Superbowl Bites: BBQ Pulled Pork Pizza

Who doesn't love pizza?

I don't think I know anyone who doesn't.  Do you?

I think that makes it the perfect party food.  

It's also ridiculously simple to make. Giving it more points as the perfect party food.

Leftover Meatballs, make delicious pizza!

Part 2 of our first supper was this amazing Meatball Pizza.

About a week before our move I made these delicious Meatball Subs.  Well I made my own version of them, with my go to meatball recipe.  Regardless of that I had a bunch of meatballs and sauce leftover.  We did spaghetti and meatballs one night, and then they sat in the fridge until the move, just getting more and more delicious with each passing day.  

Sunday Brunch: Greek Frittata

I wouldn't call this a classic Greek Frittata, like to one Jen over at Domestic Divas has shared or my partner in crime at NoReEATS, Carole, made.  Something chock full of tomatoes, onions feta and some sort of greens.  Basically a Greek salad in a frittata. Sounds delicious, right?  I'm sure both versions are and I plan to try them at some point soon, either for dinner or brunch. But my take is inspired by a different Greek dish, one of my faves, Moussaka.  While I was cooking up the filling from my Stuffed Baby Eggplants I knew I had too much veal, so I chopped up some extra potatoes and if I had extra eggplant I would have added that too and cooked it all up, cooked up the extra beef and tossed it all together and saved the filling I had leftover for this yummy frittata.

Leftover Chicken Enchiladas

Even when I'm not going to an office job and working in the traditional sense of the word, running two blogs, caring for the pups, house stuff and working on other passion projects tends to make for very full days.  Days where between photographing various different dishes, coming up with recipes and dealing with needy pups, the last thing I want to do is think about dinner.  I'm pretty certain everyone out there, no matter your situation feels that way, some more often than others. Since there are only 2 of us, many dishes that I do make leave us with leftovers and while I will often happily eat some of them for lunch I can't eat the same thing more than two days in a row, I just get too bored. In case it wasn't evident with 2 different food blogs, variety in my food is important to me.  I have friends who cook on the weekend and will eat the same thing almost every day for the week.  I know when working and doing all other kinds of extracurriculars that can be an easy and logical answer, but I just can't do that.  So regardless of whether I'm doing No ReEATS or not, I always go out of my way to reinvent any leftovers so we are eating different things.

Sunday Brunch: Pasta Frittata

Last weekend I was craving a hearty brunch, one that included eggs.  I could have easily gone with one of my faves, a couple of nice eggs over easy over some black beans and salsa but decided to try to mix it up a bit and use some of the leftovers in my fridge.  Part of the No ReEATS challenge that I'm doing is striving to reduce food waste and utilize those leftovers in your fridge.  Being a house of just 2 we often have alot of leftovers, pasta is very often one of those leftovers.  I pull my Italian Mama impression whenever making pasta and sauce and make enough to feed an army.  So often the pasta just sits there in the fridge until a Wednesday night when I go through the fridge and get rid of all food waste for Thursday trash day.

So, I wanted to do something with the pasta and sauce I had leftover from Saturdays dinner, Penne a la Vodka, that didn't include trash or simply reheating it. I've seen something like this before but never had it, a frittata or omelette that uses leftover pasta.   What could be an easier one dish brunch, you get your protein and carbs all in one thing, not chopping of veggies for the frittata, save for some parsley, easy-peasy.

BBQ Chicken Quesadilla with Green Apple Salsa

The other night I cooked some chicken in the slow cooker.  Slow cooked chicken shreds beautifully and one batch made enough for me to use in at least two recipes.  One was a quick and easy stew, the other was these quesadillas.  I contemplated many ideas for the chicken stir fried with noodles, chicken salad but ultimately landed on quesadilla because I love them and knew I'd be able to make use of some things I already had in the pantry. Specifically a bottle of BBQ sauce I got in the gift bag at the 2009 FoodBuzz blogger festival and a massive bag of green apple I bought at the store the other day.  I know, I know who holds onto a freebie like that for so long?  Honestly I forgot I had it and when I was going through the pantry looking for something I found this cute little bottle of Napa Valley BBQ with Maple and Horseradish.  I knew it would go great with some smokey cheddar and the maple flavor work work well with an apple salsa.

Love 4 Lasagna Round-up Week 3

Here we are week three and in the craziness of getting ready for my trip back to Boston for Thanksgiving I've fallen a bit behind, which is why this round-up comes a day late, but is no less delicious!

Mama Shack's Pastitsio

Mama Shack went the Greek route and made on of my favorites, Pastitsio, the Greek answer to lasagna, at least that's what I like to call it.  Her dish looks beyond luscious and I'm so sad I wasn't invited over to sample it.   Luckily she finally has one in the W column with Shack!

My Pork & Fennel Lasagna

I went with a more traditional lasagna, with the twist being I made a pork ragu as opposed to a meat sauce. It got a thumbs up from my mom and the boy which means it's a winner as far as I'm concerned.  This one could actually very easily be made using leftover Thanksgiving turkey, just make the sauce without meat and add in shredded turkey at the very end before you build you lasagna.

