way to use up leftover rice. This crispy rice cake, this fake risotto, and this comforting rice salad are all good to have in mind.The problem with celeryCelery is one of those ingredients that will haunt your crisper drawer for 100 years. Im not even exaggerating, it actually grows more stalks while it's in there. Its only charm is how crunchy it is, so I wouldnt recommend egg rolling it or putting it on pizza. My solution for unused stalks is to make this salad which relies on thin, diagonal slices to maintain crunch but reduce stringiness. The vinaigrette adds much needed flavor, the Thai chili wakes up your palate, and the hard boiled eggs create a more satiating dish.Leftover pie crustWhether it's store-bought pie crust sitting in your freezer or you never got around to using the other half of that double-crust pie dough recipe, there's no reason to let that flaky pastry go to waste. Use it to make a filling quiche and mix in any leftover vegetables you might have in the fridge. Avoiding eggs to save money? That's fine, use this recipe to make a lazy pot pie with your leftover crust and a can of creamy chicken soup.Extra hard boiled eggs Credit: Allie Chanthorn Reinmann Boiled eggs make a great on-the-run snack, so Ill often cook up a bunch at the beginning of the week and keep them in the fridge. But some weeks will wrap up and Ill have a few that I never got to. Unless I feel like crushing three or four cold eggs, so instead Ill make a yam kai dao salad. Shallow frying the hard-cooked eggs give them an appealing crispy-chewy exterior and the lime and fish sauce dressing creates a flavor profile youll look forward to eating again with next weeks eggs.Cold plain pastaI find it infuriating that the proper serving of dry pasta is two ounces. I would like to eat a pound of it but alas, I have been shamed by society, so Ill begrudgingly put the supposed extra in a container for the next day. With this clever trick, I now look forward to leftover pasta. This works for both plain boiled pasta or pasta that has a light coating of sauce. Add butter to a frying pan and tip the cold carbs into the melted butter. Stir and loosen the pasta as it warms up and then let it fry so it gets crispy and brown on the bottom. Serve it immediately to enjoy the new crunchy-soft texture of your stir-fry-revived pasta.That half-can of coconut milkKind of like the cup of pured pumpkin I didnt need for a recipe, Ill occasionally end up with an unused portion of coconut milk in my fridge. I dont particularly like it in my coffee, but that flavorful, fatty gift from nature cannot be wasted. Although you can freeze it, I decided the best way to use it up would be to capitalize on its inherent richness and make it into a luxurious coconut pudding for one. This simple recipe uses a cherry compote to top it off but you could substitute another fruit, jam, or go without and let the silky coconut speak for itself.