Leftover Wednesday - Breakfast Hash Curveball, Bagel Pizzas and Pork Fried Rice

I got busy today with leftovers!  We had leftover steak in the fridge and I wanted to make My Breakfast Hash this morning.  Sadly, I discovered we were out of potatoes.  *sniff, sniff*  Hungrily, I decided to clean out the bread cabinet and found 3, plain, mini bagels in the back.  I had made a batch of spaghetti sauce last week and still had half a jar left.  Ding! Ding! Ding! Bagel pizzas for B!  I looked in the fridge's cheese drawer but no mozzarella.  I went looking for mozzarella in the freezer and found something else I didn't know I had - half a bag of Arby's Curly Fries (not from the restaurant.  You can buy them in your grocer's freezer now).  I decided to try substituting the curly fries for the fresh potatoes in my hash.  Then I found an unopened bag of mozzarella for the bagel pizzas.  We also had half of the hubs pork loin from Monday night's dinner, so I assigned him pork fried rice.  Phew!  Here we go....

Opened bag of curly fries, bag of steak leftovers and an onion.  With the seasoned fries, I didn't need salt, pepper nor paprika in this dish!

Since I have so many pictures in this post already, I won't add play-by-play ones of my cooking; I'll just tell you.  I heated vegetable oil in my pan and added a handful of curly fries.  Once they crisped up on both sides, I removed them to a paper towel-lined plate to drain and added half an onion, chopped, to the pan.  While the onions cooked a few minutes, I chopped the curly fries up and added them back into the pan to crisp up some more and let the onion continue to cook.  I chopped the steak added it to the pan and heated it through a couple of minutes.  Here is the finished product!

These are the ingredients I had for pork fried rice.  Slim pickin's this week, I tell ya!  I'm trying to get better at buying less and not buying anything else until the next shopping day.  You get creative!  I only had 1 carrot left, half a bag of frozen peas, a tomato from my mom's garden, a shallot, some garlic, some ginger, the other half of the hash's onion and Wegmans Stir Fry Sauce.  No, I've never had a tomato in fried rice before, but it needed to be used up so we gave it a try. It worked.

The hubs grated the ginger, diced everything else and stir fried in our wok with sesame oil.  Carrot, shallot and onions first, because they take the longest.  Then peas, garlic and ginger.  Removed all that from the pan.  Tossed the pork around to reheat but not to overcook.  Removed from pan.  Threw a few portions of cooked brown rice into the wok and crisped that up, then added 2 eggs and continued to fry.  Once eggs were cooked, he turned off the flame, added veggies and pork back in and added some stir fry sauce to taste.  It was so good!  It made enough to feed both of us for dinner and lunch leftovers for both of us tomorrow.  Leftovers from the leftovers!  I love it!

B had bagel pizzas for dinner.  Not because he does not like pork fried rice; he really does.  But I wanted to use things up and he was thrilled to be eating pizza.  And, as the hubs said, "More leftovers for us!"  This is a shot of the ingredients for the pizza, but I don't have a shot of the result.  I'm sure you can use your imagination, though.  While the pizzas were in the oven, I ran out to chase and catch a full rainbow!  While doing that, the pizzas were done and B chowed down on 4.  I came back and ate one while the hubs was cooking our dinner and the last one fell on the floor.  Totally forgot about a picture.

But, I do have a video of the rainbow to share with you!  It was so big, I could not fit it in a picture.  Not the best quality, as it was on my phone.  Later, a 2nd rainbow appeared above it!  It sure is nice to be reminded of His promise, especially in these hard times.

Leftover Wednesday, Part II

In addition to the delicious salad I made on Leftover Wednesday, I also made a peach cobbler for the hubs with the above spoiling peaches.  We got them at the farmers market last Saturday and they were at their use or lose stage.  I totally forgot to include the cobbler in the salad post, so I am doing so now.

