Archive for the ‘LEFTOVERS’ Category
Stuffed Bell Peppers II
I was inspired to write this recipe from two good friends. There is no quantities listed, this is make what you have from leftovers, and the possibilities are endless. I made a version of this on 24 Sep 2016 using leftover Creamed Beef SOS and some shredded Cheddar cheese. The photo is what I made and topped with a fried egg on top (unwritten rule for SOS). The ingredients are simple, bell peppers of your choice, red, yellow, or green, shredded cheese if you like, or ketchup if you prefer that, and of course leftovers. Link to the shortcut is listed in the Recipe Notes section.
Ingredients
- bell peppers, red, yellow, or green, up to you
- shredded cheese, Cheddar, Swiss, Mozzarell would be good choices
- leftovers, see Step 1
- tomato ketchup, OR make from a shortcut
Instructions
- First thing you need to do is determine how many peppers you based on your leftovers available. You can use anything, for some ideas, leftover SOS, Chili, Chili Mac, Chili and Rice, Stew, Sausage gravy, any casserole, you get the idea.
- Preheat your oven to 180 C. Get out a 9x13 baking dish or my favorite to use is bread pans, 2 peppers each.
- Cut the tops off the peppers, discard the stem section and dice the tops. You can do two things with the diced pepper tops, 1. you can add to your leftovers and they go in the peppers, or 2. save for an omelette for another day. Once the tops are cut off, remove the seeds and membranes inside. Don't worry if the pepper will not sit upright.
- Now stuffing the pepper, you have some choices, if you like cheese, you can fill each pepper with leftovers half full, add some shredded cheese of your choice, fill the pepper to the top and add more cheese on the top. If you prefer just ketchup which is equally as good, just fill each pepper and spread some ketchup on the top.
- Now for the peppers that do not want to stand up, and some leftovers to the bottom of the baking dish or bread pans and put the peppers in that, now you have the peppers and some baked leftovers to go on the side with the peppers.
- Bake for 30 minutes, you want the peppers to be tender and the top to be browned up a bit. Serve as is or as I prefer, cut a pepper in half and top with a fried egg.
- This is a yellow bell pepper that was stuffed with Creamed Beef SOS and topped with a fried egg.
Notes
No pricing for this, just the cost of the peppers and cheese, this is a Leftover meal since you have paid for the main meal already. If you went with ketchup instead of cheese, easily done, this is a very low cost way to use up leftovers.
Shortcut: Tomato Ketchup.
Provided courtesy of good friends, Lynn Batterman and Charles Knowlton.
United States.
United States.
Monte Cristo Sandwiches
A Monte Cristo sandwich is a cross between a grilled cheese sandwich and French toast in my opinion, but they are delicious none the less. For people in larger cities with a deli, you should be able to find sliced cooked turkey or chicken, or just substitute with leftover roasted turkey or chicken that you sliced or shredded.
Ingredients
- 8 slices thick cut bread
- deli ham, thin sliced
- Swiss cheese, thin sliced
- deli turkey, thin sliced
- 2 eggs
- 3/4 cup milk
- 1/4 cup butter
- 1/4 cup olive oil
- mayo, optional
- mustard, optional
Instructions
- In a shallow dish, mix together the eggs and milk. Heat a large non stick pan to medium heat and add the butter and olive oil.
- Build the sandwiches (optional to spread mayo on one slice of bread and mustard on the other slice, top and bottom), add some ham, cheese, and turkey, amounts are up to you.
- Now take a sandwich, dip one side in the egg mixture and remove, flip over and dip the other side, place in the hot pan. Cook until gold brown on one side then flip over and brown that side. Patience is needed, don't flip too early. Serve with home made fries for a complete meal.
Notes
I cannot price this as I am not sure of the amounts used, essentially you can make these from leftovers so this is really an economical meal. Be generous on the deli ham and turkey. If you cannot find deli turkey, go with left over turkey or chicken and just shred that.
Adapted from an internet recipe.
Chili Mac and Cheese Bake
Sounds really good!
Ingredients
- 1 1/2 cups dry elbow macaroni
- 1 cup flour
- 3/4 cup corn meal
- 3 tablespoons sugar
- 1 tablespoon baking powder
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 egg, lightly beaten
- 6 tablespoons butter, melted and cooled
- 2/3 cup milk
- 2 cups Cheddar cheese, shredded
- 2 1/2 - 3 cups leftover Chili, slightly warmed
Instructions
- Preheat your oven to 220 C. Lightly grease a 9x9 baking dish with butter.
- Cook the pasta but reduce the time by 1 to 2 minutes, drain and set aside.
- When the pasta is cooking, in a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, corn meal, sugar, salt, and baking powder. Add the egg, melted butter, and milk, mix until just incorporated, it will be lumpy, that is ok.
