5 Breakfasts to Make from Your Leftover Delivery Food

We’ve all been there: You’re feeling so hungry you could eat a horse, and so lazy that the thought of cooking makes you want to crawl under the covers. But you still want something delicious. The only solution? Delivery, of course. You call up your favorite Chinese place, or the Mediterranean place on the corner. Or you peruse the Thai options on Seamless and the Mexican ones on GrubHub. You finally make a decision about where to order from—but that’s only the first of many. Then you have to choose exactly what to have delivered to your doorstep. Maybe the Chinese place has incredible mapo tofu, but you also need some greens—broccoli? Sure. Add fried rice just to balance it out. Or perhaps you have to get the monster order of guac—but then you need the build-your-own chicken fajitas, too. And therein lies the problem: when you’re hungry, overwhelmed by options and by your grumbling stomach, you order enough for a small but ravenous army, even if that army is just you and a Gilmore Girlsmarathon.

So what should you do when you’re overstuffed and you still have enough takeout boxes that you can’t see your coffee table? Save your leftovers for breakfast. You’ll be glad you did.

Make Indian breakfast pizza. You know how often when you order in chicken tikka masala or saag paneer, you end up with just (very delicious) sauce at the end? Here’s how to use it up. Warm your leftover naan on a cookie sheet in the oven while you prep the rest of the ingredients. (It’s not a bad idea to put a few drops of water on the naan to make sure it doesn’t totally dry out.) Put the leftover sauce in a small saucepan on the stove over low heat and let it it simmer. Fry an egg or two in ghee or coconut oil if you have it. Pull out the naan and top with the sauce, Greek yogurt, whatever herbs you have lying around, and the fried egg.

Make waffles from your leftover falafel. In addition to there being no more fun thing to say than “falafel waffles” this is a quick and easy fancy breakfast. Simply oil your waffle maker as you would normally, press the falafel in, and cook until crisp. Top with Greek yogurt and a swirl of honey or—if you have a very well-stocked pantry—pomegranate seeds.

Did you end up with a whole lot of rice and just a little extra beef and broccoli or orange chicken? You’ve got fried rice for breakfast. Crack an egg or two into a bowl and whisk it together. Chop up your non-rice leftovers and any extra vegetables you have around that sound good. Add oil to a hot pan and toss in the rice. Slowly add the egg, some soy sauce and vinegar, and the rest of the leftovers and combine. Don’t be afraid to let the rice get crispy around the edges.

Make your Mexican leftovers into a breakfast burrito or tacos (depending on the size of the tortillas on hand, of course). While you heat up your fajita leftovers—protein, extra bell peppers, rice, and beans—slowly scramble a couple eggs. Fill each tortilla with eggs, whatever cheese strikes your fancy, and the leftovers. Don’t forget the Cholula.

It’s easy to make your pad thai even more delicious the next morning. Take out a few pieces of bacon and toss into a hot pan to cook. When they’re cooked to your preference, take them out of the pan and add the pad thai to the still sizzling bacon fat. Crumble the bacon and stir into the noodles. If you’re feeling it, top with a fried egg.