This post will be a wonderful contrast to the salad post because the salad was so beautiful and the cobbler is....well...not so much.  LOL  But I want to share my triumphs and my failures in the kitchen to show it happens to everyone, I learned something and will do better next time.  See, I have a Culinary Arts degree.  I graduated 20 years ago and never worked in a commercial kitchen.  However, I have friends who are intimidated by my degree.  They're afraid to have us over for a meal, worried nothing they make will be "good enough" for me or that I will criticize them.  So not true!  I'm just happy that someone else is cooking and doing the dishes!  ;o)  Anywho, I share my kitchen mishaps to show I am human, too, and we all make mistakes.

I showed y'all how I made a Blackberry Cobbler a couple of weeks ago, using Paula Deen's recipe.  I've done the same with the peaches, only I used a smaller pan to make a thicker cobbler.  Because of the smaller pan, I should have done things differently and you'll see why soon...

Leftover Wednesday - Salad!

The hubs was really in the mood for a salad and I caught the fever.  Except for a BBQ, what says "Summer" more than a fresh salad?!  So, I pulled all of these ingredients out of the fridge and off the window sill to make dinner tonight:

• Cilantro
• Tomato
• Red onion
• Swiss cheese
• Iceberg Lettuce (still in the wrapper because we had such good intentions to eat salad daily when we bought it!)
• Carrots
• Celery
• Turkey lunch meat that was on day seven - use or lose
• A Ree Drummond Ranch Chicken Sandwich breast leftover from our water park picnic dinner, Monday night
• Bacon

I threw all seen above, including some shredded cheddar not pictured, into the fabulous, wooden salad bowl my MIL gave me for Christmas several years ago.  It was so delicious! Unfortunately, the avocados I wanted to include expired yesterday and did not make it in the salad.  :o(  There were leftovers for the hubs to take to work with him tomorrow for lunch, as well as for me to eat for lunch.  :oD

Leftover Wednesday - Monterey Chicken & Dirty Rice

After I graduated from college, I went to work at a restaurant named Steak & Ale.  I loved that place - the food was awesome and my co-workers were great.  My favorite dish was Monterey Chicken.  So, when I scoured the fridge and cupboards looking for something to do with the very last 3 chicken breasts in the house, Monterey came to mind.  I wanted something more flavorful than just plain rice to go along with it so I scoured the internet for a dirty rice recipe.  They all called for fresh peppers, which I did not have.  Then I found this recipe from VeggieBelly.com.  It's a homemade dry mix in a jar for gift giving and no fresh peppers needed!  So let's get started on what I did.

Here is a pic of (almost) all the ingredients I found in the house to use.  I had no green onions for the Monterey Chicken so I sautéed a Walla Walla Sweet because I just love them.  After taking this picture and then chopping all that needed chopping, I found 2 ears of cooked corn leftover from the weekend.  So I sliced the kernels off of one cob to add to the chicken and heated the other one up for B to eat with his dinner.

I roasted the corn kernels in a dry pan,

cooked the bacon,

and sautéed half an onion in the bacon drippings.

Salted and peppered both sides of the 3 chicken breasts and cooked in the bacon drippings for 2 minutes a side.  Drained them on paper towels and let the chix ingredients sit until dinner time.

Then I made the rice.  Brought 2 1/4 cups of water to boil and added 1 chicken bouillon cube.  I didn't even remember I had chicken bouillon cubes!  I bought them years ago when I was going to make a Paula Deen recipe and then decided not to make anything with a bouillon cube b/c of the ingredients.  However, I did not have any chicken stock on hand yesterday, so I decided to give it a try.  It worked out great.  After the cube dissolved, I added paprika, garlic powder, 3 times as much fresh oregano and thyme than the dry amount the recipe called for and 1 cup brown rice.  Brought back to a boil, stirred, covered and cooked on low for 55 minutes.

When it was time to eat, I turned on the broiler, rubbed one side of the chicken breasts with some BBQ sauce and put under the broiler for a few minutes.

Took the breasts out of the oven, turned them over and covered 2nd side with BBQ sauce.  Then topped with roasted corn, onions, chopped tomatoes, bacon and shredded cheddar cheese.  Put back under broiler for a few more minutes to heat up.  The broiler really crunched up the cheese.  Next time, I won't put the cheese on that early.  The heat of the chicken and toppings will be enough to melt the cheese if sprinkled on top immediately after coming out of the broiler.

