Super Snack Saturday!

Most of the posts this week have been of meals, dinners to be exact, so I thought the weekend would be a good time to share some of the OTHER things we have been eating.  

Waffles with Peanut Butter/Honey/Banana Topping
Home made peanut butter, sliced bananas, and honey were thrown in a bowl...

Warmed....

And served over a toasted waffle!  The waffle was leftover from when we made them last weekend.  I just froze the extra, and when I felt like a fancier breakfast, stuck it in the toaster!

The other big snack-o-the-week is a riddle.

  

What do you get when you mix 2 apples...

a mandolin slicer...

and cinnamon?

Why, apple chips, of course!  Especially when the are baked at 250 for an hour or so!

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Quickie Pizza Friday

I'm short on time, so I'm just throwing this out there.

What happens with you spread Whole Wheat Pizza Dough with leftover garlicky black beans and raw broccoli...

and then bake it at 425.

 

You get amazing pizza.  Yeahhhhhhhhh ..........

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Chicken and Beans

Lunch was awesome yesterday!  It was just leftovers, but somehow it was incredibly delicious!

 

It was some leftover garlicky black beans, some leftover lemony chick peas, some plain black beans, and some leftover tiny chicken pieces, the kind I usually use in soups.  

WOWZA!

For dinner, I roasted a chicken.  I know I do this a lot, but I just love roasting a chicken in the crock pot.  I don't think it gets better than that.  I haven't posted a photo of this with my new camera yet, so I thought I would treat you!

 

That is simply a chicken, adobo, parsley, and about 6 cloves of garlic shoved in the cavity.  All that juice is produced while it is cooking!  I just can't get over it!  

 

I am, of course, making broth again.  

I haven't told you about making broth in the crock pot?  Oh my.  It is so easy.  After you cook the chicken, cut off the breasts (I save them for another meal), legs, thighs, and wings.  I add in the bones and skin that we don't eat back into the pot.  I also add a splash of apple cider vinegar.  I let that sit for a while to help draw the minerals out of the bones.  It then gets covered in water and the crock pot goes on low overnight.  

The next morning it is strained twice.  

  

The first time, I pick through the leftover meat and save it for making soup at a later date.  

 

The second time I am just trying to get the broth as free from debris as possible.  The liquid gets popped into the fridge to get the fat to float to the top.  

 

Now I know, most people who make bone broth just leave the fat in for the health benefits.  I am not quite there yet in my whole food journey.  Maybe someday, but not right now.  

The extra fat gets scooped off and then the broth is frozen in baggies and in ice cubes. 

That's it!  Easy, right?!

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Pizza Friday and Snack-y Saturday

Whew!  What a crazy week!  In between all of the snowstorms I've barely had time to breathe, let alone cook!  

In spite of all outdoor inconveniences, I managed to make Leftover Pizza on Friday and a yummy cauliflower snack on Saturday. 

Remember last week?  I know it was a loooong time ago.  Here.  I'll refresh your memory.  I made roasted veggies on Sunday.  Then, I reused them on Wednesday.  Well, after all that there was STILL a tiny bit left.  So, in brilliant Pizza Friday tradition...

I rolled out the dough...

 

Slathered it with Ricotta...

 

Added the rest of the roasted veggies...

And baked it at a ::NEW  BAKING TEMPERATURE!:: of 425.  

 

It made the crust amazingly brown and crispy!

 

Why did we never think of that before?!

On to Snack-y Saturday.  When I made allll of that roasted veggie deliciousness, we discovered that there was a BIT too much cauliflower.  And broccoli.  A huge serving bowl full.  I utilized the raw cauliflower in a recipe.  Of course, now I can't find the exact recipe.  But it was really good, trust me. 

 

I remember that I sauteed 2 pans full (1 layer in each pan) of lightly salted cauliflower with 1 1/2 tbs coconut oil in each.  I left it sitting on each side until they were brown.

 

Then I stirred in the sauce.  It had water, garlic powder, honey, diced onions, and a bunch of other things in it.  I am going to try to find the recipe asap and post it. 

 

I just kept stirring it all until there was no liquid left. 

It was so easy, as long as the cauliflower is cut, cleaned, and dry.  

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Gnudis etc.

A simple breakfast of fruit salad

 

with mineola oranges, apples, blueberries, and bananas...

was followed by a leftover lunch

 

of roasted vegetables on whole wheat sandwich thins drizziled with balsamic vinegar. 

While all that was wonderful and yummy, the best was dinner.  

Ricotta Gnudi in a Parmesan Broth.  A Giada recipe that is just divine.  It was in her "Everyday Pasta" cookbook, you should definitely try and get your hands on it.   

I mixed whole milk ricotta cheese with Parmesan cheese, flour, parsley, basil, salt, and garlic (my idea!)

 

I was supposed to add an egg in, but SOMEONE ate the last one for breakfast yesterday.  That same someone was so proud of herself for using up the last egg and forgot that she had ALREADY PLANNED to use the egg in this recipe.  Don't worry, though.  She is smart.  She made the binding agent by mixing flax seeds and water. 

 

Yeah, baby!

As water simmers in a pot in the stove, form the mix into little balls and dredge them in flour. 

 

Drop them into the simmering water and scoop them out when they float to the top.

