Leftover Love

Leftover Love

So I came up with this great idea... have you ever had just one item left over after dinner? So it's like, what am I going to do with 1/4 cup of green beans? I have a solution... I have a "rolling" left overs container in my freezer. Obviously, some things can't go together, but for the most part, after the said left over item cools I just dump it in. Then when the container is full, it's time to wait. Wait until, you're in a rush and half tempted to grab some easy fast food. Boom, this is already waiting to save the day!

This particular potluck is: teriyaki chicken, cheesy quinoa, corn, Italian style green beans, and broccoli tots. I wouldn't say it was friggin amazing, bc it wasn't haha (let's be real). It was tasty enough though! And much better than eating bad for you food. Win-win! 

Alana's Review 

Ease: 5/5 (it literally cannot get easier than this)

Taste: varies (mine described above 3/5)

Comments: pepper, everything can use more pepper

Mussels in Tomato Broth

Mussels in Tomato Broth

One of my my favorite things to do is mosey on around the grocery store looking for food inspiration.  We have a fabulous local grocer here that carries an array of interesting items that you wouldn't find at Walmart or Target. I was walking around today and came upon some frozen mussels which reminded me of this delicious mussels and broth dish at a local restaurant in Virginia Beach. Mussels are pretty cheap, so I decided to try to recreate that dish with my own ingredients. 

Ingredients:

One 28 Oz can organic crushed fire roasted tomatoes

1 1/2 cups chicken broth

1 1/2 tsp garlic powder

1/4 tsp cayenne pepper

1 tsp thyme

1 tsp parsley 

S&P

8 Oz frozen pre cooked shell-less mussels, thawed

4 red potatoes

Handful of spinach

I started by cubing the potatoes and boiling until easily pierced with a fork, then I drained them. I then started warming the tomatoes over medium heat. I added the chicken broth, garlic, cayenne, thyme, parsley, and salt and pepper and brought to a simmer. Then I added the mussels, potatoes, and spinach. I tore the spinach before adding. Then I let it simmer for 5 more minutes until the mussels heated through, then served with slices of fresh sourdough.

It didn't taste like the mussels and broth at the restaurant (as I expected), but this did taste good and was a different dish than I usually make.

Sarah's Review 

Ease: 5/5

Taste: 4/5

Comments: Use fresh mussels if you can, the frozen have a different texture, kinda like chicken and a little grainy. Fresh tastes way better (if you can believe it ;). Also I would up the spices. I was a little shy with them since it was my first time making this dish, but it could definitely use more of the spices. 

Turkey Sammie

Turkey Sammie

There ain't a thing special or unique about this sandwich, but it was too pretty not to post. 

Chicken Tortellini Soup

Chicken Tortellini Soup

One thing you'll notice as you see more soup posts from me is that I really don't care for broth-y soups. I'm a hungry gal, and a bowl of broth with a few pieces of veggies or meat in it is NOT going to fill me up. I say this because it served as the inspiration for this chicken tortellini soup I made. I came across a picture of a chicken noodle soup-esque soup with tortellini in place of egg noodles, which sounded yummy. I started out making using its recipe but soon discovered that the amount of veggies and such were not enough to satisfy me, so I improvised and ended up making a soup of my own stuffed with delicious veggies and chicken and tortellini. Here's the recipe:

2 chicken large chicken breasts

3 medium carrots, sliced

2 stalks of celery, sliced

1 cup sliced portabella mushrooms

2 cloves garlic, minced

3 cans chicken broth with roasted vegetables (see my turkey meatball soup post about this wonderful broth)

1/2 cup water

2 bay leaves

2 tbsp dried onion flakes

1 tbsp dried parsley

1 7oz box dried multicolored cheese tortellini

Handful of fresh spinach

Start out by searing the chicken in a large pot over medium heat with a little olive oil. Once cooked through, take the chicken out and immediately put in the carrots and celery and cook until tender. Meanwhile, either shred or thinly slice the chicken. I decided to get fancy and thinly slice it. Once the veggies are tender, add the mushrooms and garlic and cook for about 2-3 minutes, until the mushrooms are starting to brown. Once all the veggies are cooked, add the broth, water, bay leaves, onion, and parsley. Turn the burner to medium-high heat and bring soup to a simmer. Once simmering, add the tortellini and cook at a simmer for 15 minutes, or until tortellini are fully cooked. A few minutes before serving, add the spinach and cook until wilted. Don't forget to take out the bay leaves before serving!