Another lasagna that could be great with leftover turkey is Mama Shack's Chile Verde Lasagna.  You could make the green chile stew without any meat and add in the shredded turkey at the end.

So there you have it two more delicious takes on lasagna and a couple of idea for what to do with your leftover Thanksgiving Turkey!

Enjoy!

Chicken & Roasted Yam Quesadilla

This is another great dish made from leftovers and pantry staples. I roast a chicken once every few weeks and/or we buy a roasted chicken from the grocery store. Either way we usually only eat the chicken as is for one meal, more often than not leaving us with leftovers. Sometimes the boy will make a sandwich with what's left, or I'll make chicken salad but very often I like to try to get creative with the leftover chicken. It's not only packed full of great roasted flavor, but it also makes for a quick and easy meal during the week.

It's no secret I love Mexican food, so we will often have tortillas around. While whole wheat tortillas aren't exactly authentic especially not the ones our grocery store has, they are a staple. Along with a recent find of a great fresh salsa that has awesome fresh flavor and is great on chips or eggs or just about anything. So on yet another week when Mama Earth sent us organic yams, I took what we had on hand and threw together this tasty quesadilla.

Chicken & Roasted Yam Quesadillas
serves 4

2 organic yams - sliced into 1/4" rounds
2 Tbsp or more extra virgin olive oil
salt & pepper
2 chicken breasts - great use of leftovers.
8 whole wheat tortillas
3 cups finely grated aged white cheddar or smoked cheddar
3/4 cup fresh salsa - bought from the produce section of the grocery store
cooking spray
sour cream (optional)

1. Preheat oven to 400F. Toss yam rounds in olive oil, salt & pepper and place in a single layer on a cookie sheet. Roast for 20-30 minutes until tender and golden brown. Remove from oven and set aside. Lower oven heat to 350F.
2. If you are using leftover, already cooked chicken skip to step 3. If you are using uncooked chicken breasts, heat 1 Tbsp of olive oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Sprinkle salt & pepper all over chicken. Place in heated skillet and cook for 10-15 minutes, turning every five minutes until chicken is cooked.
3. Shred cooked chicken and return to skillet with salsa. Let simmer over low heat until everything is heated and you are ready to use it.
4. Spray a small skillet with cooking spray and place over medium heat. Place one tortilla in skillet and heat until lightly golden on each side. Stored warmed tortillas in a clean towel to keep warm and continue warming the other tortillas.
5. Spray a cookie sheet with cooking spray. Place two heated tortillas on the prepared sheet. layer shredded cheese, a single layer of yams, a single layer of chicken, more cheese and finally a second tortilla. Place cookie sheet in the oven for 10 minutes, until the cheese melts and the entire thing is heated all the way through. Remove from oven and place a second cookie sheet with two more assembled quesadillas into the oven.
6. Let quesadilla rest for 5 minutes before cutting into quarters and serving with sour cream.


I don't think the boy was sold on this one until he tried it. He is forever being subjected to my combining savoury and sweet and the oven roasted yams have a great sweetness that he wasn't convinced would be good in a quesadilla. I happily showed him the way and on this deliciously savoury with a hint of sweet quesadilla that now make regular appearances at dinner.

Pork Tenderloin Hash

It was over a week ago that I first posted my herb crusted pork tenderloin and promised to share what I did with my leftovers. Well here you go. Granted I ate this last weekend for breakfast, but even if it's late it was too tasty not to share. When I bought pork tenderloin and threw it in the freezer for a later use, it didn't occur to me that the package would hold loins. Well it did, so when I defrosted it I had to herb crust both since I couldn't freeze them again. Luckily it turned out well! So I was left with quite a bit of leftovers. My first go was with pork enchiladas with a red chili sauce, enchiladas are one of my go to uses with leftover meat. Another one is hash. Well the hash I made with the tenderloin was so simple and tasty I had to share.

Pork Tenderloin Hash
serves 2

1/2 loin Herb Crusted Pork Tenderloin - diced
4 new potatoes - diced
1 small onion diced
2 Tbsp olive oil
1 Tbsp butter
garlic powder
salt & pepper
sliced green onions - for garnish
4 eggs - for serving

1. Heat oil and butter in a large saute pan over medium heat. Once the butter has melted and the pan is hot add in diced potatoes and a liberal amount of salt & pepper. Saute for 5-10 minutes until begin to soften and turn golden brown.
2. Add in onions and pork, more salt and pepper and a liberal amount of garlic powder. Saute over medium to medium low heat until the onions darken, the pork heats through and both the pork and potatoes have nice crispy bits on the outside.
3. Serve with poached or over easy eggs and garnish with sliced green onions.


Now it's safe to say that I'm a fan of hash. This is the 3rd recipe I've posted in less than 6 months (Carniats Hash and Sweet Potato & Turkey Sausage Hash) I think it's mostly because it's an easy and filling meal and a great way to reuse leftovers. it comes together even more quickly if you have leftover potatoes. You can even throw black beans into it, if you have them lying around, basically almost anything goes here. I may try it with some Swiss Chard next time. And of course it's always good topped with my fave, eggs!