All three of us completely enjoyed this dinner!  I hope you do, too, if you give it a try!

Leftover Wednesday - Steak Soup

Once again, I found myself with leftover steak this week.  I also had leftover baked potatoes, but they got eaten by someone around here.  I didn't even get to make any breakfast hash with the leftovers.  So, I made Steak Soup for dinner.  Soups are a great way to use up leftovers; I'm a big fan.  I use Simple Comfort Food's Steak and Potato Soup recipe as my base but, as usual, I make modifications.  That's the beauty of cooking - it's an art - and art is subjective.  So we can change anything to our tastes, dietary needs and what's on hand.

SCF's recipe calls for adding the onion and garlic to a hot pan at the same time.  I rarely add garlic to a pan first.  It burns quickly; the smell is unpleasant and the taste will negatively effect your dish.  I'm allergic to olive oil, so I heated half butter, half Wegmans Basting Oil over medium heat and sautéd a whole Walla Walla Sweet onion, diced.  (So excited that the shipment of Walla Wallas arrived from my aunt in Washington!)

While my onions softened in the pan, I scrubbed and chopped the last of the carrots in the house (they were on their last legs so I was glad to use them up).  Because we buy organic carrots, I don't peel them.  A good scrubbing is all they need and you get more good-for-you parts in your food.

While the carrots and onions were enjoying themselves in the pan, I peeled and chopped 3 good-sized white potatoes ($1.99/5# bag, that's why I had white potatoes on hand).  I usually don't peel potatoes, but decided to do it tonight because B does not like the peels and I did not feel like hearing about it.  I threw the potatoes in the pot and put the garlic on top of them.  There is now plenty of cushion between the garlic and the bottom of the pan to save it from burning.

The hubs' tummy is sensitive to cooked tomato products so I don't add the 1/2 cup tomato sauce called for in the original recipe.  Below, you'll see my squirt of tomato paste.  I stirred that in and let it caramelize for a minute to add depth and flava!

Below, I've already stirred in salt, pepper and worcestershire sauce.  The author of the original recipe is so right about the worcestershire - it is key to the flavor.

Added in my diced up leftover steak and stirred...

...then added beef stock and brought it to a boil.  I did not add in the full 4 cups of stock, probably 3 or slightly more than 3, just enough to cover everything in the pot.  Since it cooks for a while with the lid on, more liquid will be created.

Yummy Steak Soup served up with fresh, homemade bread; it doesn't get any better than that!

Oh, yes, it does - I had enough for a freezer bag full of leftovers.  :oD

Leftover Wednesday: Dinner Leftovers...for BREAKFAST?!

Yes, peeps, that's how I roll.  Most "breakfast" foods are starches and they don't stick with me but an hour or two, even the ones full of fiber that Weight Watchers swears fills you up for a long time.  My tummy's not built that way, evidently.  When I eat dinner leftovers for breakfast at 8am, I can go until 2pm before I get hungry again and I have plenty of energy.  And I'll eat all leftovers for breakfast - casseroles, pizza, grilled meats, whatever is in the fridge.  So let me tell you about my favorite leftover, Breakfast Hash!

Paula Deen and I have so much in common and one is that we both keep cooked potatoes around as a staple.  We happened to have steak and baked potatoes the night before, so I made sure I cooked extra potatoes.  Dice a baked potato, add to a hot pan with your favorite oil and cook until crispy on all sides.  I used to use butter in my hash but learned from my Uncle Lanny that butter was the reason they didn't crisp up.  You need oil for that!  I also salt, pepper and paprika the potatoes at this time (the paprika was another secret I got from Uncle Lanny).

After the potatoes are crispy all around, or just crispy on one side if you want some softness to your potatoes, add in some diced onion and cook until the onion is as done as you like it.

