Transform Leftovers Into Homemade Hot Pockets With One Ingredient

Leftovers get a bad rap, but it's not because they're inherently bad. After all, leftovers are just extra food from a meal you already know you like. The problem is, once you've had your fill of homemade meatloaf or roasted chicken for dinner one night, the magic of the meal can fade and a lot of us don't want to eat the same thing again the next day. Everything changes if you can find a way to use your leftovers for a totally different meal, however. If you often find yourself throwing away forgotten containers full of food, start thinking of leftovers as less of a finished product and more like ingredients for your next great meal. If you want a super easy way to make leftovers more interesting, transform them into homemade Hot Pockets. All you need is a ball of store-bought pizza dough.

Whether you're looking for a way to repurpose a big holiday meal, or you've just got a little bit of spaghetti and meatballs to use up, folding everything into a pocket of dough is a fast way to make last night's dinner into something new. As an added bonus, it's a great way to get picky eaters to give leftovers a chance. Plus, they're portable, so last night's dinner can become today's lunch on-the-go in no time.

Leftovers tend to be very aspirational. It feels like when the food is still fresh you'll definitely eat that lasagna for lunch tomorrow. When the next day rolls around, however, something new and fresh sounds better, and those containers filled with yesterday's dinner get shoved to the back of the fridge. According to Scientific American, because we like the novelty of new food, leftovers are a major source of food waste. So it stands to reason that all you have to do to use up your leftovers and keep them from ending up in the trash, is to make them into something new. In this case, a Hot Pocket-style handheld is a great option. There are lots of ways to use up leftovers, but the nice thing about making these is that you don't need a recipe, just pre-made, uncooked pizza dough from the grocery store.

You can usually find uncooked pizza dough in the refrigerated dairy section of the supermarket, and they come either packaged in a plastic baggie or in a tube with other yeasted doughs like cinnamon rolls. If you can't find the dough near the milk, check the fancy cheese cooler, which is strangely seldom in the same place in the store as the day-to-day dairy.

Making a homemade Hot Pocket is so easy. All you have to do is roll out the dough and make a pocket. Then, pile your leftovers inside, seal up the edges, and make a small slash in the center to let steam escape. Bake them until they turn golden brown, and that's all there is to it!

What should you stuff in your Hot Pocket? Well, if you've ever perused the Hot Pocket section of the grocery store you know that the filling can be anything, so let your imagination run wild. Anything that can go in a sandwich can become a pocket, like roasted chicken, turkey and stuffing, steak and cheese with onions and peppers, and even leftover casseroles and chicken parms taste great. One Redditor even stuffs last night's pasta and stew into their pockets. "I put leftovers in roll dough. Spaghetti is so great, beef stew is the bomb," they stated.

You can also freeze your pockets ahead of time for easy meal prep. They're so versatile that once you get the hang of it, pizza dough will become a staple item on the grocery list so you never waste any leftovers again.