Play It Again, Ham: 10 Hearty Ham Dishes

     I found a big ham for 99 cents a pound at the store.  The kids had friends over on Friday night and it fed the crowd with plenty to spare.  For our company night I served the ham with mac and cheese and mixed veggies.  I've often used leftovers to make a new dinner creation.  The great thing about ham I found is that it can be used for any meal.  Good luck with your sequels!


10 Hamtastic Meals:

1. Ham steaks for breakfast with eggs.

2. Chef Salad  with ham and chicken, turkey, or roast beef

3. Scalloped Potatoes

4. Pea Soup

5. Ham Sandwiches

6. Ham Salad Sandwiches

7. Ham and Broccoli Pie

8. Ham and Cheese Hot Pockets/Calzones

9. Bean Soup

10. Scrambled eggs with diced ham/ Denver Omelet

Chicken Two: Two Different Meals With One Cooking Night

Chicken Parmesan

   In an effort to clear out any space in the freezer, I defrosted a three pound bag of chicken breasts.  Usually  I buy chicken on the bone since I can find a decent sale price, but I bought the big back to be convenient for camping season. With summer over it is time to cook up these birds.

   I planned to make Chicken Parm.  I made breadcrumbs out of oatmeal mixed with some Italian seasoning and garlic powder.  I sliced the chicken thin, dipped it in the egg and breadcrumbs and into the olive oil it went.     I made a few pans full, so I stored the extra in the oven to keep warm.

There's a whole lotta chicken cooking.

   As the chicken sizzled, I put the spaghetti water on to boil and made a salad.  I topped one skillet of chicken with tomato sauce and mozzarella cheese.  The rest of the chicken was for another meal.  Before cooking, I cut some of the chicken in smaller chicken strips.  Just don't tell the kids their chicken nuggets are really naked Chicken Parm leftovers.

We'll set these aside for nugget night.

   

10 Terrific Meals Using Thanksgiving Turkey

Delicious Chef/Cobb Salad

    Once we have cleared the table, there's no need to go cold turkey!  There are lots of ways to re-invent the bird to make it a whole new meal.  You can make your own Thanksgiving t.v. dinner to have the next day. You may want to tuck some of that delicious dark meat in the freezer to keep for one of these great recipes.  

    My new favorite is the Turkey Chef/Cobb salad.  I made a combination between a chef salad and a Cobb salad using turkey and ham with avocado.  It was delicious and a very different presentation for lunch than the usual leftover turkey.

   Another suggestion made to me was turkey pot pie.  Using refrigerator dough, through those bits of meat and leftover veggies together with the leftover gravy to make a hearty meal.  Skip the the gravy and you can fold up individual calzones or homemade hot pockets to store in the freezer for a later lunch.

   One night I whipped up a turkey stroganoff using Laughing Cow cheese and mushrooms served over egg noodles.  Turkey casserole is a yummy combination of rice, broccoli, and bits of turkey.  I skip the cream of mushroom soup and opt for plain yogurt.

   Making new meals out of the holiday leftovers will make you thankful for less trips to the grocery store!   The only thing left to do now with the turkey is make a wish!  

1. Hot turkey and gravy over bread

2. Turkey Club

3. Turkey Cobb Salad

4. Turkey Soup

5. Turkey Stroganoff

6. Turkey Salad Sandwich

7. Thanksgiving Plate

8. Turkey Casserole 

9. Turkey Quiche

10. Turkey Pot Pie

 

Sensational Sequels

    I have lost count of how many times I have heard people say, "I just don't like leftovers."  Poor, poor leftovers, nobody wants them.  They pack them up in Tupperware just to throw them out when the fuzz starts to creep up the lid.  I say, "No more!"  We must take our leftover food and use it for good and not science experimentation.

    Leftovers need an image makeover.  I am going to start marketing them as sequels.  Is that leftover chicken? No honey, that is Chicken the Sequel: Night of the Nuggets.

   One of my favorite ways to use up leftovers is soup.  Just about any meat and vegetable can be thrown in the pot for a fantastic meal. All month long I will be bringing you more ideas to help you transform those unwanted bits into a new meal.

   Using leftovers is a great way to stretch the budget.  You can dish up leftovers for lunch instead of eating out. You can make a whole new meal by adding a few inexpensive ingredients.  This is great for when you find a sale and stock up.  Leftovers also help lessen your time in the meal prep department.  The trick is variety.  We can't eat the same meal days in a row.  Sometimes you have to take what is left and freeze it for another day when it will be appreciated again.

   What are your favorite uses for leftovers?  Stay tuned for my reruns, I mean sequels coming soon in my kitchen!

Fiesta Pie: leftovers madeover

Taco Pie and please don't call it quiche

   At the end of the week we had a medley of leftovers: a barbecued chicken breast, a bit of steak, and half a serving of taco meat and re fried beans.  I could give everyone an ounce of meat with a vegetable on the side, but that seemed too much like reruns.  It was time for this food to write an alternate ending.  What I had plenty of in the fridge was eggs.  They had just arrived fresh from my neighbor's chickens.  

   I spied this new recipe in the gluten free cookbook. I sliced up the meat and layered in the pan like lasagna.  Then I put in the re fried beans, chopped peppers and poured the  whisked eggs over everything. Into the oven it went, skipping the skillet step to cook until firm.  With a dollop of plain yogurt and a splash of salsa the fiesta taco pie was served. 