 Next, if I have other leftover veggies I want in my hash, I'll toss them in after the onions have cooked and before the meat.  They just need a minute or two to warm up; you don't want them overcooked.  Then you throw in whatever leftover meat you had for dinner the night before, diced up.  The smaller you cut it, the quicker it will heat up.  The longer you cook it, the tougher the meat will get, so just a minute or two will heat up diced meat.  Don't be hatin' on the temperature I eat my red meat, y'all!  ;o)

 Ta-da!  Yet another appetizing meal ruined with a crappy picture of the finished product.  LOL  But I eat with my taste buds not my eyes because I have learned from experience that you can't judge a book by it's cover!  This lovely hash was served with a zigzag of ketchup on top and set the tone for a productive and energized day!

 I hope you give breakfast hash a try.  It's a great way to serve breakfast for guests, especially at holiday time.  You always have leftover ham, potatoes and green beans after Easter.  Make a big, one-pot breakfast hash for everyone to eat!  You only have to cook once.  As people awake and stumble into the kitchen at different times, they can scoop themselves out some hash and pop in the microwave to heat up if need be.

Leftover Wednesday - Ham & Brie Crostini

Tonight's leftover meal was all B's idea.  He and the hubs love Brie (I do not).  B found a chub of Brie leftover from the weekend in the fridge, pulled out the last of the ham luncheon meat that needed to be eaten today or thrown out and on the counter was the 6 inch remains of a baguette.  He wanted to make mini ham and cheese sandwiches for the hubs and heat them up.  I decided the sandwiches should be "open-faced".

I sliced the baguette into twelfths, put strips of ham on each and divided up the remainder of the Brie among the bread.  Popped it in the oven under the broiler for a few minutes and voila! - Ham & Brie Crostini!  I had a ham and American cheese sandwich on wheat bread with mayo and mustard.  

Dinner was so easy on me that I also made a chicken pot pie for tomorrow night.  Now all I have to do tomorrow is pop it in the oven and make a salad.  :o)

Leftover Wednesday - Creamy Portobello Pasta

I found this recipe for Ziti with Portobello Mushrooms, Caramelized Onions and Goat Cheese on Pinterest weeks ago.  *sigh* I wish I could take beautiful pictures of my food!  The picture of the recipe I pinned is very nice.  I showed the recipe to the hubs with such excitement, but my excitement went unmatched.  He is a rice man, I am a pasta woman.  Plus, there is no meat in this dish, either.  LOL

So yesterday, when I went searching through the fridges, freezers and pantries for Leftover Wednesday, I found a wonderful surprise!

 I'm ashamed to say I bought these beauties on June 29th, put them in the "overflow" fridge in the garage and then promptly forgot about them.  But I was so excited to see them!  I could make the Ziti with Portobello Mushrooms, Caramelized Onions and Goat Cheese now!  I immediately went to the computer, looked up the other ingredients needed and compared that to what I had: butter, olive oil, 3 onions, salt, sugar, pepper, parsley, 1 lb portobellos, ziti, goat cheese, parmesan.  Hm.  I'm allergic to olive oil and was a tad short on most of the rest.  But, I can be creative and this is what I pulled together:

I had less than a half of an onion, Laughing Cow Garlic and Herb Cheese to replace the goat cheese (hey, it's soft!), Parmesan cheese (phew!), Wegman's Basting Oil to replace the olive oil, butter, salt, sugar, pepper and leftover cooked lasagna noodles to replace the ziti.  Not bad in my book!  I cut the recipe down to approx 1/4 to accommodate the amount of onion I had in the house and I made it for myself for lunch (so embarrassed and frustrated to only have 1/3 of an onion, but trying to teach myself a lesson to buy everything I need at the store once or go without until the next bi-weekly shopping trip).  Here we go...

Saute onions in a little butter and Wegman's Basting Oil with a pinch of salt and a pinch of sugar for 15 minutes.

While the onions were caramelizing, I sliced up the cooked lasagna noodles.

I removed the onions from the pan and added the sliced shrooms.  There was no need to add more butter nor oil.  While they cooked for approx 10 minutes, I boiled some water and dropped the noodles in it for a few minutes to heat up. 

