Last week, I cracked the fridge door open to make sure we had enough room to add new grocery items, and I was upset by what I found. Leftovers, and lots of them. We do our very best to cook and eat at home most nights of the week, and I try my hardest to make sure that leftovers are being eaten. Neither my husband or kids are big fans of eating leftovers, which makes it tough to see that they aren't wasted.

I salvaged what I could from the fridge, and wound up having to push quite a bit of leftover food into the garbage disposal. As I watched it all wash away, I felt a pang of guilt, thinking about all of the people in the world who would give anything for a meal. While we try to share our resources as we're able, we also have to be better about eating the food we buy, not wasting, and not buying so darn much that the food spoils before we can eat it.

It does take planning to create a weekly menu, itemize a grocery list, and think through meal ideas in which you can incorporate leftovers if you have them. Leftovers can become amazing meals, if you open your mind, expand your tastebuds & don't even mention to your family that they're eating re-vamped leftovers.

Salad-Topped Quesadilla

This quesadilla with a twist uses leftover taco or fajita meat!

We eat a lot of Mexican-inspired dishes at our house. The ingredients are usually inexpensive, the dishes are easy to make, take little time, and everyone likes them. There are so many different ways to enjoy fajita or taco meat, as we've discovered through the years. I'm lucky that my kids like tacos, fajitas, and quesadillas.

We almost always have leftover meat from fajitas or tacos. A quick way to use that leftover meat is to create a new dish, and one of our favorites is a quesadilla.

To make a Salad Topped Quesadilla, you will need:

2 Small flour tortialls

Leftover taco or fajita meat

Shredded cheddar cheese (I use extra sharp)

Sour cream

Spring Mix

Melt a small pat of butter in a non-stick skillet on medium-high heat.

Drop one tortilla into the skillet.

Add the cheese, and layer taco or fajita meat on top.

Cover with the 2nd tortilla shell.

Let the tortilla brown and get crispy, like you would bread for a grilled cheese sandwich.

After about 3 minutes, carefully flip the quesadilla and brown the other side.

*I use an over-sized spatula to flip mine.

Once the cheese is melted, meat is heated through and tortillas are golden brown, remove from the skillet and plate.

Even spread sour cream over the top of the quesadilla.

Top with a spring mix of various types of lettuce and spinach, adding other fresh toppings like tomato, avocado, a spritz of lime, etc.

One of my favorite meals- a crunchy quesadilla topped with a fresh salad!

This is such an easy and delicious meal. My leftover fajita meat had peppers and onions in with it, which gave this quesadilla incredible flavor. You can get really creative or even have a quesadilla topping station, letting everyone add their favorite toppings for a personalized meal.

This meal idea not only helped me use up leftover fajita filling, but it also helped me use up the large portion of spring mix I purchased from ALDI. 

I really hope you'll give this quick and easy meal idea a try & I can't wait to hear how you top your quesadillas! If this looks good to you please Pin it & share it!

Happy cooking & here's to being creative in the kitchen and using up leftovers!

What are some of your favorite ways to use up leftovers? Let's chat leftovers in the comments or on MBP social media!