So it’s a Monday night, and I really shouldn’t have to cook because there is leftover sliced corned beef, brown rice with onions, roasted butternut squash, chicken soup and a kale salad. Sounds like a delicious meal, no? No. I guarantee you that if I put this delicious meal on the table I will get a raised eyebrow, a flared nostril and some exaggerated deep breaths.

Since I was definitely not planning on cooking, and likely ending up with all this delicious food in the garbage, I decided to do the food-disguise thing. The corned beef and rice were going to get combined in a skillet, with two beaten eggs thrown in there for good measure, and—ta da!— a corned beef fried rice. I chopped up some parsley and now it even has some color! The butternut squash, which obviously only I like (I don’t know why I never noticed this before!) went into a pot into which I ladled the chicken soup. Out comes the immersion blender and now there is creamy, velvety butternut squash soup. Now, that they will eat, I don’t know why. Either way, two totally new dishes from leftover Shabbat food. Try it! Open your refrigerator and commit to making something out of the food you already have. It’s actually fun, and it feels so good knowing you will not be taking the same stuff in and out of the refrigerator the entire week until it gets thrown out Wednesday night (or Thursday night)!

I know what you are thinking—what happened to the kale salad? Am I right? Well, that I just ate. The great thing about a salad made with kale is that, unlike other leafy salad greens, it does not get soggy! You can eat it a day or two later.

So that’s it. There is no recipe this week, just a challenge to create something delicious to eat with something you already have in your fridge! I would love to hear about it, so email me what you did, with a picture, and I will post it on my blog so we can all share our ideas for new dinners! Have fun and be creative!

Rachel is a real estate attorney, currently trying to figure out what to do with her leftovers. Find Rachel on Facebook, and subscribe to her blog at TheKosherDinnerLady.com. Contact her at [email protected].

By Rachel Berger