 

They LOOK bland, but they taste amazing.  I tried one as soon as it came out, and I was STUNNED by how delicious it was.  

 

Just before serving, I sauteed it in butter.  It was my idea, but since I made the gnudi before lunch when I had time, they needed to be warmed.  

 The sauce was homemade chicken broth that I had frozen a while ago,

 

reduced at a simmer until it was about 1/2 as much.   

 I sprinkled Parmsean cheese over it all at the end.  

It was a great day to eat. 

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Meal Planning Begins... or continues...

I have been meal-planning for a while, but I have not been posting it.  I discovered that this allowed me to NOT meal plan when I wanted to, which then led to not knowing what was for dinner, eating poorly, and wasting food.  So... Now Munching Madness will hold me accountable.  

Tuesday:

Dinner-Leftover Chicken Breast Open Face BBQ sandwich

Wednesday: Grab-N-Go

Thursday: Dinner with Family

Friday:

Dinner-Pizza Friday (Ricotta and Vodka Sauce for me, Regular for John)

Saturday:

Breakfast- Egg-in-a-hole with fresh bread

Dinner-  Roasted Veggies and Pierogis

Sunday: 

Breakfast- Fresh Waffles

Lunch- Bridal Show hors d'oeuvres

Dinner- Dinner with Family

Monday:

Dinner- Chickpea greens macaroni

Leftover Meal Ideas-

Roasted Veggie Panini (Roasted Veggies, Cheese and Bread)

BBQ Chicken Panini (BBQ Chicken and Bread)

BBQ Chicken Salad (BBQ Chicken and Salad)

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Leftover Cooking

Today's post will focus on the art of leftover cooking.  Regular readers of this blog know about my love for re-cooking leftovers and creating something new from them.  While there are many ways to give new life to old meals, I have a few favorites.

One of my favorite ways to re-use leftover is to make it into a pizza.  I adore pizza in all of its delicious forms.  If you have good leftovers, like this Lubyia (Lebanese Green Beans in Olive Oil with Garlic) John's mom made, just throw it on some dough and bake it like a pizza.   

It is really a side dish, but SO good, as long as you don't mind smelling like a garlic factory.  Are there such things as garlic factories?  ANYWAY.  I added lots of Parmesean Cheese on top, because that's how I like my pizza.  It works for lots of things, especially things that have a little bit of their own sauce to keep them moist in the oven. 

Check it out!  I just rolled out the whole wheat dough, spread the leftovers on, added P. Cheese, and baked it until the crust was done.  It doesn't get any easier than that (at least to make pizza) and it is soooo good.

Another way I like to revive leftovers is with garlic, onions, and oil.  We have discussed my penchant for greens with garlic, onion, and olive oil, but you might not know that it extends to all food.  For this leftover meal, I added mushrooms to the mix.

They all sauteed until it was one mix of yummy flavors.  Then I added the leftovers, a mix of brown rice, toasted almonds, black beans, and other things that John had made for dinner one day. 

See?  Leftovers can be fun!

 

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No Stove Day

Okay, I totally made this title up as I was writing it.  I was trying to come up with a way to tie together the things in this post aaaaaand being cooked on the stove was the ONLY things they all shared.  Woot Woot. 

BRUNCH.

It doesn't have a name, really, it was just throw-it-in-the-pot-mush.  Go with it.

I started by heating up a banana in a little pot to get it all smushy and sweet.

I added some homemade walnut butter to melt in next.

I figured I should throw in some ground flax seeds, shredded coconut, and cinnamon for good measure. 

And who doesn't love plump raisins?!

When it was all melty and mixed, it was absolutely divine.

DINNER

Remember when I wanted to make Pumpkin Ravioli?  Well.  It didn't work.  They were gross.  BUT I have them anyway and I am not one to waste perfectly (well, maybe not perfectly) good food.  I made a sauce for it tonight.

I took the leftover filling  from the raviolis and stuck them in the pan.  It is pumpkin, onions, and garlic, I think.  I forgot, actually.  Whatever.

I added LOTS of parmesan cheese and parsley on top once it was warm.

Then a GENEROUS pouring of balsamic vinegar... MMmmMMMmmMMm

Plopped on top of the ravis?  Not too bad!  I don't know why the ravis have that dark tinge to them.  They have probably grown some awful fungus or something.

Or not. 

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Lentil Soup Remix (with a side of Microwave Musings)

John is feeling better (YAY!!), but there was still a little bit of Lentil Soup left.  I started heating up a small pot of the soup on the stove. 

Normally, I would have stuck it in the microwave, but I am trying to use it less.  Not so much because of a "fear of radiation," although who really knows.  I am using the stove/oven instead of the microwave to keep my kitchen cleaner.  Crazy, right?  NOT AT ALL!  When the food is in the microwave, I spend the 1-2 minutes waiting.  Impatiently.  On the STOVE, however, I feel like I am cooking.  There isn't a set time for it to be finished, so I straighten up the kitchen as I wait.  Bonus?  I wind up being MUCH more creative!  Case in point?  Lentil Soup Remix.

As it started to heat up, I added some plumped up raisins... some slivered almonds.... and some cinnamon.  WOW!

 Not using the microwave is going to be MMm MMm Good!

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