Andy's Granny came into town tonight. I've known about this visit for weeks, but I still hadn't pre-thought dinner. After work, I ran home before picking up Celia and Charlie to fix something really quickly. Luckily, I had a whole ham thawed out. My friend Leighanne had given me a 2 liter of Cherry Coke Zero the other night. I looked at the ham, I looked at the soda and I thought hmmmm....
Baked Ham and Sweet Carrots
Ingredients:
1 Ham (mine was 6lbs)
1 Pound of Carrots
1 Medium Onion
3/4 Cup of Cherry Coke Zero (or regular Cherry Coke)
1/4 Cup Jelly (use a berry or grape based jelly, I used black currant jelly)
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. Put ham in a large roasting pan.
3. Peel and chop carrots and onion into large chunks. Put around ham.
4. In a separate bowl, whisk together jelly and Cherry Coke Zero. Pour over ham and veggies when finished.
5. Bake in the oven for 1 and 1/2 to 2 hours. Dish is finished when carrots are tender.
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I love the weekends. It's so fun to make my family new and interesting breakfast dishes. This weekend I stuffed regular canned biscuits to make something different. They must've been a big hit because a couple of hours later Celia came up to me and said she wanted some more of those biscuit balls. Sadly, I had to tell her she had ate them all. Next weekend I'm going to stuff the biscuits with ham and cheese. I can't wait to see if everyone will like that version as much. I was able to figure out the calories and fat for this dish. Each biscuit has about 70 calories and 2 fat grams (I rounded up a bit), so you can enjoy more than one :)
**If you want to double this recipe, don't double the egg. One egg is enough to dip two cans of biscuits in. I used black currant jelly, but feel free to use any kind of jelly your family likes. Or, stuff the biscuits with ham and cheddar cheese, or mushrooms and goat cheese if you want to get fancy. The possibilities are endless, yet so easy to make!
Black Currant Stuffed Biscuits
Ingredients:
1 and 1/2 Oz Cream Cheese (I used neufchatel cream cheese)
1 Tube Small Biscuits
1 Egg
Jelly (I used Black Currant Jelly)
1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Spray baking sheet with non-stick spray.
2. In a small bowl, beat egg.
3. Cut cream cheese into the same number of small squares as your biscuits. (My tube of biscuits had 10, so I cut my cheese into 10 small squares.)
4. Put 2 biscuits between a piece of wax paper. Roll them out flat with a rolling pin. Put a piece of cream cheese in the middle of the biscuit. Put a spoonfull of jelly (1/4 to 1/2 tsp) on top of cream cheese. Roll biscuit up. Then fold sides up to form a little ball. See pictures of how to do this. Try to close seam as tightly as possible so jelly doesn't ooze
out too much.
I love when the unexpected turns out great. Yesterday Andy and I wanted to have an easy dinner without a lot of fuss. He was talking about Taco Bell, but I had just gone major grocery shopping the other day. Plus, ever since we've made friends with our neighbor Mathilde, Taco Bell just doesn't sound that great. Mathilde's authentic Mexican food is to die for! So I talked Andy out of Taco Bell and set out to make something easy. I knew I needed to use up some ham, but I was tired of my regular leftover ham recipes. Instead, I looked around and came up with this curry noodle dish. It was amazing: one of the best pastas I've ever made and oh so simple. The egg noodles have great substance and the scent of the curry powder will make your house smell great! If you want yours to have a little more bite, add some red pepper to your dish. Enjoy!
Curry Noodles with Summer Squash
Ingredients:
8 oz Egg Noodles*
2 Cups Chopped Ham
1 Medium Yellow Squash
1 Medium Zucchini
1 and 1/2 Cups Water
1 TBSP Dried Minced Onion
1/2 TBSP Curry Powder
1 and 1/2 TBSP Cream Cheese
3 Oz Plain Yogurt
2 Chopped Roma Tomatoes
1. Put water in a medium sized soup pan on stove top and bring to a boil.
2. While water is starting to boil, chop ham, squash and zucchini. Put in a separate medium sized soup pan. Add water, dried onion, cream cheese, yogurt and curry powder to pan. Turn heat on high right before putting egg noodles into boiling water. Bring to a boil and turn down to medium heat. Continue stirring while cooking so sauce won't burn on the bottom.
