9 easy ways to upgrade your leftovers

Despite its convenience, the microwave can leave your food mushy and tasting bland. Instead, consider heating up your leftovers in the oven or on the cooktop or grill.

You will likely need a splash of water or a drizzle of olive oil depending on the dish, but pastas soften beautifully on the stove, and meats and vegetables come out of the oven crunchy and soft.

For a smoky alternative, you can freshen up your food by grilling it.

Although storing food in a glass container is typically better than using a plastic one, a sealable lid with an operable vent is important for fresh leftovers.

When you store food in the fridge, keep the vent closed — new air can dry out the dish and ruin its taste. Then when reheating leftovers, open the vent to allow steam to escape the container. This trick will leave your meal tasting great and not soggy.

In addition to using a vented container, you can give leftovers new life with a little bit of moisture.

Different grains and vegetables, like pasta, rice, carrots, and yams, absorb liquid while sitting in the fridge, which needs to be replaced when you prepare them. Just a drizzle or flick of water should do the trick.

Add milk or cream to pasta dishes before reheating, and drizzle meats with a bit of olive oil or butter to keep them tender.

The quickest way to upgrade last night's dinner is to add some extra seasonings.

This works best if you plan ahead when cooking the meal the first time — you can keep portions of foods, like meats, beans, and veggies, unseasoned. Then, when it's time to reheat them, you'll have a blank slate you can adjust to your liking.

Even if the food was seasoned when it was cooked, you can still add more spices to make the dish taste brand new — even a little salt can go a long way.

To make a casserole, mix a variety of leftovers from every food group into a large dish and bake it in the oven. You'll wind up with a completely new meal.

Best of all, by using already-cooked food, the casserole is ready to eat as soon as it has heated to a food-safe temperature of 165 degrees Fahrenheit.

Similar to dumping everything but the kitchen sink into a casserole, you can turn the vegetables, grains, and proteins in your fridge into flavorful soups and sauces before they go bad.

Add your leftovers into a pot with water or broth and bring the mix to a boil for a quick, comforting meal.

And to make a hearty pasta sauce, heat leftover vegetables on the stove, then blend with water, milk, or cream — this works especially well with sweet potatoes and squash.

Nothing is more disappointing than having a loaf of bread or bag of chips go stale before you can finish it, but it's easy to transform these leftover foods into coatings and toppings to get the most bang for your buck.

You can blend stale bread into breadcrumbs or make bread pudding to satisfy your sweet tooth.

Additionally, you can use stale chips to coat proteins for a perfectly crunchy exterior or sprinkle crumbs into sweet treats like chocolate chip cookies or brownies for a savory contrast.

And if you didn't manage to eat all your freshly baked cookies in time, you can crumble them on top of ice cream or make cookie butter.

Although fruit is often overlooked as a leftover, it's not uncommon to have containers of sliced melons and berries that you can't finish in one sitting.

Cut fruits in the fridge can quickly lose their fresh, delicious flavor — so you can blend leftovers into smoothies or freeze them and later turn them into a sweet sorbet.

And if you prefer to eat fruit in its whole form, you can drizzle it with a bit of honey or add it to yogurt for an extra kick of flavor.

Adding cheese to your leftovers is a quick and delicious way to improve the flavor.

Sprinkle it on toward the end of the reheating process to avoid ending up with a greasy mess.

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