Once the shrooms were done, I added everything to the pan - onions, 1 wedge of Laughing Cow Garlic and Herb cheese, the noodles, parmesan cheese and a little pasta water.  See? My food pictures do not look good.

It took longer than I thought it would for the Laughing Cow to melt and the noodles were in the pan so long they appear to have absorbed some of the mushroom's color.  Next time, I will remove the shrooms from the pan, add the cheese and some pasta water only and let those two melt together before adding the rest of the ingredients.  Regardless of how it looked it tasted wonderful!

WHAT is that SMELL?!?!

Before I get to this post I want to acknowledge Leftover Wednesday since I received an inquiry about it.  Leftover Wednesday was on holiday, as were we.  ;o)  We ate all "new" food yesterday (It is now 11:15pm on 7/5/12 and I have a feeling this will not get finished and posted until after midnight so I hope that does not confuse you as to which holiday I am referring to when you read this on 7/6/12 or later).  Leftover Wednesday will resume next week.  OK, now on with this post...

We had crab legs over the weekend and they were soooooo goooooood.  I love crabs!  Whole crabs, crab legs, crab cakes, crab salad, I'll eat it all.  I feel sorry for people in land-locked states who don't eat fresh seafood.  They don't get to coastal states until they are adults and by then, very few of them will take a chance and try seafood.  So sad.  Let's have a moment of silence for them...

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Aaaaaand, we're back!

Am I the only SAHP (stay at home parent) who feels obligated to be showered and/or dressed most days by the time the WOHP (work outside of the home parent) gets home?  No?  Just me?  Okaaaaaaay...Do you not feel that way because your spouse is so understanding and doesn't give you the *Blink. Blink, blink.* when they get home, followed by the, "Um, have you showered today?" or  because you could not live with yourself unless you were showered and "public" ready in 60 minutes or less of leaving your bed so this is not an issue for you?

Leftover Wednesday - Trial & Error Chicken

Saturday through Tuesday we were out of town, visiting my in-laws at their Summer home in the mountains of western North Carolina.  The hubs and I thought we had emptied the fridge of all potentially lethal-foods-if-left-unattended-in-the-fridge before we left, but we were mistaken.  ;o)  We came home to a smelly fridge and it took me a bit to identify the culprits - decaying cilantro and an avocado past its prime.

I awoke this morning with the intent to go mega-grocery shopping since there was not much in the house, but the hubs had other plans.  I am so impressed with the progress this man has made during our 17 years together!  He declared that since tomorrow, Thursday, was our BIG shopping day, we should "make do" with what we had today.  So, after taking B to see the movie, Brave, this afternoon, the hubs and B went off to the range, and I was left to figure out what to make for dinner (popcorn at the theater was lunch).  As you know, I always have chicken breasts on hand and usually chicken wings, pork chops and ground beef.  Before leaving for the range, the hubs said we can do "something" with chicken breasts.

I opened the fridge, stared and tried to receive inspiration.  I saw Brussels sprouts (thank you, Robin D., for correcting me on my reference of this vegetable!) and grape tomatoes, both of which were on the cusp of being thrown out.  Finally, inspiration hit me - Grilled Bruschetta Chicken!  I love this recipe!  It's one of the recipes my friend, Julia, passed onto me.  Although I did not have Kraft's Sun-Dried Tomato Vinaigrette Dressing on hand, I had over a pint of grape tomatoes, and I figured I could make something close to that.  I was patting myself on the back for such brilliance (waaaaay too early, it turns out).

I looked online for recipes of Sun-Dried Tomato Vinaigrette and decided I could substitute the "sun-dried tomatoes" with oven-roasting the grape tomatoes I had on hand.  @@ (That mean "eye rolling" in type.  You may already know that, but I did not always know that, so I am sharing in case you did not know that).  Then I looked online for a recipe to slow-roast tomatoes.  I found 2 that I liked.  One called for roasted grape tomatoes (which I had) for 3 hours at 225 degrees and one called for roasting plum tomatoes (which I did not have) at 450 degrees for 25-30 minutes.  Since it was already 4:20pm and I did not have 3 hours to roast said tomatoes, I opted for the higher temp/shorter time recipe.  Unfortunately, I did not allot for the fact that I had grape tomatoes and the recipe called for plum tomatoes.  So, I cut all the viable grape tomatoes in half, sprayed them with grape seed oil (I am allergic to olive oil), grinded fresh pepper corns over them and sprinkled them with Kosher salt.