3. Follow directions on egg noodles. Cook until al dente. When finished cooking, drain water and put back into pan. Turn stove off under noodles.
4. Right before mixing sauce in with noodles, take out a large spoon full of sauce and mix a teaspoon of flour with liquid to form a paste. Pour paste back into sauce and bring sauce to a boil, stirring frequently. (This will thicken your sauce up a bit.) Pour sauce over noodles, turn heat back on and bring to a boil, stirring. Turn off heat and let sit covered for 5 to 10 minutes.
* I used specialty, dried egg noodles (from Aldis). If you don't have these, I reccomend the type you buy from the freezer.
With Spring here and fruit and vegetable stands popping up all over the place, I'm in the mood for some salad. For the first time ever, I've planted some plants. Hopefully this summer, we'll have a ton of peppers, lettuce, onions, and raspberries. Celia and Charlie had a great time helping me plant the seeds. Now I just have to keep them out of the dirt long enough to let my little plants grow! Here's a deliciously fresh tasting Balsamic Cucumber Tomato Salad. I used dried basil, but if you have fresh basil, it will taste even better!
Balsamic Cucumber Tomato Salad
Ingredients:
3 and 1/2 Cups Chopped Tomatoes (I used Roma and Cherry tomatoes)
1 Large Cucumber
1/3 Cup Diced Onion
4 oz Diced Mozzerella Cheese
3/4 TBSP Dried Basil
1 TBSP Minced, Refrigerated Garlic
1 TBSP Honey
2/3 Cup Balsamic Vinaigrette Salad Dressing
Salt (optional)
Pepper (optional)
1. Chop tomatoes and cucumber. Put them into a medium-sized bowl. Dice onion and cut mozzerella cheese into cubes. Add to bowl.
2. In a separate bowl, mix together basil, garlc, honey and salad dressing. Pour over salad and stir.
3. Salt and pepper to taste.
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We had some awesome enchiladas at the birthday party we went to this past weekend. Our host, Kimberly, sent us home with some, but they're never as good reheated as they are originally. Instead, I made them into a really creamy casserole. Your family won't even know that this dish has leftovers in it, if you don't tell them!
Enchilada Casserole
Ingredients:
4 Large Enchiladas
1 Can Beans, drained (I used black eye peas, but any kind of beans would work)
1/2 Cup Mexican Rice
1/2 Cup Salsa
1/3 Cup Cream Cheese
1 Egg
1 Can Cream of Mushroom Soup
1 and 1/2 TBSP Taco Seasoning
1/4 Cup Mayonnaise
3 to 4 Roma Tomatoes
1/4 Cup Chopped Onion
1/2 to 1 Cup Cheddar Cheese
Lettuce
Fresh Cilantro
Diced Tomatoes
1. Preheat oven to 35o degrees. Spray a square (8x8 or 9x9) glass baking pan with non-stick spray.
2. Cut enchiladas into 1/2" circles. Place circles on bottom of baking pan, touching each other.
3. In separate bowl, mix together beans, rice, salsa, cream cheese, egg, cream of mushroom soup, taco seasoning and mayo. When finished, pour on top of enchilada circles.
4. Cut tomatoes into thin slices. Sprinkle onions on top of casserole. Put tomato slices on top of onions.
5. Chop up some lettuce, cilantro and tomatoes. Mix together and set aside.
6. Bake in the oven for 30 minutes. After 30 minutes, pour a layer of cheese on top and broil for 5 minutes. Let sit for 5-10 minutes. Top individual servings with lettuce mixture. Serves 4 to 6 people.
