Leftover makeover : pasta meat sauce

Meat pasta sauce is great  As a leftover. Just add some water or stock, whatever other leftovers you've got in the fridge and voila, you've got stew, or chili. Today I added frozen corn and leftover lentil rice. Yum. 

Leftover Makeover : Prime Rib Roast Bone Soup

Sorry no image for this one as it was really tasty and we ate it up before I remembered to take a photo.

Beef ribs from the prime rib roast

Cabbage 

Carrots
Tomatoes
Celery
Potatoes
Tomato paste

Extra seasoning : cayenne pepper, Bay leaves, thyme, oregano, paprika 

Boil until meat is falling off bone. Enjoy!

Leftover makeover : Thanksgiving

One of the best parts of thanksgiving dinner is having enough leftovers for days. The annoying part is having the exact same thing for days. This is one way to use many leftovers up at one time:

Turkey bones (I only used the two thigh/drum bones and froze the rest)
Leftover roasted veggies chopped
Leftover gravy
Leftover pumpkin soup
Roasted turkey liver chopped
Roasted bacon chopped
Shredded leftover turkey meat - add this a few minutes before eating so that the meat doesn't dry up.

Boil it all together...simmer for an hour. Maybe throw in a bay leaf or two. And an onion if it wasn't included in the leftover roast veggies.

Now one meal eat it with pasta as a turkey noodle soup.
Another meal you can re-boil with mushrooms, kale and leftover rice as a hearty soup.

So good....that I keep eating it up before remembering to take a picture.

Leftover Makeover : Pork Rib Sandwich

Sorry for disappearing there. Ever since I got diagnosed with gestational diabetes my experimental cooking has taken a hit as I tried to figure out what I could/couldn't eat and how much carb/sugar was in everything. It's under control now and I'm starting to cook more again.

Anyways...remember this rib recipe? I deboned the meat and used it in a very yummy sandwich. So yummy. So easy. =) Enjoy!

Leftover Makeover: Kimchi Edemame Fried Rice

Apologies for the half eaten bowl of rice....I forgot to take the photo first. I've mentioned before how I hate wasting kimchi juice left after eating a tub of the spicy goodness. Well here's another way to use it up. Use it in fried rice! Fried rice is also a great way to use up hard leftover rice. Instead of adding water to reconsitute the rice, I poured in the kimchi juice. I also had leftover buckwheat. And leftover cooked edemame beans. Perfect. For added protein I cut up a medium firm block of tofu into strips...you can't really see them in the photo though.

I let everything simmer under a lid, then stir every now and then until the liquids have dried up and the rice gets a little browned. Yum.

Leftover grains
Kimchi juice
Edemame
Tofu
Salt/Sugar to taste

Leftover Makeover: Maple Crunch Chicken Strips

How about a MEAT recipe for once! =) I've been posting a lot of vegetarian fare because that's where I'm exploring right now. I have a lot of meat dish go-to's and haven't been as creative. Especially come summer...it's marinated wings, steak and ribs. I think I've already featured those. Anyways....

So you know when you finish a box of cereal there's all the broken and sugary bits at the bottom of the bag? I always feel like it's such a waste to throw it away since I paid more to buy healthier cereal but it'd be gross to eat it straight with milk. Well, I found an answer....I coated chicken strips in them and then pan fried it. I could do it shake and bake style too, but pan frying was faster. And it's so good!!

Chicken
Marinated in corn starch and a bit of soy for the savory aspect
Remnants of three kinds of cereal (Ancient Grains, Maple Crunch, Harvest Crunch)...this adds the sugar to the marinade so you don't need to add more.

I enjoyed this over salad with half an avocado. Used the go-to honey mustard dressing (but no garlic this time).

Leftover Makeover : Bean Patty

Remember the nine bean patty? I decided I would throw it into a salad. It's flavorful and good protein. So...there it went. And the Salad was a very good one because of it.

