These Leftovers Are Still Good! From Leftover Meals to Rollover Ingredients

Leftovers are the thawed and refrozen, freezer burnt, stale scraps and bits of unwanted meals that narrowly escaped exile into the trash. They are the forgotten foods wrapped in Reynolds wrap, tossed into Tupperware, stored for a day that may never come. Welcome to food purgatory. So if it is the word “leftovers” that has a negative connotation, perhaps the solvency is in the definition.

Let’s, for a second, think of leftover meals more as rollover ingredients: rollover meaning extra and ingredients meaning basic foods. Rather than being stuck with a déjà vu meal, you now have endless possibilities! How to do this: do not dump meat, potatoes and peas all in one container because this basically limits you to a glorified frozen dinner. Instead, store your ingredients separately so that later you can individually employ them in various dishes.

For example, I did not want my rollovers from the Bacon Guacamole Burger I had the other night go die a slow leftover death, I started to get creative. I had refried beans, cheese and turkey in the fridge, an extra roll…hmmm, sandwich with a side of beans? No, better.

Southwest Turkey Sandwich

Ingredients:

1 Kaiser roll

1 T olive oil

3-4 slices of deli cooked turkey

1 slice of Colby Jack cheese

½ c refried beans [from the burger dinner]

3 T rice cooked rice [saved from my lunch]

Instructions:

1. Brush buns with olive oil. Toast in frying pan.

2. Reheat refried beans. Mix with rice.

3. Layer bun, turkey, cheese, beans & rice, bun.

**Suggestions: make a sour cream spread: a pinch of cumin and chili powder mixed with 2 T sour cream; spread on sandwich.

Good Things Come to Those Who Wait...Like Zucchini Quiche

Now, as I sit making notes about my dinner tonight before I devour it, I remember the worst part of baking: the wait. I decided to make a zucchini quiche, with feta cheese and, yes, more fried pepperonis. Sounds like an instant win, but ugh, the wait! Currently my belly lingers on the edge of starvation. While stove top and oven dishes alike can produce mouth-watering scents that hold you captive in the kitchen, there is no taste testing something that’s baking. With building anticipation, you try to pass the time by fumbling about with dishes in the sink, reading the paper or maybe even counting down the minutes on the timer. But basically, it’s torture for the cook. The other difficulty is that baking is less forgiving. You’ve got one shot before it starts on its journey, and you can’t help it along the way. The wait gives you enough time to start second guessing your cooking…I put in that last cup of sugar, right? What about the salt? It’s not out… It’s a fickle process, more of a science – reason #3 why I don’t like it; I’m more of an artsy type. Yet, it is still essential to holistic cooking, thus must be mastered, no matter how long it takes.

As it turned out the quiche was excellent – very light and fluffy, as well as surprisingly filling. I was curious to experiment with Feta cheese because most quiches call for Swiss, Mozzarella or Provolone. Feta provided that nice bite that mixed well with the Italian spices and the smokiness of the pepperoni. Quiches are great ways to use up or stretch ingredients when you start running low. The honey crisp apple that I paired with the quiche was a great compliment to the meal; I would also suggest biscuits or muffins as well. Overall, well worth the wait.

Zucchini Quiche with Feta Cheese and Crumbled Pepperoni

Ingredients:

15 pepperonis (I used turkey pepperoni)

1 T olive oil

½ zucchini, shredded

½ onion, chopped

1 clove garlic, chopped

1 t dried basil

1 t dried oregano

Salt and pepper

2 eggs

1 c milk

2 T flour

4 oz feta cheese

Instructions:

1. In skillet, heat olive oil over medium high heat.

2. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

3. Add pepperonis when oil is hot; fry for about 3-5 min.

4. Shred and chop veggies; take out pepperoni, place on paper towel.

5. Add veggies to skillet, cook until tender, 5-7 min.

6. Sprinkle in basil, oregano, salt and pepper and pepperonis. Put in bottle of casserole dish. Do not pack down.

7. In separate bowl, beat eggs with whisk.

8. Add milk and flour slowly, whisk until well blended. [Not clumps of flour]

9. Pour over veggies, add cheese, mix.

10. Bake in oven for 35-45 min.

Makes about 2 c of quiche. NOMS: 8

Afternoon Delight: Smoked Gouda Grits with Fried Turkey Pepperoni

Okay, so first day of classes wasn’t exactly stellar; being denied from classes on my wish list had me pretty bummed. Oh and my computer adapter decided not to give me the green light anymore and drained my laptop battery, which pushed my blog writing back a little. Flustered by lunchtime, and with two more classes in sight, I indulged in some traditional southern delight: grits. For those of you unfamiliar with grits, they are small, broken bits of corn. Think coarse-ground corn porridge similar to polenta or cornmeal, but white and a bit thinner once cooked. Grits originated with the Native Americans, was adopted by the Southerners and now has been adapted and enjoyed by all.

There are plain grits, butter grits, cheese grits and sugar grits, but today I was in the mood for a smokier flavor. The neglected pound of smoked Gouda chilling in my fridge finally was going to be put to use, but I was determined to go beyond just cheese grits. I wanted bacon. That crispy, salty meat would be a perfect addition to the grits! But a quick glance into the back of the fridge only produced some chicken, ground beef, sliced turkey lunch meat and some turkey pepperoni. Turkey pepperoni…was it limited only to snacks and pizza? Rushing to the stove, frying pan in one hand, olive oil in the other I set out to experiment once again.

As it turns out, fried turkey pepperoni is an excellent substitute for crumbled bacon. After quartering the pepperonis, they browned quite well when fried with olive oil. Happily dancing about the hall kitchen in celebration of my latest success, I moved onto the cheese sauce. This is a standard cheese sauce recipe, follow the first few steps, then add a cheese of your choosing – it works for nearly all of them. The measurements of the ingredients can be adjusted to your preferred consistency [thick or thin].

Cheese Sauce

Ingredients:

2 T butter

2 T flour

½ - ¾ C milk

About 10 dice-sized cubes of cheese

Instructions:

1. Melt butter in saucepan over medium high heat.

2. Add flour, mix with butter until it bubbles and gets hot [more butter may be necessary]

3. Brown mixture for a about 2 min ---- ***at this point you are nearly making a roux***

4. Turn down heat to medium. Add milk to pan. Mix until roux has been incorporated into milk. Stir constantly while sauce thickens. [May need to add more milk]

5. Once it is at the desired thickness, add in cheese. Stir constantly until melted and mixed.

Makes about 1 C of cheese sauce.

At this point, with a delicious Gouda cheese sauce complete, I stirred in the crumbled turkey pepperoni. Then you follow the package instructions and prepare grits – today my eyes were much bigger than my stomach, but I was really eating for two: me and my bad mood. It’s amazing how quickly a day can turn itself around when good eating is incorporated.

I added only pepper to the grits, then I plopped a few large steamy scoops onto my plate and topped it with my cheesy, pepperoni sauce. It was the perfect comfort food. The color of the dish wasn’t anything to note, but the taste made my mood increase by at least five happy points with every bite. Overall, success!