Don' they look nice?!

I put them in an oven set on Convection Roast for 30 minutes and they came out looking like this...

OK.  So my attempt at Grilled Bruschetta Chicken! did not go as planned.  You know what?!  My "vacation" away with the in-laws did not go "as planned" either, but I was not going to be defeated.  By now, it was after 5pm, so I made myself a drink, and knew the hubs would help me figure out dinner when he and B came home from the range.  And he did!  He went out back and snipped some of our fresh herbs:

He snipped Rosemary and Thyme and mixed them with Panko bread crumbs, salt, pepper and I added Parmesan cheese and did the traditional flour, egg wash, seasoned bread crumb mixture into a pan with oil.  And that's all we had for dinner - chicken.  No Veg.  No starch.  Just chicken.  And it was so wonderful and flavorful that we did not need anything else!  We went/are going to bed as happy campers with full bellies!  Woohoo for Leftover Wednesday!

Leftover Wednesday - Veggie Platter

We didn't have leftovers last night; we went out to eat.  Due to B's allergies, we weren't able to go out for the hubs' Father's Day dinner Sunday, so we went last night.  But we had 2 leftover dinners last week, so I have one to share with you.  Evidently I was too ambitious with my produce shopping, because I had a ton left over.  So much so, there was no room for protein nor starch at dinner.  We ate roasted Brussels sprouts, roasted green beans and sautéed baby bok choy.

In the past, I roasted Brussels sprouts at 350 for half an hour, turning halfway through.  My friend, Kathy, roasts hers at 400 for 10-15 minutes.  I decided to try her way.  I washed and dried the sprouts, sliced off the bottom of the stems, halved them and tossed them in a bowl with a little Wegmans Basting Oil.  I placed the sprouts on a foil-lined baking sheet, all face up, sprinkled them with a little Kosher salt and put them in the oven at 400.  After 15 minutes, they were colored nicely and I took them out.

There was no room for the beans on the pan, so they went in next.  Same way as the sprouts, but they only need to roast for 5-7 minutes.

The baby bok choy was washed, dried and cut in half, lengthwise.  I heated a tbsp of sesame oil in a pan and added the bok choy, cut side down.  While those sautéed, I pressed a couple of cloves of garlic and grated approx. 1/2" of fresh ginger.  Then I turned the bok choy over, added the garlic and ginger to the pan and stirred it around for a minute or two.  Then I added 1/3 - 1/2 cup Wegmans Asian Classics Stir-Fry Sauce until it was heated through, then removed to our plates.

Yummy, yummy, in my tummy!

Leftover Wednesday - The Pioneer Woman's White Chili

I actually had 2 leftover nights in a row this week, but I am only going to tell you about 1 today and I'll save the other for later.  We had The Pioneer Woman's White Chili.  I have wanted to make white chili for a few years now but the hubs discouraged me.  He is not a fan of chili at all.  I don't blame him.  I never ate it growing up and it looked gross - all that ground beef and beans nobody eats except disguised in chili...  Well, I now make a yummy vegetarian chili that I can not get enough of, but the hubs still doesn't want me to make it.  You see, his tummy cannot take cooked tomatoes.  And canned tomatoes are the staple for any home manager feeding a family on a budget!  *sigh*  Anywho, his need to stay away from tomatoes was the perfect reason, in my book, to make white chili, but he wasn't having it.  Probably because we both thought it had to involve ground chicken or turkey which, let's face it, is usually dry when cooked.

