Leftovers

I had enough leftover chili in the freezer for us to have Frito Chili Pie.

YoYo

I had Bunco plans. Man ate leftover chicken/rice & the kids had chicken strips.

Leftovers

Leftover enchiladas for us -- as we rushed out the door to a band concert.

Yo-Yo

Afternoon snack of leftover pizza. Followed by a dinner of Triscuts, cheese & turkey lunchmeat.

Yo-Yo

We are leaving for Germany tomorrow and will be gone through the weekend. Dinner tonight will most definitely include cleaning out the fridge. It's all good. Here's what we have to choose from:

BBQ beef & beans - enough for one more sandwich
Salad - enough for one person
Minestrone - whatever doesn't get eaten, gets frozen
Chicken from the Kindy Thanksgiving Feast - enough for 2 servings
Wheat rolls, also from the Fest -- 4 left
Pecan tassies, Feast again - 11 left

Whatever leftovers from the Feast were mine to start with. Here's how I made the kid-friendly chicken.

Chicken on a Stick

• Toss frozen chicken thighs with: a drizzle of evoo, Turkey Rub, rubbed sage & thyme.
• Defrost one bag of frozen, boneless & skinless chicken thighs in the fridge overnight.
• The chicken marinates as it defrosts.
• When the chicken is totally defrosted, cut into small bite sized chunks & thread onto wooden skewers (soak the skewers in water for 1 hour prior).
• Line a baking pan with foil, place chicken sticks on to pan & put into a hot oven (400F).
• Bake for 20 minutes, turning 1/2 through, or until the biggest pieces of chicken are cooked through.

Buttery Bread Machine Rolls

I followed this recipe posted on RecipeZaar with the following exceptions:

• I used 2 cups white flour & 2 cups of whole wheat.
• Made 32 smaller rolls on a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper.
• I let the dough rise a second time for over 1 hour.
• I baked at 350F.

Pecan Tassies

Shall we mosey on over to Not Just Strudel and see how they are made?

OK, fine. There are only ten nine tassies left now. I think I'm going to have to call dibs on the salad for dinner.

Leftovers

I cleaned out the refrigerator & made minestrone which is what MiniMe & I quite happily ate for dinner w/a side salad. Man needed a little more meat, so a rummaged around in the freezer & triumphantly produced leftover meatloaf. That with salad & Naan bread (and a side of soup) pulled together a real meal in no time flat. Laze-E ate Naan bread and a salad, only because she was full from 2 bowls of afternoon-snack cereal.

Leftovers

I made Potato Soup for lunch & there was plenty leftover for dinner. So, that's what I had. Man had leftover Greek food for our last restaurant trip & the girls had leftover spaghetti.

Cheap? Yes. Exciting? Depends on what you think about leftovers.

Leftovers

For dinner we had leftover chili, grilled cheese sandwiches & raw veggies with Ranch dip. While I didn't actually "cook" dinner, I did make muffins before I went to "work" this morning. Yes, I do have a food porn banana bread recipe, made with a cup of butter, white flour & lots of sugar. I'll save that one for Not Just Strudel. This particular muffin recipe is definitely the healthier, lower fat version.

Whole Wheat Banana Muffins

Sift together & set aside:

• 2 cups whole wheat flour
• 1/2 cup oats
• 1/4 cup wheat germ
• 2 teaspoons baking soda
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1/4-1/2 teaspoon each: cinnamon, ground cloves, nutmeg

In a separate bowl, cream together with an electric mixer:

• 1/4 cup unsalted butter
• 1/3 cup pack Splenda Blend - brown sugar

Then:

• Add 2 eggs & beat until smooth
• Mix in 4 über-ripe bananas (I leave mine a little on the chunky side)
• Stir in 1/2 cup applesauce

Gentle stir dry & moist ingredients together just enough to incorporate the flour mixture.

Fill lined muffin cups about 3/4 full. Bake in a preheated oven at 350F for 20-25 minutes (or until passes the Toothpick Test). Makes 16 muffins.

Quick & Easy

Food Category: G-Rated
Difficulty: Easy

Tonight, I had a very important meeting to attend. OK, fine. It was a very interesting game of Bunco. But the point is that I threw together some food for the family before I headed out.

Man had leftover turkey & stuffing from the freezer. The kids had chicken strips baked in the toaster oven. I did make mashed potatoes to pull both meals together. Veggies, Schmeggiges. Who eats them if Mom's not home anyway?

Obviously, there was nothing exciting food-wise, but I'll share my recipe for HausFrau's Red Rooster:

2 quarts of cranberry juice
8 oz frozen orange juice concentrate
2 1/3 cups of peach vodka

Mix together into a gallon bucket (I use my Bill Miller ice tea bucket) with a lid & freeze for 24 hours. The cranberry & orange juice certainly count toward you five-a-day. Substitute orange juice blend with calcium for that extra nutritional punch. See how healthy it is? And vodka is made from potatoes. It's almost like kicking back a V8.

Wine & Cheese or Tuna Sandwiches

Food Category: Bum Lovin', PG-13 (because of the rotwein)
Difficulty: SuperEasy

This is HausFrau's favorite go-to meal for no fuss, no mess.

Whole grains, calcium, good fat, heart healthy red wine . . . eat & repeat.

