Leftover Stew

It's come to my attention that despite blogging on a staple range used by university students throughout this country using memories drawn from university, I have not done too many meals based on leftovers, and none especially tailored to dealing with leftovers. However, recent circumstances have conspired against me, such that I'm now forced to try to get rid of, amongst other things, the baked beans from the previous post, the burger patties and grated cheese used for the Ramly Burger, the latter now 5 days past its best-before date, and the Basics instant mashed potato mix from long ago.

So it is with great relief that somebody has provided a solution. I owe it to The Everything Meals on a Budget Cookbook, by Linda Larsen, a copy of which I bought when Borders was having its closing down sale in Birmingham. The book had a section catered specifically for leftovers, one of which was the Everything Stew. Basically, the recipe involved throwing together tomato juice, pasta, cooked vegetables, mince, cheese and curiously, potato flakes, into a saucepan and bringing it to a boil. That effectively covers everything that we have to get rid of, as shown below (not shown: Basics instant mashed potato).

So start by bringing the packet of tomatoes in juice to the boil in a saucepan.
Add the pasta, boil for 1-2 minutes, and then throw in the rest of the ingredients except the cheese and potato flakes, in this case, the baked beans and hamburger patty.
Keep boiling until the beef is cooked and the pasta is soft. Add Basics mashed potato and cheese to thicken.

If the dish looks unappealing I regret to inform you that the result, while not unpleasant in taste, makes you wish that you haven't had so many leftovers to clear. In addition, you might experience a slight carb overload as aresult of having both baked beans and pasta in the same sitting. Tomatoes have a slight amount of sugar too, so feel free to reduce the amount of pasta used in the process.