I know fish is healthy for you, and I try to feed it to my family, but unfortunately they only like it when it's fried shrimp or sushi. For just about as many meals as I've made with fish, I've gotten just as many no thank yous. However, tonight that changed!!! I got sneaky with my cooking. My lovely children consumed tuna taquitos tonight quite happily. They weren't even fried! I hope you can trick your family into eating this delicious fish meal too :) Enjoy!
Italian Taquitos
Ingredients:
1 Can Tuna, drained
1 Can Beans, drained (I used Kidney beans)
1/2 Cup Cooked White Rice
1/8 Cup Italian Salad Dressing (I used Ken's Northern Italian)
1/4 Cup Diced Onions
1/3 Cup Diced Green Peppers
1 TBSP Mayonnaise
1 Tsp Dried Basil
1/2 Tsp Salt
1 Heaping Tsp Minced Fresh Garlic
1 and 2/3 Cup Shredded Mexican Cheese
12 to 15 corn tortillas
1. Mix together tuna, beans, white rice, Italian dressing, onions, green peppers, mayo, basil, salt, garlic and 1 Cup of the shredded cheese.
2. Preheat oven to broil- high. Place oven rack on the second to lowest level. Spray a large baking sheet liberally with non-stick spray.
3. Wrap 3-5 corn tortillas in a damp pamper towel and microwave for about 45 minutes. They need to be flexible so you can wrap them easily without the corn tortillas cracking. Uncover one at a time. Lay a large spoonful (about 1 and 1/2 to 2 TBSP) of tuna mix on one end and roll. Lay taquito folded side down on baking sheet. Continue with the rest of the tortillas, heating up more when needed. If you have any mix left, push a bit more into the ends of the taquitos.
3. When finished folding, spray taquitos with another liberal spray of non-stick spray. Broil in the oven for 10 minutes. After 10 minutes, sprinkle the remaining 2/3 cup of shredded cheese on top. Turn off the oven and let them sit in there for 5 minutes until cheese is melted. Serve with a side of salsa.
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I love the Superbowl- not necessarily for the football but because of all the wonderful leftovers you can use in recipes afterwards! Here's one for your leftover bits of dip. I used a ranch dip in our Crescent Cups but you can use dill, french onion, bacon cheddar or what every kind of dip you have leftover and your family loves. Enjoy!
Ham and Broccoli Crescent Cups
Ingredients:
1 Cup Chopped Ham
1 Cup Chopped Broccoli, cooked
3 TBSP Dip (ranch, dill, french onion, bacon cheddar, etc.)
1 Egg
1/2 Cup Shredded Cheddar Cheese
1 Tube Crescent Rolls
1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Mix together ham, broccoli, dip, egg, and cheddar cheese in a large mixing bowl.
2. Spray a 12 muffin, regular size muffin pan with Pam. Unroll crescent rolls. Take each triangle, and make it into a triangular cup (see picture, use long perforated side to join together). Place into muffin pan. Fill with ham and broccoli mix.
3. Bake at 375 for 14 to 15 minutes. Let sit for 5 minutes to set before serving. Makes 8 Cups.
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Good Afternoon What's for Leftovers readers! This past weekend, I wasn't feeling well, so my fabulous brother brought my family dinner from Concetta's. Now, if you've ever been to Concetta's, you know how great their Italian food is. He brought salads, lasagna, and bread. Yum! Concetta's house salad dressing is a creamy parmesan dressing. It is delicious and very fresh. There were 2 giant containers of this dressing. It was way more dressing than we could ever use on the salads. Since it was fresh, I knew the dressing would not be good for very long. To use up a whole bunch of it, I made it into a dip last night. The dip was great and it was a perfect addition to chips and carrot sticks I served with our hamburgers at dinner. This recipe makes about a cup of dip. If you're going to serve it at a party, I would double the dip.