Others in my family had tuna sandwiches with leftovers from lunch. I make my tuna with:

• Solid white albacore or chunk light Starkist (the big can)
• chopped celery ribs with leaves
• finely chopped red onion
• 2 chopped boiled eggs
• chopped Kosher dill pickles
• 1/2 chopped red apple
• Miracle Whip -- the bare minimum needed to hold it all together
• pepper, lemon herbed seasoning, fresh parsley

Served preferrably on whole wheat. Certain family members prefer worthless white (Man, Laze-E).

Leftovers

My fridge was full of leftovers & needed to be cleaned out before I can "cook big" again. This particular leftover night was kind of like eating out at a restaurant where everyone orders something different off the menu. Except, we eat at home & the menu is limited to what's in the fridge. And, I still have to do dishes.

To round out 4 meals, I baked two potatoes & one sweet potato in the oven.

Man had leftover Schnitzel & a baked potato.

I had leftover turkey & stuffing with a baked sweet potato.

Laze-E had a salad (yes, that is shocking & a most recent development) & a baked potato.

MiniMe had leftover spaghetti.

Leftovers

Dinner was crazy-exciting around the Haus tonight. Straight-up leftovers with no embellishment whatsoever.

Man & I had leftover meatloaf, mashed potatoes & broccoli/carrots, all of which was nuked to perfection.

The girls had Pita Pizza again tonight, made in the toaster oven.

Dessert was wonderful though . . .

Check out Laze-E's Iced Pumpkin Cookie recipe over at Not Just Strudel.

Leftovers

Food Category: Leftovers, Junk Food, PG & G-Rated
Difficulty: Easy

Leftover Enchiladas & Rice

I had enough leftover from the other night for 2 people.

Frozen Chicken Nuggets & Lipton Alfredo Pasta Side

This was enough food for 2 people

Side Salad: lettuce, cucumbers, radishes, carrots, croutons

Although I started out with grand dinner plans, I just couldn't work the magic tonight. I have had a nagging headache all day, and it was raging by afternoon. Quick and easy was the best I could do.

My advice is to always have something on hand that can be thrown together for a quick meal. Frozen pizza, chicken strips or straight-up leftovers. Regardless of how bad the nutritional info on the prepackaged junk, it's probably better than most take-out food & most likely cheaper.

Leftover potential: Not really. Unless there are a few leftover nuggets that can be tossed in to tomorrow's school lunch box or used for a snack later.

Leftover Night

Man is working late tonight & I fell face first into a Mexican potluck for lunch today. So, striaght-up leftovers it is.

Laze-E heated up chicken & rice from the other night & MiniMe had tortilla soup. I'm still regretting that second brownie I had at lunch and haven't eaten anything (so far!). Not that I need to. But if I do, it will be tortilla soup.

MamaFry (Hi Tammy) made a comment about cooking the chicken and rice using brown rice. It turned out great, but needed a longer cooking time. Which made me think that this recipe would work great in a crockpot - and dinner would be ready when you walked in the door after work.

I've been checking on a blog lately A Year of Crockpotting & just now looked to see what sage advice she could offer. Low & behold, she made Chicken & Brown Rice in the crockpot for Tuesday's meal & posted about it on Wednesday. I guess everybody is eating the same thing this week. Her recipe is a little more involved than dumping in cream of something soups, but she's aiming for a gluten-free menu. Looks like you can cook my "recipe" on low for 8 hours.

If anyone tries this, let us know.

Tortilla Soup & Cheese Quesadillas

Food Category: High-5, Bum Lovin', PG-13
Difficulty: Easy

Tortilla Soup

sautee onion, celery, tri-colored peppers & sliced carrots until tender crisp
add chicken broth (homemade, canned or flavor granules)
bring to a boil & add remaining ingredients, your choice as to which ones & how much:

• zucchini & yellow squash
• beans (pinto, black, kidney)
• corn (canned or frozen)
• green chiles (to taste, remember they are flavorful)
• crushed or diced tomatoes (or Rotel if you skip the chiles)
• leftover peas, green beans & mashed potatoes work well with this soup too
• leftover fajita meat & chopped up grilled veggies
• leftover chicken or turkey

seasonings/spices:

2 cloves of freshed minced garlic
cumin
chili powder
roasted red pepper seasoning
Sazón (1-2 packets)
salt/pepper
onion & garlic powder
envelope of taco seasoning if you don't have the other stuff in your kitchen

Cook the soup on low until veggies look good to you. You may also finish this up in the crockpot.

I usually make this soup broth-based to keep the calories down. The beans add the most calories, but it's all good carbs & fiber. You can add cheese/velveeta to the soup based on personal preference. Leftover fridge/frozen mashed potatoes thicken up the soup, but with added calories.

When serving the soup, top with crushed tortilla chips (like Tostitos), shredded cheese (we like cheddar & pepper jack), sour cream & fresh cilantro. Certainly, the toppings add lots of flavor, but pack quite the punch to the fat/calorie content (thus the PG-13 rating). You have been warned.

I'm making a double batch of this soup to cover us for dinner tonight & a Mexican Potluck tomorrow. Soups are usually better the next day, so it's not like the Potluck people are getting the scraps. I'll just reheat in the crockpot.

Cheese Quesadillas

Laze-E won't touch my soup & Man will want something more Manly.

These will be simple quesadillas, only slightly more difficult than nuking the flour tortilla & cheese. Spray tortilla with olive oil & heat on a med-hot skillet. Flip, add cheese, fold over. Flip to the other side and serve.

Leftover potential: This soup does well in the fridge & freezer. The most flavorful way to reheat quesadillas is by wrapping in foil and tossing in a toaster oven. Microwave works too, but only use half-power.