Last night Andy and I got to go out and hang out with other adults and play games- Woohoo! Woohoo! We had a fabulous time at our friend Mike's surprise birthday party. We left Celia and Charlie at home with a sitter. I wanted to make sure they had a special night too, so I made them a yummy dessert, which took me a total of 7 minutes to make!!!! It was great. You can easily serve this at a large party by doubling the recipe. I put my Fluff on top of slices of angel food cake, but it would also be really good on those dessert cups or pound cake. Let me know what your family thinks when you try this recipe :)
Sweet Cream Fluff
Ingredients:
1 Cup Fruit Cocktail in Pear Juice (Use fruit and juice)
1/2 Can Sweetened Condensed Milk
1/2 Cup Vanilla Soymilk
1 Pack Instant Vanilla Pudding
2 Cups Chopped, Fresh Strawberries
1. Mix together fruit cocktail, sweetened condensed milk, soymilk, and instant pudding.
2. Add chopped strawberries and mix.
3. Put Fluff onto large slices of Angel Food Cake and serve. Makes enough for 6 to 8 cakes.
I think when you have children, your idea of relaxation changes. At least this is what has happened to me. Before children, to relax, I used to sleep in late, watch movies, get a pedicure, go out to eat, even go on vacation. All of this has changed! Today to relax, I'll drink a diet pepsi on the back porch while Andy gives the kids a bath. Or, I'll go get the mail, BY MYSELF :) I like to walk around my house and look at plants I never would have noticed before I had children. Anything for five minutes of quiet. Instead of watching movies, we now watch episodes of shows on Hulu. They don't take as long. This applies to my cooking too- I'm always thinking fast and easy. But I also want my cooking to be delicious, economical and kid friendly. That's quite a list to fulfill for every meal, however this recipe fits it to a T. Creamy Sausage and Potato Supper. It's a one pot meal that I served with a side of strawberries. It's healthy and delicious. I hope you and your family love it!
This weekend my wise, older brother turned 33. Yea Mike! My mom and dad threw him a really fun surprise party with lots of family and friends. We were fortunate enough to be the beneficiaries of some really yummy food leftover from the party. Lately, we've been so busy that I really haven't had a lot of time to cook. On Monday I looked into our fridge and knew I needed to cook a lot! Our fridge was stocked with food. So, from the leftover French Onion Dip was born Mini Turkey and Broccoli Cannelloni. I made them with a red sauce, but I think they would be even more delicious if you used a white alfredo sauce.
Mini Turkey and Broccoli Cannelloni
Ingredients:
1 Box Manicotti Noodles
1 Lb Ground Turkey
1 Package Chopped Frozen Broccoli
1/2 Cup French Onion Dip
1 Cup Ricotta Cheese
1 Bag Mozzarella Cheese
1/2 Cup Parmesan Cheese
1 Egg
1 and 1/2 Jars Red Spaghetti Sauce or 2 Jars Alfredo Sauce (or a combination of the two)
1. Boil manicotti noodles following the directions on the box. When finished, drain water and cut noodles in half.
2. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
3. Cook broccoli in microwave for 5 minutes. Let cool when finished. If there are any large pieces, chop them up.
4. In a large bowl, mix together ground turkey, broccoli, french onion dip, ricotta cheese, 3/4 bag of mozzarella cheese, parmesan cheese and the egg.
5. Spread a thick layer of spaghetti or alfredo sauce on the bottom of two medium sized baking dishes. Stuff manicotti noodles with turkey mixture and place in baking dishes. Cover finished noodles with remaining sauce.
6. Bake covered for 35 minutes. Add remaining mozzarella cheese and a sprinkle of parmesan cheese to the top of the noodles. Cook for 5 more minutes uncovered. Let cool before serving.