Sarah's Review

Ease: 4/5

Taste: 4/5

Comments: My boyfriend and I were split on the tortellini. I didn't like them at all, they had a weird, fake cheese flavor to them (they were clean and made with real parmesan though). My boyfriend did like them though, so let me know if you try them and what you think! Otherwise the soup was delicious. Next time I'll try another brand of tortellini (or maybe get crazy and make my own!).

Turkey Meatball Soup

Turkey Meatball Soup

My favorite thing to do is make a big pot of soup at the beginning of the week and take it to work for lunch throughout the week. Unfortunately, I'm super picky when it comes to soup so I usually stick to some variation of chicken noodle soup. Well, I decided I needed to jump out of my soupy comfort zone and try something new, so I decided on a turkey meatball soup (based off of this recipe: http://chefsavvy.com/recipes/turkey-meatball-vegetable-soup/). I'm not a big fan a ground turkey, but it's so much healthier than beef so went ahead and tried this soup anyways. I made the meatballs like the recipe says to but I also added some garlic powder to the meatball mixture to give it a little more flavor. My motto is you can never have too much garlic. After they were done, I added a head of chopped broccoli and 2 chopped carrots and sauteed those until they were tender. About halfway through I also added 4 big baby portabello mushrooms that I had sliced thin. Once the carrots started getting tender, I added the garlic, sauteed for a minute, then added 4 cups of chicken broth with roasted vegetables*, 1 cup water, and about 2 tbsp dried onion flakes. Once this started simmering I added a few dashes of black pepper, about 1 1/2 tbsp dried parsley, 1 tsp chili powder, 2 handfuls of spinach, and the meatballs I cooked earlier and let this cook until the spinach wilted. I then served with some fresh sourdough bread slices. 

This soup was quite tasty after I first cooked it, but it honestly was way better the subsequent days when I took it for lunch. The meatballs had soaked up more broth and all of the flavors had melded together beautifully. This soup is definitely going to overthrow my usual chicken noodle soup.

*So let me tell you about this broth. One day in Walmart I saw they had these cans of chicken broth with roasted vegetables on clearance, and since they hadn't expired I figured I'd give them a shot. These definitely lifted up this soup way more than normal chicken broth would have. It had a fantastic flavor and little bits of veggies in it. Now, a disclaimer, it's not really "clean" broth, but I'm not about to sit around making homemade broths so it will have to be a cheat. Feel free to add homemade broth to this soup, but I really think this broth is amazing and gave this soup a great flavor.

Sarah's Review

Ease: 3/5

Taste: 5/5

Pistachio Pesto Pizza

Pistachio Pesto Pizza

My favorite pizza is at a small pizzeria in Tulsa. It has tons of cheese and a pistachio pesto on it, and oh man, it is delicious. I love pesto, especially interesting ones that are based on ingredients other than the classic pesto, so I fell in love when I ate this pizza. Tulsa is a bit of a drive from Oklahoma City, so I decided to try a version of this pizza at home, and it turned out pretty tasty.

I made the pizza crust by mixing 1 cup plain nonfat greek yogurt and 1 1/2 cups all purpose flour, and kneading until a dough formed. I rolled it out to about 1/4 inch thickness and baked at 350 degrees for about 15 minutes, until it was cooked through. The toppings were a thin layer of all natural pasta sauce (not homemade, but it was made whole ingredients), small fresh mozzarella pearls, yellow sunburst tomatoes that I had roasted at 425 for about 10 minutes or so, and pistachio pesto (recipe below). I baked this at 375 for about 8 or so minutes, until the cheese melted. I was impressed with how the pesto came out and all of toppings tasted great together. It can't beat my favorite pizza in Tulsa, but it sure will hold me over in the meantime!

Pistachio Pesto

1/2 cup shelled pistachios

1/4 parmesan cheese

1/8 cup olive oil

2 tbsp water

1/2 garlic clove, minced

1 tbsp orange juice

Pinch of pepper (if pistachios are unsalted, add a pinch of salt)

Mix everything in a food processor or blender until smooth.

Sarah's Review

Ease: 3/5

Taste: 4/5

Suggestions: Everything on the pizza was fairly soft, so adding some fresh chopped pistachios on top would be delicious for a little crunch.

Leftover Gnocchi with Leftover Meat Sauce

Leftover Gnocchi with Leftover Meat Sauce

Sarah's Review

Ease: 5/5. 

Taste: 5/5. 

