Showing posts with label Leftovers. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Leftovers. Show all posts

Thursday, October 25, 2012

weeknight surprise

mr p knows me too well.  after going to target and home depot to get supplies for our halloween costumes, i came home to this:



that's right.  a buffalo chicken sammich!  we were both rushing to get some last minute things together for this weekend, but he came home first to grab a bite to eat and he made this for me before heading out :)

it's just a simple sammich, but it's very good.

whole wheat bread
rotisserie chicken
sharp cheddar
red leaf lettuce

put it together and smash in a panini press! 
or, just put together and toast on a hot pan with a weight on top of the sammich 
(a brick covered in foil works just as well!!)

cheers to the weekend!  i'll leave you with a song i heard on my way home from work today that i NEVER thought i would hear on the radio again... 



it's festive. for the weekend. and it's stuck in my head now, so i'm passing on the fun music to reminisce the good 'old days when we used to listen to this in 2003 (yes! 2003! wikipedia says so.  time is moving too fast)

have a GREAT weekend!! 
...don't get too crazy for halloween ;)
(and stay tuned to see OUR costumes!! i'm super excited for them)

Wednesday, June 13, 2012

save your meat juices

(that sounds really bad....)

but, what i MEAN is... when you bake a big roast, or pan-fry beef or pork, don't just wash the brown juice and bits down the drain!!! 

SAVE THEM!!

it will be the "something missing" the next time you make pretty much any hot side dish and you say to yourself "something's missing..."

let's just put it out there, though olive oil is good, sometimes it just doesn't cut it.  sometimes you NEED that bit of flavor from the fat of a good chunk of meat to accent your side dish. (next time i tell mr p i want to try being vegan he's going to come back to that line, i just know it.)

last weekend mr p made an AMAZING pork shoulder in the oven.  pork shoulder isn't exactly the leanest cut of meat, which means we were able to capture a whole container of juices and fat that was just sitting in the bottom of the pan.

(check out the pan in the back.. those juices are heaven. the pork was cooked with a modified version of this recipe, so the juices are strongly flavored with cloves and allspice)

mr p used the fat/juices to season brussels sprouts on sunday, and we've made special trips to the bodega each night since just so we could eat them with the juices again.

i think i put a smile on mr p's face when i told him "this is just one of those meals that i want to take tiny bites and savor it as long as i can, it's just so good" and when i ask yet again "can we have brussels sprouts for dinner again?"  and say "it's going to be so sad when the pork juices are gone"  (please don't tell me how lame our usually-food-centered relationship is...)

by now you are definitely thinking "stop talking about these brussels sprouts and get on with the recipe!!"

ok ok, here goes:

Sunday, April 1, 2012

Chunky White Bean Turkey Soup

remember last friday when i surprised mr p with dinner when i came home early from denver?

it's not often that it's ME who makes dinner all by myself, but this one is so easy and delicious and HEALTHY , that i make it fairly often.  my mom cut it the recipe out of fitness magazine my sophomore year in college (i think?) and sent the page to me.  i've been making it at least a few times a year ever since.


(images via fitness magazine)

mr p and i have successfully been cleaning out our fridge by using up all the meat we have shoved in there (and have vowed not to buy another meat product until we use at least half.. well.. except for tuna in the can... the best tuna salad comes from a can in our minds!!) we had enough turkey for the soup, had the broth, had the spices, had the green salsa, and only needed the onions and beans.  talk about some cheap meals!!

so, here goes.  i hope you enjoy it as much as we do!  make sure to read the notes at the end for our tips on changing up the soup so it can be healthier, or just to turn it into a completely different meal than just soup.

chunky white bean turkey soup

12 oz lean ground turkey (if you use 93/7 or better you won't need to drain the fat)
1 chopped onion
1 tbsp olive oil
2 15-oz cans great northern beans
1 16-oz jar green salsa (goya is best for a bit more spice... we used to use ortega before we lived in a place with hispanic groceries around the corner and multiple hispanic food isles at the big box grocery)
1 3/4 cups low-sodium chicken broth
1 1/2 tsp cumin (feel free to double or triple this after tasting... i add WAY more than the listed amount because i LOVE this spice!)


