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Only a small percentage of folks are willing to combat spiraling food costs by gathering and eating edible wild greens, which was discussed in my last article in this space. But there is a more orthodox way to reduce your grocery bills — eat your leftovers.

According to the Fairbanks office of the Alaska Cooperative Extension, a family of four now spends about $122 a week on food — and this is if two of the four are 6 to 11 years old. Families with two teens, especially if they are males, are looking at even higher food costs. Add in a few restaurant or grocery deli meals a week, which is now the norm, and you can see where your total food bill can climb to $200 a week or more. (According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, 48.9 percent of all U.S. food expenditures are for “food away from home.”)

And it is only going to get worse: The U.S. Department of Labor says milk has increased an average of 26 percent, eggs 40 percent and vegetables 20 percent.

Grocery stores are simply passing on the realities: Rising oil prices affect how much it costs to produce

food and how expensive it is to

get it to us. The increased use of

ethanol and biodiesel means more corn and soybeans are being diverted from food to fuel, so what is left for us and food animals costs more. At the same time, poor wheat harvests have tripled prices of that grain. In addition, as other countries adopt our meat-based diet, they are competing with us for the grains to feed their cattle.

Not that long ago, 9 percent of American household spending went to food, but a March 2008 Boston Globe article now pegs it at 13 percent.

Yet, a funny thing happened on the way to the rise in the percentage of our spending that goes toward food: We waste more and more of it. Once it was the norm to have a meal at the end of the week consist of recycled foods or perishable items that had been purchased the Saturday before but never touched. Now, they often sit in the fridge rotting, while we go out to restaurants instead. And we are more particular about our fruits and vegetables — we used to cut out the soft spot on the tomato and the brown section out of the apple, and then ate the rest; today we are more likely to toss out the entire item.

William Rathje, an archeologist who managed the University of Arizona Garbage Project, says that now, a quarter of all the food we bring home leaves via a garbage bag or the disposal. Other estimates say it is more like 14 percent, but that 15 percent of that waste is food that has never been opened and has not passed the expiration date.

I snorted when I read those numbers. Twenty-five percent! Fourteen percent! Not in our house! Then I read another paragraph of Rathje’s work, the one where he says that most of us don’t believe that we are part of the problem. To quote him exactly, “I think that without a doubt, when people say that they don’t waste food, they believe it. There’s a huge disconnect.”

So, to prove him wrong, last October, November and December I kept track. I saved the grocery receipts and at the end of the week, I marked off what we had discarded or fed to the chickens. It was soon clear that most weeks the loss was 20 percent of the total bill. Crikey!

I immediately started to reduce the amount of waste by reducing how much food I purchased. There is a theory that as the size of the American refrigerator has increased from 17.5 to 22.5 cubic feet since 1974, we have unconsciously increased our food purchasing to fill it. Which, unless your body or your family size has increased considerably, means more leftovers.

Nevertheless, I still ended up with leftovers (or never-used perishables) at the end of every week, although not quite as many. Unfortunately, making use of leftovers is not always as easy as just reheating Wednesday’s meal and serving it on Friday. My refrigerator is more apt to contain what it did a few weeks ago: an onion, some leftover naked spaghetti, a bag of tired spinach, some corn, a half a bag of hot dog buns and a sizeable amount of mushrooms.

I could, of course, just have jumbled it all together in a frying pan and served. Yuck. This is the sort of thing that gives leftovers a bad name. The reality is that because there will be very few weeks when a fridge will contain just the right things for a tasty and pleasing meal of leftovers, it is essential to keep some basic staples around at all times. The following ingredients can tie most oddball refrigerator remains together quite nicely.

First, some chicken and beef stock, either in cans, bouillon cubes or granules. That one extra ingredient allowed me to convert my above mentioned leftovers into a meal. Into about 1 1/2 quarts of chicken stock, I added all the mushrooms (thinly slicing first). While they were cooking down, I sauteed the onion, also thinly sliced. Then I randomly cut the spaghetti knot into about eighths so that the pieces would be easier to handle. When the mushrooms had boiled down, I tossed in the onion, corn and spaghetti. While they were heating through, I opened the hot dog buns, lightly buttered them, sprinkled on some garlic powder and broiled them to a golden brown. It took less than half an hour and there we were on a cold winter night, eating a pasta and vegetable soup, accompanied by warm garlic buns.

If I had not had chicken stock granules on hand, I could have pulled out one of the cans of soup hanging around our cabinets and used it as the base for the leftovers. If you eat a lot of seafood and tend to end up with baggies of two or three different fish leftovers, the soup base you would do well to keep in the cupboard is the hearty brand of clam chowder or creamy potato. Add any type and amount of fish, along with a sauteed onion and vegetable leftovers — the result will be a seafood chowder that will have you planning for leftovers just so you can make it once a week.

Another item to keep around is pasta. Cold and leftover or freshly boiled, it can be used as the base for a frittata; most frittatas use potatoes, but they are just as hearty and delicious with pasta substituted.

I like to use pasta as the basis for a stir fry that incorporates all my vegetable and meat leftovers. You can also use cooked pasta to make a cold salad. If you have any cheese, toss some into a pile of cold spaghetti, along with the leftover vegetables and cubes of cooked meat, chicken or fish. Toss with almost any salad dressing, marinate for an hour and serve with garlic bread for a fast and filling summer meal.

The third thing essential to have around is some form of potatoes. Dried mashed potatoes can be used in shepherd’s pie or to thicken broth soups. Combined with leftover salmon and some onion, mashed potatoes can be formed into patties and sauteed until crusty. Served with a side of fruit or vegetable salad, these croquettes make a fast and tasty meal.