Comments: I'm surprised by how well the Gnocchi reheats, they're great to make in large batches and then just throw them and a sauce in a bowl for lunch. Easy and delicious!

Non-Fancy Sandwich

Sandwich

I'm going to just post what I ate today, even though there's nothing too special about it. I was trying to make lunch while trying to get my toddler fed. And it just so happened that my baby woke up about 10 minutes too early! I would have just skipped it, but I had already skipped breakfast because, well, you know... baby stuff. Just an fyi, health-wise, that is a super big no-no! So I had to eat something! Anyways...

It's super important to have healthy food staples on hand for times like this where you're in a pinch. While this isn't what I would consider ideal clean food, it was better than grabbing a burger. 

100% Whole Wheat Bread (to be honest, I am not a fan of whole wheat bread, but maybe eventually I will be)

Ham

Gouda Cheese Slices

Cherry Tomatoes

Alana's Review:

Ease: 5/5

Taste: 2/5

Comments: It was eh - If I had more time, I'd have put on some lettuce, tomato, and other toppings. I also need to pick up some less processed deli meat. 

Orange Garlic Salad w/ Steak and Croutons // Leftovers & Fruit Salad

Leftovers: Balsamic Chicken & Cheddar Broccoli Quinoa //  Fruit Salad, lunch

I'm posting mine first because it's super boring (but still amazingly delicious) and I don't want to follow the tough act below. =). I set aside some of last night's dinner for lunch today. I ate that with the pictured fruit. It looks like a lot, but I had planned to eat half at lunch, half later. But the raspberries were a little on the wrong side of ripe, so I had to throw those out.

Alana's Review

Ease: 5/5

Taste: 5/5

Comment: Leftovers are the best!

Orange Garlic Salad w/ Steak and Croutons 

There are only two types of salad I like: Caesar salad and dry salad. I've never been a sauce gal, I hate condiments, dressings, and everything of the like. Recently though I've been trying hard to branch out and try new sauces, like the lemon garlic aioli I made with the fish tacos. Well today I made a salad dressing. And not just any dressing, I made a vinaigrette!  (I HATE vinegar with a passion, can't stand the taste). With that in mind, this vinaigrette is lighter on the vinegar so you may need to add more than I did. 

Description: romaine salad with steak bites, croutons, and orange garlic vinaigrette. Recipe: 1/4 cup orange juice (I used fresh squeezed ), 1/4 cup olive oil, 4 tsp white wine vinegar, 1/2 tsp orange zest, 2 tsp dried parsley, 1 tsp garlic powder, pinch of salt and pepper. 

Sarah's Review

Ease: 4/5

Taste: 5/5

I thought the vinaigrette came out fantastic,  it had a light orange taste with a hint of garlic and a nice bite from the vinegar.  And you can never go wrong with steak, mine was a ribeye from my boyfriend's uncle's cattle farm, can't get fresher than that!

Stuffed Bell Pepper

I am all about using left overs and excess ingredients, so be prepared to see a lot of that in this blog! So this is a meal of left overs/excess!

Stuffed Bell Pepper, lunch

Ground turkey (from dinner last night), corn, cheddar cheese, stuffed in the green bell pepper (half of one because that's what I had on hand), topped with salsa with a side of cucumber. 

I originally was going to bake this but I had exactly 20minutes to cook and eat before I had to head out the door again (while feeding two kiddos). So I just microwaved the left over meat and corn.

Alana's Review

Ease: 5/5

Yum: 5/5

Suggestion:Use homemade salsa (again) but other than that, it was amazing.

Our Sad Salads

Tossed Salad with Orange Wedges

Incl: Romaine hearts, cucumbers, spinach, carrots, cherry tomatoes. (Left over salad from last night), and half an orange.
I also used Catalina dressing... this is not on my personal allowed list.. but the fact that Wendy's had burgers for 69cents today and I still ate a salad, we're going to just throw this into the win column and move on.

Alana's Review

Ease: 5/5

Yum: 2/5

Suggestion:  This was plain, boring, dull, so next time I need to spice it up and include a protein. 

Sarah said she thought I would be hungry again 30min after I ate this.. and she was right.. Whomp whomp...

Tossed Salad with Cheese & Crackers

Incl: Romaine and spinach salad with chia seed, garlic croutons, and 2tsp Caesar dressing.
Cheddar cheese and whole wheat crackers.

Sarah's Review

Ease: 5/5

Yum: 5/5

Suggestion:  Use homemade croutons and homemade dressing next time.