Creamy Parmesan Dip
Ingredients:
1/2 Cup Creamy Parmesan Salad Dressing (You could also use Creamy Italian or Ranch)
1/3 Cup Cream Cheese or Neufchatel Cheese
1/4 Cup Mayonnaise
1 TBSP Onion Soup Dip Mix
1 TBSP Taco Seasoning
1. Let cream cheese sit on counter until softened.
2. Mix together salad dressing, cream cheese, and mayonnaise until smooth. Add onion soup mix and taco seasoning. Serve with chips or fresh vegetables.
Happy rainy Monday!
Last weekend we had a really fun engagement party for my sister Jen and her fiance Austin. As with most parties, there was a ton of food leftover. Lucky for us, my mom brought a whole bunch of the leftovers to my house. Jen had made this really fantastic tasting, simple to make, Pesto Dip for the party. I added some half and half to it to turn it into a creamy dressing for a pasta salad. The pasta salad can be served warm or cold, depending upon what your family likes. Here's the dip recipe, plus the Pesto Pasta Salad recipe. This way you can plan your leftover meal in advance! Enjoy!
Jen's Pesto Dip
Ingredients:
Half a Jar of Pesto
1/2 cup (or so) chopped roasted red pepper
1 Bar of Cream Cheese
3/4 Cup Chopped Walnuts
Combine pesto and cream cheese, add peppers and walnuts.
Serve with crackers or french bread
Pesto Pasta Salad
Ingredients:
1 and 1/8 Cup of Pesto Dip
3/8 Cup Half & Half
1 TBSP Dried Minced Onion
4 Cups Cooked Pasta
3 Roma Tomatoes, Chopped
2 oz Mozzarella Cheese (shredded or cubed)
1/2 Cup Turkey or Ham Lunchmeat, Chopped
2 and 1/2 Cups Cooked Cauliflower, Chopped*
1. Mix together pesto dip, half & half and minced onion until creamy.
2. In large bowl, stir together cooked pasta, tomatoes, mozzarella cheese, lunchmeat and cauliflower. Pour dressing on top and mix.
*If your family does not like cauliflower, substitute 2 and 1/2 cups of peas and chopped green peppers.
This weekend, our good friends Mark and Danielle got married. They had a beautiful wedding and reception. We had a blast! Andy and I were lucky enough to get to go to the rehearsal dinner as well. It was at Casa Gallardo since Mark is from Texas. They served us a fabulous meal of margaritas, queso, chips and fajitas. There was so much food to eat and leftover. At the end of the meal, my lovely husband had all the leftover fajita fixings and tortillas boxed up for What's for Leftovers? Lukily we were with great friends, they just laughed at us as we left with our three boxes. Tonight we used the leftovers to make Gigantic Nachos. They were a perfect way to top off our fiesta filled weekend!
Gigantic Nachos
Ingredients:
6 Small Flour Tortillas
1 Can Refried Beans
4 Packets Taco Bell Sauce
2 Cups Fajita Meat and Veggies
3/4 Cup Shredded Cheese
Salsa (optional)
Sour Cream (optional)
1. Preheat your oven to 350 degrees.
2. Warm up refried beans in a small pot. Mix in the four packets of Taco Bell Sauce.
3. Chop up fajita meat and veggies into bite-sized pieces. Warm these up in a separate frying pan.
4. Cut each flour tortilla into 4 triangles. Heat a thin layer of oil in a large frying pan. Fry tortilla chips in pan until golden brown on both sides. Lay on a paper towel to drain off excess oil.
5. Spray a large baking sheet with Pam. Apply a thin layer of refried beans to each tortilla triangle. Put on baking sheet in a single layer.
6. Add a layer of fajita fixings and shredded cheese to each triangle.
7. Put in the oven and bake at 350 degrees for 10 minutes. Cheese should be melted when finished. Top off with sour cream and salsa and enjoy.
When I was in college, my friend Christy used to make this great dip. She would bring it to all our sorority get-togethers and it was known as Christy's dip. When I looked in the fridge tonight, I realized I had a whole bunch of little bits in there: a little bit of mayo, a little bit of cheese and a little bit of sour cream. I tried to recreate Christy's dip with it. It didn't turn out exactly the same, but it was still yummy! Serve it with salsa and tortilla chips and it's an instant party.
