I have been ultra busy, but as always, I have been cooking and eating. This post will be a round up of some of the dishes I have made over the past week or so. We will be talking a lot about leftovers today.
I hate to waste food. The only dish in this post to use ingredients that were specifically purchased for a recipe is the green bean casserole I made. The rest are odds and bits that were hanging around in the fridge, too small to make a meal, but perfect to add to a few other morsels to make a great meal. When ever I pull like that off, I am very proud.
I made a delicious green bean casserole using this recipe.
My only adjustments were to use two tablespoons of flour, white mushrooms, and a 16 ounce bag of frozen french cut green beans. I added more flour, because the recipe wasn’t thickening the way I wanted it to. I would highly recommend making this casserole. I have never liked the one that uses canned soup, but this dish is amazing.
As you read in a previous post, I made so-so enchiladas. I had a little leftover enchilada sauce that I hated to waste, so the Sorta Enchilada Pie was born. Here it is before it went into the oven:
This pie used a lot of leftovers, yippee! I layered three tortillas in the bottom of a greased Pyrex pie plate, making sure the whole bottom of the pie plate. Next, I layered some shredded cheddar cheese on the tortillas, then a layer of my homemade salsa (see recipe below). Next, I added a layer of chopped, about to be inedible red and orange peppers and I diced up a tiny hunk of red onion to add to this layer. I covered the veggie layer with some more salsa. Next, I mixed the remainder of the enchilada sauce with about 1/2 cup of black beans and spread the beans on top of the salsa and topped the whole pie with more shredded cheese and a sprinkle of chili powder. I covered the pie with foil and popped it in the oven on 350 degrees for 12-15 minutes, just long enough to warm the pie and melt the cheese.
The consensus on the pie? It needed more cheese. Also, I think some black olives and jalapeno peppers would have improved the flavor.
In case you were wondering about my homemade salsa, here is the recipe:
Mandy’s Fresh Salsa
1 or 2 cups fresh chopped tomatoes ( I prefer to make this in the summer when the tomatoes are fresh, but any tomatoes will do)
1/2 cup chopped red onions
A squirt of lime juice
Salt, pepper, garlic powder, and chili powder to taste
1 seeded and diced jalapeno pepper (optional, but remember to wear gloves when cooking with fresh jalapenos)
Mix together and refrigerate for a least one hour to let the flavors meld.
My last post mentioned the Celebration Roast. Since I hate to waste food, I decided to doctor up what was left of the roast along with some other odds and ends in the fridge. I sauteed garlic and red onions together in olive oil and added the mushrooms, cooking until tender. I had mushrooms on hand because I bought too many for the green bean casserole. I sliced the roast into strips and added the remainder of my bottle of a bottle of Pickapeppa sauce (about 1 and 1/2 tablespoons) and a few dashes of liquid smoke. As you can see here, I let it cook down for a little while in my cast iron frying pan.
The good thing was, all of the other ingredients killed the overwhelming sage flavor. I used a sesame seed bun leftover from earlier in the week and spread on it some nacho cheese jalapeno dip. I spooned some of the roast and mushroom mixture on the bun and dug it.
It was tasty, but because I don’t think I will ever buy the Celebration Roast again, I would use seitan to make this in the future.
And there you have it, a week or so of meals in review. I love the challenge of using leftovers, don’t you? For my next trick, er, recipe, I plan on using the leftover black beans and some sweet red peppers to make some sort of spread/dip.
I hope you all have a great day and keep cooking!
