Re-treading leftovers

No, I'm not talking about your tires, I'm talking about turning one dinner into another one that is different.
This stems from a message I received earlier in the week from Jeree, a friend of mine, who was talking about getting into a rut with her cooking. We all have those times where it seems like we are eating the same things over and over and we get tired of it.
There's no silver bullet for creative cooking, meaning most people have the mindset and tools (pots, pans etc) for a certain style of cooking. If your luck you might have the versatility to do many different things but for this message I'm going to assume that we don't. If I have limited methods of preparation and tools, how can I vary my menu's to keep myself and my family interested and enjoying our food?
The first and easiest answer is simply by varying ingredients. Over the past 10 years we have been witness to an explosion of new foods. The Mexican food aisle at my local store went from having taco shells and salsa to being shelves of items from sauces to complete dinners. Pomegranate was a word most people couldn't pronounce, and yet now they are in the stores fresh, as well as in juice form. There are tons of fresh herbs in the stores as well as new lettuce's and other veggies. The thing is that even though they are there, that doesn't mean people are going to embrace them. You can lead a camel to water, but you can't make him drink comes to mind. Its really up to us as cooks to find out more about these items and to figure out ways of including them in our everyday cooking. The internet is full of sites that include recipes, techniques and ways of using different foods. I am constantly researching new ideas and trends that I think might bring some variation to my kitchen.
Beyond the use of different ingredients its also possible to simply reuse things we might have to create new and exciting dishes. I'll give you a for instance: this past week my son and I took 2 pounds of Italian sausage, 2 eggs, 1 cup of Japanese Panko breadcrumbs and 2 tablespoons of mayo, mixed it and rolled it into meatballs. We baked these on 400 for 30 minutes until they were cooked through. We then mixed 1 28oz can of crushed tomatoes, 4 tablespoons each of oregano, basil and thyme, 1/2 cup of red wine, 1 teaspoon of sugar and salt and pepper in a large sauce pan and simmered slowly for 45 minutes.
We could easily have put the meatballs in the sauce and served it over pasta for a great dinner. What we did however was put the meatballs on a toasted hoagie roll with pepperoni, onions and mozzarella and made great sandwiches. We has meatballs, pepperoni's and sauce leftover.
So the next day I want to use those ingredients that were left over but I don't want to make sandwiches again so here's what I did. In a large pot I sauteed  1/2 cup of carrots, 1/2 cup of onions and 1/2 cup of green peppers in 2 tablespoons of butter for 5 minutes. I cut the meatballs into 1/4ths and added them to the pot. I then added the leftover sauce, 4 cups of beef broth, the leftover pepperoni's and a little more chopped basil. I cooked this for 20 minutes. I served the soup in bowls with a sprinkle of mozzarella over the top. My meatball sandwiches were now meatball soup with a totally different consistency and flavor. Try re-making some of your leftover's into soups, or vice versa, thicken a soup and make a sandwich. The possibilities are endless and you and your family will love the new found flavors and textures. Eat well my friends!