Our first What's for Leftovers reader has submitted a recipe! I love that when Danielle saw leftover chips in her work breakroom, she thought about our WFL site. Together we're saving money and resources!!! Read Danielle's story and recipe below. When we move to our new site, http://www.whatsforleftovers.com/, I'll have a section for readers to submit their recipes for everyone to try. In the meantime, email your recipes to andreablevins@hotmail.com and I'll post the recipes for you. Make sure you post comments on What's for Leftovers or on our Facebook page to let Danielle know how much you love her recipe :)
What to do with Leftover Ruffled Potato Chips
Our work had a birthday treats day last Friday and I brought a lot of different things. One of the many things I took in was Ruffled Potato Chips and dip. When I came back to the lounge at the end of the day, the dip was gone. About a serving or two of non broken chips were left and about a cup or so of broken chips. I’ve been reading your blog and I thought what a waste. So, I took a Ziploc bag and took them home. I searched your blog and of all of the yummy recipes I couldn’t find one. I had a feeling that potato chips would be yummy on top of a tuna casserole. Went to my pantry and fridge and some of my normal ingredients were not there. This is what I found.
Crunchy Tuna Noodle Casserole
Ingredients:
1 can (10 ¾ oz) of Campbell’s Healthy Request Cream of Mushroom
1 can (10 ¾ oz) of Campbell’s Healthy Request Cream of Chicken
1 can (10 ¾ oz) of Campbell’s Great for Cooking Cheddar Cheese
1 bag (12 oz) of Egg Free Wide Pasta Ribbons
1 bag (16 oz) Frozen California Medley
1 cup of Shredded Cheese
1 cup of crushed up Ruffled Potato chips
2 cans of Star-Kist Tuna in water (about 12 oz together)
Salt and Pepper to Taste
1. Take Frozen Vegetables and sit out to thaw.
2. Take 3 quarts of water, bring to boil. Add noodles and stir occasionally for 5-7 minutes. Do not let noodles get too tender. Drain water and noodles into a colander. Do not rise noodles.
3. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F. In the same pot as noodles were cooked in, add the can of Cream of Mushroom, Cream of Chicken and Cheddar Cheese. Mix together. Add Salt and pepper to taste. Mix in drained tuna and thawed out Vegetables. Mix in noodles. Pour mixture into a 9-inch x 13-inch x 2-inch rectangular baking dish (3 quart casserole dish).
4. Take Shredded Cheese and sprinkle over the mixture, making sure it is evenly sprinkled. Add more cheese if you want. (I don’t know how much cheese I actually used. I eyed it.) Then take the crushed up Ruffled Potato chips and spread out on top of the cheese.
5. Put in the oven for 20-30 minutes or until cheese is melted nicely.Let cool for 5 minutes, serve, and enjoy!!!
By Danielle Farris
I love Peeps. I like to eat them stale. I know that sounds funny, but I leave the package open for a couple of days and then eat them with chocolate. Yum! I think it's great that they now make Peeps for more holidays than just Easter. My favorite thing to do with Peeps is make Peep Treats. These are Rice Krispy Treats made out of Peeps. They are so fun, because they end up being the color of the peeps. We just had pink Peep Treats for Celia's birthday. Peep Treats are a fun treat to make with your kids because they are easy to make and the peeps look funny when you warm them up in the microwave.
Peep Treats
Ingredients:
1/2 Package of Large Marshmallows (I used pink strawberry ones)
1 Package of Peeps (Use the Pack with 3 trays)
3 TBSP Butter or Margarine
6 Cups Rice Krispy Cereal
1. Spray a large, rectangular baking pan
2. Put Marshmallows, Peeps and Butter in a large, microwaveable bowl. Microwave for 1 to 2 minutes in 30 second increments. Peeps will expand, you want to make sure they don't explode.
3. Mix Rice Krispies into melted
Marshmallows. Pour into your baking pan. Let sit for a few hours.
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Believe it or not, we made it to sunrise service on Easter. We woke up with 5 minutes to spare, went in our pajamas and got to be part of a lovely service! After, we went to Cracker Barrel for breakfast. I love the CB- what a great idea, shopping and eating! Andy, for this very same reason, doesn't care for it very much. We had an awesomly filling breakfast that included grits. I am not a big fan of grits. I know there are many ways you can fancy them up, but to me they taste like baby cereal. I just don't get it. However, I was bound and determined that our grits would not go to waste. Two nights later, all of our grits were used up in this deliciously easy, stuffed corn bread. I haven't seen Celia eat something so fast in a long time! If you want to spice it up a bit, add a small can of green chiles on top of the ham. Enjoy!
