In yesterday’s New York Times, Andrew Scrivani has written such a good piece about creatively using leftovers that it’s worth featuring all by itself on this post. Scrivani gives so many good tips that I’m tempted to print his piece so that I can refer to it whenever I like.

His point is simple but requires a bit of planning: Stock some basics—frozen pizza dough, won ton wrappers, panko bread crumbs—and you have the means to not only use leftovers but also to turn them into a meal that is worthy in its own right. Something to relish rather than to endure because it’s the right, green thing to do.