(forgot the cumin in the pic, and used veggie broth instead of chicken because i didn't want to buy chicken broth... BAD idea!!  will never do that again.  ONLY use chicken broth!)


heat the olive oil over medium heat in the pot you plan to make the   add the onions and saute for 2-3 minutes.  add the turkey and saute until all turkey is cooked.  add the remaining ingredients and bring to a simmer.  simmer for a minimum of 15 minutes (longer if desired).




that's it!

now for our variations:

1.  immediately after serving, toss in some fresh spinach and fold in the spinach.  it will wilt enough so that it's a nice texture, without being overly mushy.  it's nice to add in, too, because it doesn't really add any flavor, just TONS of nutrients :D


2. serve over brown rice or quinoa.  scoop up more "chunks" than broth, and serve over the brown rice or quinoa for more of a stew instead of a soup (or just keep the broth in there and it will end up just like you added the rice or quinoa)


(or add spinach AND quinoa like we did!)

(final product friday night)

(final product friday night)


3. bake 2 corn tortillas so they turn crispy, top with black beans, top beans with "chunks" from the soup, top with fried egg, top with queso fresco and serve with 2 lime wedges.  insta-huevos-rancheros.



(like we did saturday AND sunday mornings)


i hope you enjoy this recipe as much as we do! it's a quick, healthy meal to make, plus you can make a lot of it and eat it different ways so it's not so mundane eating the "same" thing for a few days :D

cheers to a great week ahead!

toodles.


Sunday, January 29, 2012

Dinner for 10

who says having a tiny apartment means you can't entertain?  we surely tested our limits this past weekend by having 8 people over for dinner, making it 10 total with us.

the key to it?  making everything re-heat-able and making things that are ideally eaten out of a bowl with a spoon or a fork, no knives needed (when 1 hand is holding the dish, it's pretty hard impossible to cut something with a knife..)  we surely don't have "dining" seating for 10 people, so everyone ate on the couch or on a chair in the living room.  eating while holding your plate is just not fun (and is asking for something to spill to the floor), so we served everything in bowls!

pasta and meatballs it is, then!  i knew mr p would enjoy making this, because he LOVES making things from scratch that most people wouldn't dare to try (or, at least, they don't get on a regular basis).  he made his sauce from scratch, meatballs from scratch (including grinding the meat in the new meat grinder attachment to the kitchenaid mixer), pasta from scratch, and homemade plain white Italian bread.

before the prepping began, though, mr p and i went to the grocery to pick up food for the night, grabbing some good ole Shoprite sushi while we were there:

who says grocery store sushi isn't good?? i surely like my spicy tuna in brown rice
(well... coming from the NON sushi connoisseur)

mr p's regular tuna with white rice


let the REAL festivities begin!!

started the night with some homemade guac and blue corn tortilla chips


mr p's pasta-making in action

fluffy bread's ready :D


everyone's pappardelle ready, just wating on the meatballs and sauce!
check out the bowls with the raised sides, new dinnerware additions from sur la table

mr p's bowl :D

thanks to everyone for bringing the booze!

thanks to jo for making the BEST "better than sex" choco cupcakes.
(with her AMAZING addition of melting cookies and cream hersey bars on top!)

needed a new chalkboard drawing now that christmas is over

"sign-in sheet"

after eating delicious food, drinking lots of coronas and lots of wine, playing countless rounds of catch phrase and the game of things, and staying up past 2am (ha, it's not exactly college days anymore, 2am is LATE!!), we slept in and made breakfast with leftover bread, leftover rice, and DEEEELICIOUS sausage my mom got from the butcher and sent back with us at christmas time (well, mr p made us breakfast, really, thanks babe!)

smoked mutz. (i.e. mozzarella)

my brown rice, sausage, and runny egg with frank's.

mr p's goodies that obvi wouldn't fit in his siracha-sprinkled sammich bread he had prepared.

zack's sausage and egg sammich with frank's.

thanks to everyone who came!  hopefully it will all happen again soon, and those who couldn't make it will make it for the next feast!

cheers to a great week ahead :D

toodles.
j&h

Thursday, January 19, 2012

Week 3 Detox Update: Adding in Gluten-Free Whole Grains

Starting Tuesday night, I began introducing carbs back into my system. NOT eating carbs wasn't so bad after all! But, I definitely couldn't go on forever eating like that.

