In the Kitchen

It's a bit blustery here today in Central Texas - - of course, nothing like what's happening up North, but I was truly looking forward to some time in the yard.  Since I'm chillin' in the house, I thought I'd do some bulk cooking for this week so that I'd have food for lunch.

2 things I'm making with leftovers:  chicken spaghetti and chili.

For both of these recipes, the only "new" items I needed were pinto beans, Alfredo sauce, canned tomatoes and pasta.  All other items were things leftover from other recipes.

Leftover items:  frozen celery and onion leftover from the holidays; rotisserie chicken; baked beans and hamburger patties from dinner last week; ground sausage from breakfast bowls.

Chicken Alfredo**  I just added this recipe to a weekly meal planner.

Add 1 cup rotisserie chicken, 1/2 cup chopped onions and 1/2 cup chopped celery to a saucepan.  Cover slightly with water and bring to a boil.  Once the chicken, onions and celery have softened, use a slotted spoon to remove from the pan.

Add extra water, if needed, and bring to a boil.  This will be the water to boil your pasta.

I often make homemade pasta sauce or use a mix.  In these instances, I make the sauce while the pasta is cooking.

Drain the pasta and add to a casserole dish.  Add the chicken mixture and pour the Alfredo sauce over the ingredients.  Stir.

Sprinkle with Parmesan cheese.


Chili

In a crock pot, add all the ingredients.  The thing I love about this recipe is that it always differs in what I add.

1 can pinto beans with liquid
1 can chopped tomatoes
Chili powder and cumin

Leftovers:  1/2 pound ground sausage; 1/2 can baked beans; 1/2 pound cooked hamburger; 1/2 cup chopped onions; 1/2 cup chopped celery.

Add water to cover.  I cook my chili on low for over 6 hours, so I want enough water to keep the chili from sticking to the bottom or becoming too thick.  I often don't  add extra salt or pepper because the leftover food already has those, but you can add once the chili has cooked for a while and you have tasted.

What I love about making this chili is all the ways you can use it:  juevos rancheros, chili pie, baked potatoes, soup.  With all the ways you can eat the chili, you can use whatever you have on hand.  This week, I have some corn chips for chili pie and fresh baking potatoes.

Leftover Lunch - Taco Soup

Today's Leftover Lunch is one of my favorite and a standard in our home.  Living in Texas means lots of Mexican or Tex-Mex food.  Chili is big.

There are several ways to make "leftover lunch" really work for your family.

What I have done for years is to use a 3 cup plastic container and just add the leftover ingredients until the bowl is full.  Keep in the freezer.  Because food in a plastic bowl in the freezer will not come out easily, I normally rinse off the bowl and then invert into whatever pan or crockpot I'm using and pour 1 cup very hot water of it.  The water will become part of the stock.  Keep sandwich size zip bags of corn chips in the freezer, too.

In my pot today are the leftover parts of:

chili
black beans
corn
hamburger patty
ground sausage
pinto beans
chopped onion, bell pepper and tomato

My bowl of ingredients were not frozen, so this is how I started.  If you start with frozen ingredients, skip the sautee part.

In a 3 qt saucepan, sautee 1/2 chopped onion / bell pepper in 2 Tab oil.

Lower heat and add the leftover ingredients and 2 to 3 cups water.  If you do not have tomato, you can add pico, salsa or even 1/2 cup ketchup.  Simmer on medium for 30 minutes.  If cooking in a crockpot, turn on low for about 3 hours.

When the mixture has cooked together, reduce heat and add 1 cup crushed corn chips (the ones at the bottom of the bag).  Allow the mixture to simmer until the corn chips dissolve and become part of the broth.