My favorite way to use raw potatoes to extend and transform leftovers is to make them into hash. Dice the potatoes and saute with some chopped onions, until both are cooked through. Add the leftovers, heat thoroughly and serve. If you have only vegetables and no meat, top with a fried egg or two for some added protein.

Fresh or frozen hash browns can be used instead of diced potatoes for the hash. They can also be thrown into soups, turned into a meal of potato pancakes or made into a crust for a quiche.

The last two things to keep in good supply are eggs and flour. Eggs can transform leftovers into quiches, omelets or hearty scrambled eggs. Eggs can also be combined with flour to make pancakes (using up leftover fruits), waffles (try adding diced ham and scallions to the batter for a savory version) or crepes. I think of crepes as an eggy tortilla shell that can be served alone with syrup, or used as a casing for chopped up ham and any other vegetables or meats you have around. Leftover seafood, sautéed in a bit of cream or cheese, also work well in crepes.

Eggs and flour can also be turned into spaetzle. Mixed with leftover meats, vegetables, and even just sauteed onions, spaetzle can be the basis for a hearty and meal that will see you through until your next shopping trip or paycheck. I was raised eating hot buttered spaetzle with ice-cold milk poured over it, and this is still how I prefer it. Spaetzle can also bulk up skinny broth-based soups.

So there it is: With your leftovers and the help of soup stock, pasta, potatoes, eggs or flour, you can trim your food bills considerably. If you have no idea what to make with the mix of ingredients you find lurking in your fridge, visit www.cookingbynumbers.com, www.lovefoodhatewaste.com, or www.epicurious.com.

HASH BROWN POTATOES QUICHE

Potato crust:

1 egg, beaten

2 cups hash brown shreds, fresh or frozen and thawed

1/4 cup very finely grated onion or scallions

1/4 teaspoon salt

Pinch of pepper

Coat a pie pan with spray or shortening. Combine the potatoes and onion, blend the salt and pepper into the beaten egg and add to the potato and onion mix. Pat the results along the bottom and sides of the pie pan. Bake in a preheated 375 degree oven for 7 minutes and pull out in order to add the quiche mixture.

(If you want to use pasta instead, mix 2 cups cooked spaghetti or egg noodles with a beaten egg and spread on the bottom and up the sides of the pie pan. Add the grated onions into the quiche instead of the crust. Bake for five minutes and remove from oven to fill.)

Quiche filling:

5 eggs

2 1/2 cups of leftover vegetables or vegetable and meat

1 cup of milk

1/2 cup shredded cheese (optional)

Put the leftovers into the cooked potato (or spaghetti) crust. Beat together the eggs and milk and pour over the leftovers. Put the pie plate in the 375 degree oven and bake for 45 minutes, or until the center comes out clean when you insert a knife. Sprinkle on the cheese and broil for about two minutes. Let stand for about 10 minutes and serve.

CREPES

6 eggs

1 1/2 cup milk

3/4 cup flour (substitute up to 1/4 cup of flaxseed meal)

Enough butter or butter-flavored cooking spray for oiling the skillet

Using a whip or a blender, mix all of the ingredients together. Pour 1/3 cup of batter in a sizzling 8 inch skillet, moving the pan around so the bottom is entirely coated. When you see bubbles, turn the crepe over and cook on the other side for a minute or two. Keep watch, as these are easy to burn.

For a main meal, fill with leftovers, roll and serve. For a filling dessert, fill with fruit or jam. (Keep warm in a 200 degree oven until ready to serve.)

FRITTATA

1 1/4 pound cooked potato slices, shreds or cubes, or the same amount of cooked pasta

1 teaspoon olive oil

1 medium onion or a half cup of scallions, finely sliced

8 eggs, well beaten

Up to 1 1/2 cups chopped leftover vegetables and/or meat

1/4 cup grated cheese (optional)

Preheat the broiler, with the top shelf set in the middle of the stove. In a large oven-proof fry pan, such as a cast iron skillet, heat the oil. Add the onions and cook for about 3 minutes. Mix the cooked potato in with the onion and saute until both are golden brown. Layer on the leftovers. Pour the egg mixture over everything in the frying pan. Cook over low heat until the contents of the pan begin to set and the edges get firm. Put the pan into the oven for about 5 minutes, watching that the egg mixture cooks but doesn’t burn. Pull out the pan and sprinkle the cheese on top, returning to the oven for about 1 minute. Remove and cool for 5 minutes before serving.

SPAETZLE

1/4 teaspoon of salt

1/4 teaspoon pepper

2 cups flour

4 eggs

1/3 cup milk (fresh, canned or powdered)

2 tablespoons butter or olive oil

Large pot with two quarts of boiling water

Stir together the salt, pepper and flour. Beat the eggs and milk together and add to the flour, stirring constantly with a fork. The dough will be thick and sticky. Scoop up 1/2 teaspoon of the batter and drop it into a pot of boiling water. Do this until the pot has a single layer of spaetzle on the bottom; the dough will sink and then swell as it cooks. The pieces will float to the top of the pot in a few minutes, although sometimes they need a stir to get off the bottom. After they reach the top, cook for about another minute and then remove with a slotted spoon. Place in a bowl of ice-cold water. When all of the batter has been cooked, drain off the cold water while heating the butter or oil. Toss the spaetzle into the melted butter and saute until brown.

Linden Staciokas has lived in the Interior for more than two decades. Send gardening questions to her at dorking@acsalaska.net.