Tuesday night we made red thai curry a different way than we have in the past (see original post here) This time we added cabbage, onions, bamboo shoots, water chesnuts (ahhh my fave!), lentils, baby corn, and shrimp, served over brown rice.  I suppose the first thing I learned after eating the rice, is that I REALLY need to watch how much I put on my plate!  After going without carbs for 2 weeks, it seems that my body learned to be full after much less food, and adding rice to the mix made me full even quicker!  I feel sort of silly putting such a miniscule amount on my plate when we ate leftovers last night, but I didn't feel nearly as stuffed as the first night.

(not exactly the prettiest meal, but it was pretty tasty!  hit lots of tastebuds with sweet, savory, and spicy, and incorporated lots of texture, with the baby corn, water chesnuts, lentils, and cabbage)

I haven't tried any other gluten-free grains yet (since we made such a huge amount of curry and rice that we're still eating it), but I hope to incorporate quinoa and farro in the coming week.  We also bought tapioca flour after eating AMAZING cassava rolls in Chicago, and we want to try out hands at making something with that awesomely sticky, gummy, chewy dough.

Conclusions from the Detox:

1. My portions used to be WAY oversized (probably why I always felt so grossly full after eating dinner)

2. I don't really need caffeine, and coffee will be a treat on the weekends instead of a necessity to start my morning.  I still enjoy having a hot drink in the morning (and at night too sometimes), so I have replaced my weekly coffee with caffeine-free teas such as mint and chamomile.

3. I enjoy eating a animal-protein free (vegan) diet, though when Mr P cooks up some fresh bacon (the GOOD kind from the butcher in Ohio) in the morning for his bacon egg and cheese sammich, it really makes me lose my appetite for the cantalope and apple breakfast I have packed (yep, picture that scene, it happened this morning).

4. Eat what I need, nothing more, nothing less.  If I am going to be working out after work, I need to eat some carbs and protein or I won't make it to mile 2, but if I'm just going to be sitting in my cube at work all day and then be a couch potato all night (everyone needs those days once in a while, right?), then maybe I should cut back on them.

5. The detox is a limited time for a reason.  Living in the NYC area, it's HARD to be social with a diet that I can't eat meat, dairy, or drink alcohol.  Even most garden salads have cheese on them, and it's definitely no fun when everyone else around you is having a beer or a glass of wine and you are not.  Plus, like I told Mr P a few nights ago when I ate roasted broccoli for dinner and he ate something else, doing this whole thing takes all the FUN out of cooking together at night.

All in all though, I'm looking forward to eating normal again, but eating the "detox don'ts" in moderation. Hoepfully I will give at least some conscious consideration before stuffing the Friday work bagel into my mouth, or debating whether or not I can get through Target without picking up a sweet treat!

Wish me luck on the 2 weeks left!

Toodles.
j&h

Thursday, December 15, 2011

"leftovers"

what do you do with leftover pizza dough and your pizza stone/tile breaks?



make bread of course!  not the BEST best bread, but any of Mr P's homemade breads certainly beat any of the sliced loaves in the store :D   ...kudos to HIM for pulling through and making amazing food even when we still have no running water.



Toodles.
J&H

Monday, November 7, 2011

Pulled Pork... AGAIN!!

Remember the last time I posted about making pulled pork?  We made this and this and ate it for a week.  Well, surprise surprise!  We have even more from that same batch.  We froze what we knew we wouldn't eat, and we pulled it out for dinners for this week!  We had amazing tacos, with homemade bbq sauce, homemade guac, taco sauce, tomatoes, lettuce, Mr P's super hot unnaturally-green habanero sauce (soooo spicy!!  ...you know what I'm talking about), white corn tortillas, and yes... pulled pork!

