Recipe roundup, leftover style.

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!

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