Christy's Dip
Ingredients:
3/4 Cup Cream Cheese
1/3 Cup Sour Cream
1/4 Cup Mayonnaise
1 Pack Taco or Burrito Seasoning
1/2 TBSP Onion Soup Mix
1 Cup Shredded Cheddar Cheese
1/2 Cup Chopped Black Olives
1 Cup Thick Salsa
Mix together cream cheese, sour cream and mayo until smooth. Add taco seasoning and onion soup mix. Stir until mixed in. Finally mix in cheddar cheese, black olives, and salsa. Serve with tortilla chips and salsa.
Happy Super Bowl Day! We are having our neighbors over tonight to watch the big game. So, I've been working on some snacks for us to eat. Of course one of my main ingredients is leftovers! I turned the dollar rolls from my birthday into bread dippers for our spinach dip. They are really tasty and easy to eat so you can still pay attention to the game. They're also a leftover you can make into a new dish! If you have any of these leftover, turn them into breadcrumbs by throwing them into your food processor or cut them up into croutons for your salads. In not so recent news, Kurt Warner has decided to retire from football at age 38. I guess he decided he was too old to undergo another season of being chased down by guys like DeMarcus Ware. As a Rams fan, I would like to take this opportunity to say farewell to Kurt, who took our rams to two Super Bowls and won one. Look on the bright side Kurt, at least you can 'pass' these wonderful snacks out for Super Bowls to come!
Dinner Roll Dippers
Ingredients:
Dollar Rolls
Olive Oil
Garlic Powder
Salt
Italian Seasoning
Cut each dollar roll into four circular slices. Coat a large frying pan with a thick (1/4" to 1/3") layer of oil and heat up. Place bread in frying pan after oil is heated. Fry side of bread until crispy and light brown, then flip. Right after flipping, season cooked side with a little salt, garlic powder and Italian seasoning. When sprinkling Italian seasoning, roll it between your fingers a little, so it crushes and is finer. Take out of pan when other side is toasted. Cover a large plate with a paper towel for olive oil to drain on. Place finished toasted rolls on plate and season other side. Let cool and enjoy with dip.
Hi all! I am so blessed to get to stay home with Celia and Charlie two days during the week. Even on the craziest days, I love it. Today was one of those days! So when Andy walked in the door tonight, I was happy to turn our two little hoodlums over to him to start cooking. My brother gave me a filet mignon that he had leftover from the other night when he bar-b-qued and I had some ground turkey leftover from our pizza pie. I made these into Fajita Style Nachos. They were delicious and would be great for a Super Bowl Party! Comer con gusto!
Fajita Style Nachos
Ingredients:
1/2 Large Onion- Chopped
1 Large Green Pepper- Chopped
1/2 Packet Taco Seasoning
2 Cups Cooked Chopped Meat (I used 1 cup filet mignon and 1 cup ground turkey)
1 Can Beans- Drained (I used small white beans)
1 TBSP Dried Cilantro
1 TBSP Minced, Refrigerated Garlic
Tortilla Chips
1 Cup Shredded Cheese
Sliced Black Olives
Sour Cream
Salsa
Jalapenos (optional)
Spray a large frying pan with no stick cooking spray. Add onions and green peppers to the pan. Add 3/4 cup of water to the pan. Next add taco seasoning and saute until peppers start to turn bright green and onions are becoming translucent. Add meat, beans, cilantro and garlic to the pan. Cook until very little liquid remains. Heat oven to 350 degrees. Spray a large baking sheet with a rim (so the beans and meat won't fall all over your counter). Spread out a heavy layer of tortilla chips onto the baking sheet. Spoon meat and bean mixture all over the chips. Sprinkle shredded cheese on top of the meat and beans. Cook in the oven until cheese is completely melted. Add black olives, sour cream, jalapenos and salsa when serving.