We didn't even have to use the stove... we used all fresh veggies, and just heated up the pulled pork and white corn tortillas in the microwave.



Does this make you want to get that scary-huge chunk of pork on the bone at the grocery store (i.e. pork shoulder) and make pulled pork??? haha

Toodles.
J&H

Thursday, November 3, 2011

Homemade Pho is "Pho Sho" the Best

We had the pleasure of eating the left over pho from this past weekend.  It was frozen in the freezer, as well as frozen pre-cut flank steak that we bought from the Asian grocery.  I told Mr P that the flank steak we buy from that Asian grocery is sooo much better than what we can buy at our local A&P or Shoprite.  There was no hesitation when he quickly replied, "babe, don't you remember? there was the guy in the back cutting all the beef himself."  Oh yeeeaaah.... it's fresh.  That's why it tastes so good.  There was probably less than 24 hours between a live cow, the man cutting it, us buying it, us cutting it into thin strips, and freezing it.

Anyways, Mr P bought the onion, bean sprouts, herbs, and limes (5 for $1!! Thanks again Korean bodega).  All we had to do was clean and cut the veggies and boil the broth!  Done!



Remember our Jeni's ice cream base from yesterday?  We made the ice cream today!  ...with mint extract and Andes chocolate mints... yummmm :D




We made just one batch, and Mr P gave me a ridiculously small container to put it in the freezer.  To my comment of "What are you thinking?  That's entirely too small" he replied "Well it won't be after you serve everyone a bowl of it!!"   Ha, of course.  My bad :P

Toodles.
J&H

Monday, October 10, 2011

Week of Pulled Pork: TACOOOOS

I got home late from work, after getting an oil change, heading to Home Depot, and Shoprite.  When I got home the homemade bbq sauce was cooking, fresh salsa was made, and cole slaw was done.  Mr P is just awesome sometimes... (though he will say he is awesome always ).  He was in the midst of making pulled pork tacos!

Yesterday I mentioned that we started cooking dry-rubbed pork in the crock pot.  We started cooking it around 6pm, and cooked it basically a full 24 hours!  That's a long time!  I wish I would have taken a picture of the bones... there was not even a trace of meat on the bones.  While Mr P and I waited for the bbq sauce to simmer down, we kept nibbling at the little brown bits from the outside of the pork shoulder (crunchy, dark, super flavorful, the best).  Remember I said we got it for $0.99/lb?  Well, this huge bowl of pulled pork only cost us $8!  Just one pound of lunchmeat is $8 sometimes!  You might get 2 pounds if you are lucky. Find the recipe for the pulled pork here.



We heated up tortillas on the grill pan, put everything on the coffee table, and started eating!  






BBQ sauce and fresh salsa was a pretty good combination that I was a bit leery of before I ate it.  I think part of it was the fact that the salsa was cold and the BBQ sauce was still hot.  Mr P and I have come to realize that having something hot and something cold in our mouths at the same time makes whatever we are eating just better!!


Fresh Salsa

2 diced tomatoes
1 medium red onion, diced
1 jalapeno, diced
handful of cilantro (or to taste), rough chopped
juice from 1/2 lime
salt pepper to taste

Chop all veggies, squeeze in lime juice, toss together, taste, then add salt and pepper to taste.


Carrot Cabbage Cole Slaw

1/2 head of cabbage
1 large carrot
2 tbsp mayo
juice and zest of 1 lemon
1 1/2 tsp sugar
salt and pepper to taste

Shred cabbage and carrot with shredder attachment to food processor.  Put in bowl and add mayo, lemon and zest, and sugar.  Toss, taste, and add salt and pepper to taste.


While I was at Shoprite today, I ended up finding chalk for our new chalkboard fridge!  This is the results of when a 24 year old and a 27 year old have a big chalkboard:


There are some days you need to be reminded that it's ok to act like a kid sometimes... tonight was one of those nights!!

Toodles.
J&H