- Spread the pasta evenly on the bottom of the baking dish then top with the cheese, then top that with the warmed chili (warming it makes it easy to spread). Now spread the corn bread batter evenly over the top.
- Bake for 25-35 minutes or until corn bread is golden brown and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Serve.
Notes
The chili is already paid for, your major cost here would be the cheese, figure that at about 180 Baht/block to make 2 cups of shredded. So for 4 servings, this is about $1.33 per serving, or about 90 cents per serving for 6 servings if stretching this meal out with a green salad on the side. Overall, a good use for leftover Chili.
Adapted from an internet recipe.
Sloppy Joe Grilled Cheese
Or Grilled Cheese Sloppy Joe. I normally have a thick slice of onion with my Sloppy Joe sandwich, some people use a slice of cheese. But cooking like a Grilled Cheese, this is interesting. This recipe, more of a guide than a recipe, is for one sandwich. Think leftovers.
Ingredients
- 1/2 cup Sloppy Joe mix, leftovers are perfect for this, cold
- Cheddar cheese, real cheese, sliced thin, as needed
- 2 slices bread
- butter
Instructions
- Spread butter on one side of each piece of bread. Place one piece of bread, butter side down in your heated frying pan.
- Place on slices of real cheese on the piece of bread. Top with leftover Sloppy Joe mix (cold works best, so that you can spread it evenly without it sliding out). Top with remaining slices of cheese and piece of bread, butter side up.
- Cook until the first side is golden brown. Flip sandwich and cook until the second side is equally golden brown. Enjoy.
Notes
Actually, not that really an inexpensive meal, real cheese is the costly part, as the Sloppy Joe mix was already prepared. This would be about 75 cents to $1 per sandwich.
Provided courtesy of good friend, Mike Early.
United States.
United States.
Chicken Loaf
This is a great way to use leftover chicken or turkey or use purposely cooked chicken to make this. This is great for sandwiches that do not spill the contents on to your plate. You can make this plain or with what ever you wish to add. This is a must try for me as I love chicken sandwiches. No quantity is listed as to what this makes as the original instructions were quite unclear. I will make this and add step by step photos as well. This recipe is for purpose cooked chicken for this, but after you read through the instructions, it will be clear on how to use a leftover chicken or turkey.
Ingredients
Cooking the Chicken
- 6 chicken quarters, seperated for legs and thighs, skin on and bone in
- 1 cup celery, roughly chopped
- 1 onion, roughly chopped
- 1 teaspoon ground white pepper
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 2 bay leaves
Making the Loaf
- 1 cup red bell pepper, diced
- 1 tablespoon fresh parsley, finely chopped
- 2 tablespoons unflavored gelatin, this is Agar powder, very common
Instructions
Cooking the Chicken
- Add the chicken to a large pot and fill with water to cover the chicken by an inch or so. Add the celery, onion, white pepper, salt and bay leaves. Bring to a boil then put on simmer until the chicken can be pulled from the bones with a fork. DO NOT cook this until the chicken is falling off the bone, just simmer until the chicken is done.
- Remove the chicken from the pot when cooked through and strain the liquid (see, you just made chicken stock). Reserve the stock. When the chicken as cooled enough to handle, remove the meat from the bones, save the bones and skin for your dog. Make sure you remove all cartilage, skin, and fat from the meat. Once it is all separated, chop the meat slightly for small pieces, like you would for a chicken sandwich.
- Mix the meat and bell pepper and parsley together. and pack into a loaf pan (this can be a non-stick metal pan or even a glass loaf pan).
Making the Loaf
- Mix the gelatin with 1/4 cup cold water and stir until the lumps have dissolved. In a small pot, add the gelatin mixture and add 2 cups of stock you made and heat this on low temp until the gelatin is completely dissolved.
- Pour this mixture into the loaf pan to completely cover the chicken, if you do not have enough liquid, make another batch of the gelatin/stock mixture.
- Once the liquid covers the chicken, allow to cool, then place in the refrigerator. Once the loaf has gelled solidly, it is ready to use. One option is to slice and serve as is on a bed of lettuce with chopped tomatoes, another option is to slice and simply make sandwiches using bread of your choice, a few lettuce leaves, and lots of mayo.
Notes
Chicken quarters run about 62 Baht/kilo, you might have 120 Baht invested in 6 quarters. At 120 Baht, this about 90 cents per meal assuming 4 meals from this. More accurate pricing when I make this.
Adapted from an internet recipe.
Macaroni And Cheese Ham Pie
This sounds really good, a must try for me. Link to the shortcut is listed in the Recipe Notes section.