But Ree Drummond came to the rescue and provided me with a fairly simple White Chili recipe that uses pulled chicken meat, not ground.  And that's not even the best part!  This recipe not only helped me clean out the fridge, but also clean out the pantry.  *insert angels singing, here*

I did not make White Chili with the intention of it being a Leftover Wednesday meal.  It had just been on my mind since watching Ree's Food Network show over the weekend, on which she made regular chili.  I went looking for a recipe yesterday so I could get the necessary ingredients at our big, bi-weekly grocery shopping trip, which is tomorrow.  As I read through the ingredients list, I went on a hunt through the house to find out what I did and did not have.  Turns out I had it all in the house already and I didn't even know it!  I don't even know why I bothered looking, that's how sure I was that I had nothing but I'm so glad I did.  I found the block of Monterey Jack cheese in the freezer (had no idea it was there!) and half a bag of Great Northern beans sitting on the pantry shelf in the basement along with a can of diced, green chilies.  3/4 of the remaining cilantro in the fridge was melting (if you buy cilantro regularly, you know what I'm talking about) but there was one handful's worth completely untouched, so I ripped it off and used it.  Sill jalapeños in the fridge from the guacamole-that-never-was Memorial Day weekend and 1 onion and half a head of garlic left.  Chicken stock and chicken is always on hand and don't ask me why I have Masa.  Don't even remember why or when I bought it but I'm glad I did!  It was divine intervention that this dish came together this week, I'm tellin' you!  I do have to say, the thawed chicken breasts sitting in the bowl in the picture, above, don't look right.  I can identify a couple of body parts that are not fit for mixed company.  Moving along...

The original recipe said it made 8 servings.  I halved it and got 5, 1 cup servings, which was plenty to feed the adults in this house.  And if you are on Weight Watchers, 1 cup of this stuff = 8 points, with 4oz of cheese in the pot, no extra in your bowl.  The 3 of us had 2.5 cups total at dinner and then I froze the rest in a quart-size freezer bag for another night.

Ree's chili is not as wet as mine and her beans are bigger.  The hubs loved the chili but did comment the beans seemed a little underdone because there was some firmness to them.  There totally was and I know why.  The beans were old.  I believe I bought the bag originally when we tried B on the Feingold Diet 4 years ago.  So, it will get added to the rotation and I will buy new beans!  Let me know if you try this one!

Leftover Wednesday - Breakfast Dinner

I know, I know; it's Saturday.  I'm sorry I was unable to get this post up Wednesday night.  B was preparing to take his brown belt test in Tae Kwon Do today (which he passed) and B and I were finishing up his end of year test because our state requires proof of progress from homeschoolers each Summer.  But I did use up some leftovers to make a great Breakfast-Dinner (that's what we call it when we have breakfast foods for dinner).

Last Saturday we went to a local farmer's market and the hubs bought a loaf of cinnamon apple bread because it, "...smells so gooooood!"  By Wednesday, the loaf was still sitting on the counter, unwrapped.  The cinnamon sugar covering the outside of the bread was starting to liquify.  So I sliced it up and made fabulous French toast with it.  I also made my favorite chiffonade (cut into ribbons) of ham luncheon meat that was at it's use-or-lose date and half an orange I found in the fridge.

Look at the swirling cinnamon in this slice...

...and the chunks of apple in this one!

The bread was so filling, none of us could eat more than 1 slice.  So I cut up the rest of the loaf, wrapped each slice in plastic wrap and then put 3 slices each into 2 freezer bags.  Now the bread won't go to waste, and I can pull it out the next time I was to make a hearty, filling French toast, regular toast with butter or maybe a bread pudding.  Will have to look into that last suggestion...

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Leftover Wednesday - Skinnytaste.com's Cilantro Lime Tilapia Tacos

This is a pic of one of my tacos. Please go to skinny taste.com and look at Gina's  photo - her's are pretty!

I am pretty proud of us this week!  We had very little leftover today.  We've been eating leftovers before making new meals.  Yeah us!  My wonderful friend, Julia, who shared the Grilled Greek Chicken Kabobs and Kraft Foods recipe site with me years ago, shared another recipe site with me last week: Skinny Taste.  Julia also gave me the names of some recipes she's tried from the website.  One was Cilantro Lime Tilapia Tacos.  Tilapia happens to be a staple that I keep in my freezer but I don't have a ton of recipes, so I was excited to get a "thumbs up" from Jules on this one.

