Yesterday I have some leftover from Panda Express. Not much left except for a lot of meats. As usual, I have turned the leftover into a balanced meal.  It does not take much ingenuity other than adding a couple of things to make it healthier and tastier:

1) Add the main staple: some porridge cooked from Nishiki’s premium multi grain–seven grain mix (or you could cook it with rice cooker and eat it to replace regular white rice)

2) Also cook some nice stir-fried veggies. You can cook any veggies you can find in the refrigerator. Just cut up the veggies and stir-fry them in cooking oil with some garlic. And simply add pepper and a tiny amount of salt. This time I just stirred-fried carrots and celeries with oil and some garlic. Very simple.

3) To make it healthier, make a healthy drink. This time I added the ginger, lemon and honey tea drink to go with my meal. Save some room for some tasty fruits!

Back when I was a poor college student, I was trying to save money, so my boy friend and I would take out an order of our favorite kongpao chicken and bring it home. Then I will add a lot of veggies so we could eat a good meal cheaply. It is a great way to stretch your money and make your Chinese takeout last for more than one meal or two! Not only that, you end up eating healthier with more fruits and veggies.

I still have some more leftover and I know I can eat another healthy meal out of it!

Don’t get too lazy and just heat up your leftover. Delay your instant gratification. Cook some multi-grain rice or porridge ahead of time. Take out your pan and add some veggies to your leftover!

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I am back. Here is another dish I have made from the same leftover I had last night.

This time I made a strir-fried dish with asparagus and celeries.  With some fresh veggies added to the leftover, it tasted nothing like leftover at all!

As a caveat, certain Chinese dishes are better for leftovers than others; the ones with a lot of flavorful meats  in them are best for leftovers. Deep fried food such as sweet and sour chicken or General Tso Chicken is not as tasty the next day.  It is unhealthy too to eat too much of deep-fried dishes.  If you have ordered chicken with a lot of veggies, then try to eat all the veggies the day you order it. Leftover Veggies never taste all that great after being reheated.