Ingredients
- 1 cup dry elbow macaroni
- 3 cups Cheddar cheese, shredded (this 1 1/2, 250 gram blocks)
- 1 cup cooked ham, cubed
- 2 1/4 cups milk
- 2 eggs
- 1/2 cup Bisquick Mix, OR make from a shortcut
- salt and pepper, to taste
- fresh parsley, chopped, optional
Instructions
- Heat your oven to 200 C. Lightly grease a glass deep dish pie pan or 9x13 baking dish with butter. In large bowl, mix 2 cups of the cheese, the ham and uncooked macaroni. Spread in the baking dish.
- Mix milk and eggs until smooth. Add Bisquick mix and salt if desired; mix until smooth (you can use a blender for this if you want. Pour over mixture in baking dish.
- Bake 35 to 40 minutes or until knife inserted in center comes out clean. Sprinkle with remaining cheese. Bake 1 to 2 minutes longer or until cheese is melted. Let stand 10 minutes before serving. Sprinkle with parsley. Serve with a green vegetable for a complete meal.
Notes
Cheese is the major cost here at 185 Baht/250 gram block, this will take 1 1/2 blocks, about 278 Baht for cheese. The ham would be another cost factor. If using leftover ham, that would be perfect. Store bought ham, Makro is between 150 to 200 Baht for 500 grams, about 140 grams would be needed here so we'll call that, 80 Baht. About 360 for cheese and ham or about $1.75 per person for six meals.
For variants, add a chopped onion, broccoli, or even try with cooked and chopped chicken.
Shortcut: Bisquick Mix.
Provided courtesy of good friend, Denise Georgiades.
South Africa.
South Africa.
Indonesian Fried Rice
This is a classic Indonesian version of fried rice, simple but hearty, serve as a side dish or as a main dish. The purpose of fried rice is to use leftovers, not only does it reuse food, it prevents wasted food.
Ingredients
- 2 cups cooked white rice, add another cup to stretch this if you like
- 3 eggs, beaten
- 1 onion, chopped
- 1 leek, chopped
- 1 clove garlic, smashed and minced
- 2 fresh green chili peppers, chopped
- 200 grams chicken breast, cut into bite size pieces, (7 oz)
- 200 grams prawn/shrimp, head and tail removed, peeled, (7 oz)
- 1 tablespoon ground cumin
- 3 tablespoons sweet soy sauce
- olive oil
- cucumber, sliced, for garnish
- tomato, cut into wedges, for garnish
Instructions
- Heat a large nonstick skillet with a splash of olive oil. Pour eggs into hot skillet. Cook until the eggs begin to set. Flip omelet in one piece and cook until fully set, about 30 seconds. Slice omelet into 1/2 inch strips. Set aside.
- Heat a tablespoon or so olive oil in a wok (preferred) or large frying pan. Stir in the onion, leek, garlic, & chile peppers. Cook, stirring until onion is soft. Stir in the chicken, prawns, coriander, and cumin, mixing well. Cook and stir for approximately 5 minutes.
- Mix in the rice, sweet soy sauce, and omelet strips; cook until shrimp are bright pink and chicken is no longer pink in the center, 3 to 5 minutes. Serve on a platter, garnish with cucumber slices and tomato wedges.
Notes
The ingredients are minimal cost at best, and if you have leftover roast chicken or leftover prawns, even better and nearly zero cost for this dish.
Variants: 1. Omit the omelet slices and cook as listed, then top each plate with a fried egg. 2. Add chopped leftover vegetables. 3. No prawn or chicken on hand? Use any meat you have, keep in mind leftovers, perfect use and less waste.
Bangers & Mash Rolls
I do love a good plate of Bangers & Mash with a side peas and a bowl of onion gravy. Here is a twist on the common sausage roll to include mash as well. Bangers being thick pork sausages and mash being mashed potatoes. This is a must do for me, and I will take photos as well.
Ingredients
- 4 thick pork sausages, aka Bangers
- 1 package puff pastry
- 1 egg, beaten
- mashed potatoes, cold, can even be leftovers
Instructions
- Preheat your oven to 190 C. Lightly grease a baking sheet.
- Brown the Sausages on all sides in a large skillet - until mostly cooked through. Set aside to cool slightly.
- Unroll a sheet of puff pastry and cut into 4 pieces. Spread mash down the center of each pastry, top with cooked sausage and add additional mash to the top and sides. Roll up each sheet - pinch together to seal and trim off any excess. Place on the baking sheet - seam side down - and brush each roll with beaten egg.
- Bake in the oven for 25-30 minutes - until the pastry is golden and crispy on all sides and the meat has cooked through. Serve with a side of Onion Gravy as a dipping sauce. Enjoy!
Notes
Thick pork sausages, Bangers, run about 200-250 Baht for 10 sausages in Makro. 4 sausages (figured at 250 Baht) would be about 100 Baht, for 2 servings this is about $1.50 per person, more than reasonable.
Variants to this would be to add shredded Cheddar cheese to the top before rolling.
Adapted from an internet recipe.