Frittata from: Deliciously G-Free by Elisabeth Hasselbeck

10 eggs

1/4 cup half-and-half

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

2 tablespoons olive oil

1/2 yellow onion, diced

1/2 green bell pepper, seeded and diced

1 cup of canned black beans, drained and well rinsed

1 cup grated mozzarella or cheddar cheese

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Place the eggs, half-and-half, salt, and pepper in a large bowl. Whisk to combine and set aside. Heat an 8-inch ovenproof skillet with high sides over medium-high heat. Add 1 tablespoon of olive oil, onion, and pepper, Cook, stirring occasionally, until tender, 3 to 4 minutes. Transfer to small bowl. In the skillet add the egg mixture and cook 1 minute until the edges bubble. Pull cooked egg to center of the pan.  Scatter the cooked vegetables, beans and cheese over the egg. Transfer the skillet to the oven and and bake for 10 to 12 minutes until firm. Let cool for 5 minutes. 

Wok Around The Clock

Pork fried rice is nice. 

    It's 4:30. Do you know what your dinner is?  Yeah, me neither.  I was going to put a nice roast  in the oven at 3:00 p.m. for that cozy Sunday meal.  Well I got a little too cozy and ended up taking a little snooze. Then dinner time was fast approaching.  What to do?  Don't panic.  Don't call for pizza yet.  I can stir something up. Yes that's it; a stir fry night is just the solution.

I had made a pork roast with sweet potatoes and roasted Brussels sprouts two days before so there was meat leftover. We had eaten a second meal of "reruns" already.  Now it was time to transform what was left.

   I pulled out my cook book and found a recipe for pork fried rice.  My friend's daughter has been craving this dish lately so it would be nice to learn to make it at home.  I didn't follow it exactly.  It called for bean sprouts and green onions .  I used leftover peas, green beans and cut up Brussels sprouts.  I was hoping to make the sprouts more popular in this disguised format.

   I had quick brown rice that I had stocked in the camper.  I started that cooking first.  Meanwhile, I trimmed pork from the bone and diced the vegetables.  When the rice was almost done, I threw the veggies in to warm and tossed the eggs in following the recipe.

   What are your favorite meals in a hurry?

Pork Fried Rice from: Betty Crocker Cookbook

1 cup bean sprouts
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
1 cup sliced mushrooms
3 cups cooked long-grain rice
1 cup cut-up cooked pork
2 medium green onions, sliced
2 large eggs, slightly beaten
3 tablespoons soy sauce
Dash of white pepper

Rinse beans sprouts and drain. Cook mushrooms in oil 1 minute, stirring frequently. Add sprouts, rice, pork and onions. Cook over medium heat 5 minutes, stirring and breaking up rice until hot. Move rice mixture to side of skillet. Cook eggs in oil over medium heat, stirring constantly, until eggs are thickened. Stir eggs into rice mixture. Stir in soy sauce and white pepper.

New Deli

    When I picked up the roast on sale for $2.99 a pound and looked at the label of $11.96 I thought about putting it back.  It just seemed like a lot of money for one item.  Ironically a pound of roast beef at the deli sells for up to $10 a pound.

    I served the roast with mashed potatoes and green beans picked from our garden.  After dinner, Dan got out the electric slicer my parents gave me for Christmas.   The kids were mesmerized while he buzzed through the roast. Now we had plenty of lunch meat.  Our daughter's favorite lunch is a peanut butter and jelly sandwich.  After becoming aware of a peanut allergy at school, she was thrilled to pack a nut free lunch.  I was happy not to spend my time and money at the deli counter!

    

Chicken, Chicken

    When I was a senior in high school, we traveled to Old Quebec on a school trip.  While staying with my host family, we sat down to a chicken dinner one evening.  The son's friend said to me, "Chicken, chicken," to which I replied that is was lovely or delicious or something in French I don't recall.  Canadian French turned out to be different than the old school French we were learning so much of what I said sounded like I was talking to my grandmother and not a teenager.  Anyway, this went on for a few rounds of "chicken, chicken, " until Ingrid the teenage daughter haltingly explained in English, "My brother's friend is thinking it is funny that chicken is food and also scared. It is a scared bird, no?"  To which we all had an "Ahhh, chicken, chicken" laugh.
   
   This tidbit is being shared with you because I spotted roasters on sale this week for 69 cents a pound, so it became a "chicken, chicken" week at my house. I really think we need to make up a new word for leftovers.  I enjoy taking leftovers and using them as material for another meal.  The first night we had roast chicken with mashed potatoes and broccoli.  The broth was put aside in the freezer to add to other recipes. Two nights later so it's not reruns every night, I tossed cubed chicken with leftover spaghetti, plain yogurt, mayonnaise, cheese, dill and garlic and baked it in the oven for a chicken casserole.  I sauteed up some green beans with garlic on the side.

    The chicken bones were boiled down for soup.  I have my own method for making soup using a steamer pot.  I find it easier than pulling bones out of the pot.  Once I get my broth ready, anything in the fridge is fair game to go in the pot.  This week, I found fresh carrots and celery, a cooked potato, leftover green beans, and corn.  I had overdone the garlic on the green beans so I didn't have to season the soup with much more than parsley.  I sometimes add a bay leaf as well.  Soup makes an excellent use of lots of bits of food and if you are lucky, you will have a bowl leftover for lunch!

Micky's Chicken Soup

  Place chicken carcass in a steamer inside the stockpot with celery leaves.  Cover and let it come to a boil.  After 20 minutes remove the steamer pot and let chicken cool about 5 minutes.  In the meantime, chop up any carrots, celery or fresh vegetables and add to the broth.  Pick the chicken into 3 bowls: good chicken for the soup, fatty chicken rejects and skin for the dog, and bones for the trash.  Believe me, the dog loves soup day.  Dump the chicken pieces in the pot and let it simmer for about an hour.  Add any cooked vegetables later so they don't turn to mush.  I've even used up cabbage after St. Patrick's day.  By cutting it into long strips the kids thought it was like noodles.  It's never the same soup twice since I throw in whatever is handy, but it is always a satisfying meal.