Going through the fridge this afternoon, I discovered that the only leftovers I had were baked potatoes and guacamole ingredients.  I had heard about baked potatoes in the crock pot from my friend Clair last year and I've seen them on Pinterest a lot, too.  So I made 4 of them on Monday.  Awesome!  When I wanted to avoid heating the house up with the oven for baked potatoes, I just did them in the microwave.  But the quality is not there from the microwave.  I'll never do them in the oven or microwave again.  I chose not to use the potatoes for dinner tonight because they always get used up in my breakfast hashes.

The hubs makes a fantastic guacamole.   He was going to make some this past weekend, but it didn't happen.  When I pulled the guac fixins out of the fridge, I immediately thought of the Cilantro Lime Tilapia Tacos.  So the unused avocado, tomato, cilantro, jalepeno, lime and onion, as well as the tilapia and corn tortillas I had on hand, all went into these tacos.

The hubs and I loved them; B did not.  The recipe calls for 1 pound of tilapia and says it makes 8 tacos.  I pulled 3 tilapia fillets from the freezer, weighing a little under 12 oz total, and cut the rest of the ingredients down to 3/4 of what the recipe called for.  And we still had plenty for 8 full tacos.  Next time, I'll cut the recipe in half because I don't want this leftover - not a fan of reheating fish.  However, I bet the leftovers would be great cold, all on their own, or tossed in a cold green or rice salad with a vinaigrette.

I tried one other recipe from this site over the past week - Chicken Rollatini with Spinach alla Parmigiana.  Did not turn out well.  I was the only one who would eat more than one bite and I just forced my portion down.  It was totally user error, though.  Next time, I will sauté or steam fresh spinach instead of using frozen (I end up with more leaf and less stem that way) and will not put so much stuffing in each breast.

I look forward to trying many more recipes from Skinny Taste!  If you try the tacos, or if you try any other recipes from Skinny Taste, please let me know how you liked them!

Leftover Wednesday - Impossible Bacon Cheese Pie & Salad

We have 2 trash pickups per week - Mondays and Thursdays.  On Wednesday nights, we clean out the fridge.  We used to toss any leftovers that had not been eaten by Wednesday, but I am getting better and better at using them up.  So, I am challenging myself to start a new series - Leftover Wednesday - where I will post what I made for dinner that night, using up leftovers in the fridge.  Tonight, we had Impossible Bacon Cheese Pie and Salad.

Have you ever had one of Bisquick's Impossible Pies?  If not, than I am happy to introduce you to them!  And if you don't eat gluten, there are GF baking mixes out there you can substitute for the Bisquick, store brand or homemade baking mix of your choice.  I know what your thinking - what is an "impossible" pie?!  It's crustless.  You are making a "pie", or more accurately a quiche, without a bottom crust.  You put your pie "filling" into your dish and then pour over it a mixture of beaten egg, milk and Bisquick.  It's the addition of the Bisquick that allows your pie to stay together.

Recipe: Chicken Stir-Fry

Not the best photo! I totally forgot to take a picture of the wok or a plate before we dug in. So, this is what was left in the wok after we had devoured our shares.  Sorry!

The hubs made a double batch of rice last night to go with our Quick and Tasty Tilapia and I wanted to incorporate it with dinner tonight.  I was not in the mood to make the labor intensive Benihana Attempt, so I just made my simple Chicken Stir-Fry.  Stir-fries, like soups, are a great way to use up leftover or near-their-expiration-date veggies.  Tomorrow is our major, once-every-2-weeks shopping trip.  I had the following in the fridge left over from the last trip:

• one broccoli crown, 
• one-third of a bag of baby carrots and 
• baby bella mushrooms.

To those I added:

• half a sweet onion, 
• garlic, 
• ginger, 
• chicken breasts and
• Wegmans Stir-Fry Sauce, all of which I always have on hand. The Stir-Fry Sauce is not only flavorful, it's gluten-free, lactose-free, fat-free and vegan!