Bean patty
Fresh mozzarella
Avocado (half)
Walnuts

Dressing: Honey Dijon Summer dressing...minus the garlic this time

 

Leftover Makeover : Indian Sauces

I love a good Indian meal. Their curries and sauces are so rich in flavors. It's also chocked full of so many herbs and spices that makes it hard for me to replicate at home without needing a separate spice cupboard. It's also why Indian food is pricy...those spices add up!

That said, I hate seeing good sauce wasted. Recently I had a butter chicken and goat curry. I had the leftover sauce packed and then I re-used it for a Vegetarian Vednesday meal (I know, it's meat based sauce but still...). Totally yummy!


Top left is butter chicken sauce with firm tofu.
Bottom right is goat curry sauce with peas.
All served with quinoa rice mix.

Kimchi Israeli Couscous

What do you do with some leftover kimchi juice that is too good to pour down the drain? This!

Kimchi juice
Pork belly
Green onions
Turnip
Chicken stock
Israeli couscous

I probably could've used more kimchi juice but hey, use what you've got. And I happily didn't have to waste any of its goodness. I started with browning the couscous slightly with green onions. Then threw everything else in (measuring enough liquids for the amount of couscous I used), and covered the pot until it was done. Or until the pork belly was done. It was super flavorful and definitely will make it into rotation (when I use up the next bottle of kimchi). Enjoy!

Leftover Makeover: Beef Stew

Remember the sirloin tip with very little meat fat, and wasn't slow cooked/braised so it came out rather chewy? Well it wasn't a big sell unfortunately. This meant I had a fair bit of leftovers and I needed to turn it into something yummy.

What better to hide it in than a stew! Stews hide everything. And because you're slow cooking it for a while, everything also gets quite tender. So that's where the roast went.

Sirloin tip roast leftovers
Carrots
King oyster mushrooms
Tomatoes
Onion
Garlic
Lentil stew leftovers
Paprika
Cumin
Rosemary
Red Wine

And it was good! Over rice and over pasta.

Leftover Makeover : Mish-Mash

This one my Hubby put together. (yay!) He had the day off and was rummaging through the fridge for whatever leftovers were still lurking about. This delicious fried rice was what he put together from a tub of curried rice, some BBQ pork/char siu, a small container of soggy napa cabbage/siu choi, some kale leaves and some purple cabbage shreds.

The virbrant green and purple of the veggies, cooked separately from the rice, was beautiful...and super tasty:

Kale
Cabbage
Paprika
Dark soy sauce
Butter & coconut oil
Sugar
Salt

As for the fried rice, the possibilities are endless depending on what leftovers you have. In this case:

Curried rice
BBQ Pork/char siu
Coconut oil
Napa Cabbage/siu choi
Sriracha
Hoisin sauce
Soy sauce (light & dark)

And the best part, I got to eat lunch with my Hubby. =)

Leftover Makeover : Sushi Fried Rice

I used to hate eating leftover sushi rolls. The rice gets hard and crumbly after a night in the fridge. You're not sure if you're going to have food poisoning from the raw fish (even though you kept everything in the fridge). You hate the thought of throwing it out because it costs so much (especially in Alberta) and it was so good fresh. I used to choke it down the next day and cross my fingers as my G.I. digested it.

Well, no more choking sushi leftovers down!

I roughly chopped the sushi rolls then put everything into a frying pan. Poured a scoop of water and covered it for a few minutes to rehydrate the rice as well as to cook the raw fish, added a pack of take-out soy sauce, fried it a bit longer to heat everything through and voila! A moist and delicious sushi fried rice!

Leftover Makeover: Salad Rolls

I hate leftover salad rolls. The rice crepe gets stiff and breaks easy. The noodles inside are dry and hard. Bleh. But I can't bring myself to throw away perfectly good food. What to do?

I throw a few salad rolls into miso soup with some added veggies....and voila! I have a yummy rice noodle soup.

The rice crepe does melt into a bit of a goo...but if you break it up before adding the salad roll into the soup, it just blends in with all the other noodles. What was nice was the salad rolls also had basil tucked in so the fragrance was lovely once in the soup. I would've liked cooking it in a chicken or pork broth instead, but I only had miso. Not bad at all mind you.

I don't mind leftover salad rolls now. =)