Wait, don't toss that salad!

So you've got this leftover spinach salad that's been sitting in the fridge for two days now. Looking a bit tired to eat as salad. What's a frugal chef to do? Surely not throw it out! (40% of food produced in America gets tossed; I'm going to do my small part to change that by sharing more of my leftover & frugal cooking tips in 2012!)

I noticed there was still a good bit of this salad yesterday morning, plus some extra baby spinach also getting a bit dated. It was my shopping day anyway, so I figured I could make good use of these leftovers by picking up some frozen cheese tortellini...

As I got the water boiling for the tortellini, I sauteed 4 minced garlic cloves in some olive oil, then added my leftover salad (which in addition to the spinach, had toasted almonds, parmesan cheese and some roasted red peppers). I added about 1/4 cup of red wine and a bit more olive as the salad wilted. Added in the rest of the spinach I had on hand plus a bit more chopped roasted red pepper. Finished with my go-to ingredient of late, some high quality balsamic vinegar from Gustare Olive Oil & Vinegars. Yum! Was quite tasty, all for a cost of about $3 for the package of tortellini.