Stuffed Cornbread
Ingredients:
1 Box Cornbread Mix
3 Jumbo Eggs (or 4 medium eggs)
3/4 Cup Cooked Grits
1/2 Cup Milk
1 TBSP of Mayonnaise
4 Slices American Cheese (or 1/2 to 1 Cup Shredded Cheese)
1 Cup Chopped Ham
1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
2. In a large bowl, mix together cornbread, eggs, grits, mayo and milk. Make sure you break up your grits.
3. Spray a deep-dish pie pan with non-stick spray.
4. Pour half of batter into pie pan. Lay cheese on top of batter. Sprinkle ham on top of cheese. Pour other half of batter on top of ham.
5. Bake in the oven for 25 to 30 minutes. When finished, the top should be golden and cracking, the bottom should be light brown.
Aaaahhh, I can smell it, Spring, bbq season, baseball- summer is getting closer and closer. As a teacher, this is very important :) We had a fabulously busy Easter weekend. What great fun we had celebrating Christ's ressurection with friends and family. However, we now have many leftovers. Here's a recipe using a leftover pork steak. The pork steak I used was huge! If you don't have a huge pork steak, use two small ones. It's a great recipe for after grilling; we always end up with one or two pork steaks leftover! This solves the problem of what to do with them in a new, delicious and very easy way.
Stuffed Pasta in a Pork Sauce
Ingredients:
1 Large Pork Steak
4 TBSP Creme Fraiche
1 and 1/2 Jars of Spaghetti Sauce
3 Bags of Stuffed Pasta (I used tortellini, ravioli and stuffed mostacolli)
1. Cut up pork steak into bite-sized pieces. Put into a large soup pot.
2. Pour spaghetti sauce and creme fraiche in with your pork. Stir.
3. Cook until warm and bubbly. Keep on low until ready to mix with pasta.
4. Boil a large pot of water. Cook all pastas together according to the directions on their bags.
5. When finished, combine pasta and sauce. Serve with a side of parmesean cheese.
** This recipe serves 6 to 8 people.
For some people, the crockpot or slow cooker is a winter time cooking tool. For me, it is useful all year long. You can cook other things besides soups and stews in them, they are easy to use and they require very little energy. On Monday, we grilled pork steaks at my brother Mike's. We had a large pack and at the end was a small roast. It seemed like the butcher got tired of cutting the steaks. It wasn't a problem because I knew I'd be able to make a What's for Leftovers recipe with it. So after we were finished grilling all of the pork steaks, we threw the little roast on the bbq and let it cook while we ate. On Tuesday, when I was planning our dinner, I realized I still had a carton of white rice left from Chinese takeout over the weekend. Presto, Apple Butter Pork and Rice was born.
Apple Butter Pork and Rice
Ingredients:
1 to 2 Lbs of Cooked Pork*
1/4 Cup White Wine
4 Packs Soy Sauce
1 TBSP Apple Butter
1 Cup Apple Juice
1 TBSP Garlic
2 Packs Sweet n' Sour Sauce
1 TBSP BBQ Sauce
1 1/2 Cups White Rice, Cooked or 1 Small Take-Out Carton
*You can use any kind of pork. I used the little pork butt roast and a pork steak. Feel free to use roast, steaks, or chops; whatever you have leftover.
1. Cut pork into thin slices and place on the bottom of the slow cooker.
2. In a separate bowl combine wine, soy sauce, apple butter, apple juice, garlic, sweet n' sour sauce, and bbq sauce. Pour over pork.
3. Cook on high for 1 hour, stirring occasionaly
4. Pour rice into slow cooker, mixing into liquid. Cook on low for another 20 to 30 minutes. It's finished when your rice is completely heated.
