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

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!

Leftover Veggie Sauté over Quinoa

Leftover Veggie Sauté over Quinoa

So, I had some leftover veggie sauté from last night and my husband was working late so I was just cooking for me tonight (I had planned something else for my toddler). I decided to put this sauté over quinoa. The sauté kind of tasted like a stew and I like to put stews over white rice. Since I'm trying to limit my intake of white rice I decided to cook some quinoa in some chicken broth with ginger, salt, and pepper. I like to infuse my rice with powdered ginger so I just did that with the quinoa and it turned out pretty good!

Alana's Review

Ease: 5/5

Taste: 4/5

Comments: This was very tasty but very hearty, maybe a little too much so.  So I ate an apple after,  but I think a cool and light salad would go nice and would help break up the heaviness. 

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!

Balsamic Chicken with Cheddar Broccoli Quinoa

Balsamic Chicken with Cheddar Broccoli Quinoa, dinner

I had saved some balsamic chicken from the other night and froze it. I ended up using it sooner than I expected. I let it thaw in the fridge then shredded it and threw it in a skillet with chicken stock and vegetable stock. I threw in a splash of balsamic vinegar and a pinch of pepper and salt. I tasted it after it had cooked and it was a little too "zesty" for me, so I put in about a tbsp of honey and that made it perfect. The Cheddar Broccoli Quinoa was exactly that, quinoa (cooked with the two stocks mentioned above), cheddar, and broccoli.

Alana's Review

Ease: 5/5

Taste: 5/5

Comment: AMAZING. I had never tried quinoa before and I am always very skeptical of new foods, but this was such a great surprise. Even my husband commented that it was good. We were not healthy eaters (previously) so this was definitely a win. No suggested changes!

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.