I think it's safe to say this was a winner with me. Enjoy!

Leftover Ideas

Last week I made tasty Chipotle Mango Pulled Pork. I made it using a 3.5 lb pork shoulder. That's alot of meat for 2 people, which meant I had to get creative with the leftovers. Yes we could've just kept having pulled pork sandwiches, but where's the fun in that? Besides I come from a family, well more specifically I have a father who is AMAZING with leftovers. He is that person that always takes leftovers home from a restaurant and makes them even better than the were originally. It's always a culinary adventure at my parents' house because you can look in the fridge and see nothing appealing and Dad will go in there and create the tastiest meal. This is a skill that we could all benefit from these days what with rising food costs and the overall financial difficulties most of us are living with. With that in mind I took on the challenge to see how many different ways I could reuse my delectable pulled pork.

My first dish was something I've been craving for quite some time, enchiladas. The one stumbling block was the difficulty in finding soft corn tortillas in Toronto. I've only found one grocery store between work and home that carries them and I just couldn't get over there before my planned meal. But I recently saw Ingrid Hoffman (on her Food Network show Simply Delcioso) make quick and easy chicken enchiladas using flour tortillas. I figured if they were good enough for Ingrid than I could sure try them, plus I think the whole wheat tortillas are much better for you than the corn.

Pulled Pork Enchiladas
serves 3

2 cups of leftover pulled pork - heated in the microwave or a skillet
1 small onion chopped
1 15 oz can of diced tomatoes with onions & peppers
1 small can diced green chiles
2-3 cups shredded cheddar cheese
6 whole wheat tortillas

1. Preheat oven to 350F. Lightly oil or spray with cooking spray an 11x17 baking dish.
2. In a bowl mix together warmed pork, onions and 1 cup shredded cheese. In another bowl mix together the diced tomatoes and chiles.
3. Taking one tortilla at a time place 1/3 cup of pork mixture in a line down the center, fold the tortilla over the pork and place seam down in the prepared baking dish. Repeat with the rest of the tortillas.
4. Pour the tomato chile mixture over the rolled tortillas and top with the rest of the shredded cheddar cheese.
5. Bake in the preheated oven for 30 minutes or until the cheese has all melted and the filling and sauce is bubbly. Serve with sour cream and a side of black beans.

The boy really enjoyed this, I was less than impressed. I just felt that with the sauce in the pork and the sauce on top the flour tortillas just became too doughy. I still prefer the corn tortillas for my enchiladas but will try to flour tortillas again in a pinch and maybe with a different filling. This was a super easy meal which was my favorite part of it. Even better was that I cooked dry beans all day in my slow cooker. They were not perfect which is why I am not posting them. But another great cost saving measure is to buy dried beans as opposed to canned. They are much less expensive for the amount you get. They take longer to cook but if you make a bunch over the weekend they keep for almost a week in the fridge or you can try the slow cooker method.

On to the other leftover recipes. I didn't take pictures of these next two simply because I was starving when I made each. Lame excuse I know, but it's the truth.

Pulled Pork Panini
makes 1 panini

1/2 cup or more pulled pork - heated in microwave or skillet (just so it's not iced cold from the fridge)
1 thick cut slice of extra sharp cheddar cheese
1/4 cup of leftover coleslaw (from when we originally had the pork)
2 slices of multi-grain bread

1. Heat up panini press/indoor grill, I have this grill.
2. On one slice of bread, layer pork, coleslaw, cheese and top with 2nd slice of bread. Carefully place sandwich in the grill and press down for approx 5 minutes, until cheese is melted and you get nice grill marks on the sandwich.
IF YOU DON'T HAVE A PANINI PRESS: This is a sandwich that can easily be made the same way you would make a grilled cheese. Just butter the outside of the assembled sandwich and grill in a skillet over medium low heat until nice and toasty.

I made this sandwich for Saturday brunch. The boy worked late Friday night and slept in on Saturday and I ran errands until he woke up and forgot to eat until I made this around 1pm. Hence my being too starving to take the time to photograph it. While it's just a sandwich with the gooey cheese and toasty bread it was quite a different experience than traditional pulled pork on a roll.

And on to the final recipe:

Pulled Pork Quesadillas with Guacamole
serves 2-3

Pulled pork - I used whatever we had left for this, I'm guessing it was approx 1-2 cups, heated in microwave or skillet
6 whole wheat tortillas
2 cup shredded cheddar cheese
cooking spray
2 avocados - cubed
1 tomato - pulp removed and diced
1/2 small onion diced
1 glove garlic minced
1/4 jalapeno - deveined and seeded and minced
lime juice - from 1 lime
salt & pepper

1. Make the guacamole first so it has time to set and the flavors can meld. In a medium bowl mash together the avocado, garlic, jalapeno & lime juice, keeping the mixture slightly chunky. Carefully mix in the tomatoes and onions. Add salt and pepper to taste. Set aside.
2. Preheat oven to 350F. Heat a skillet over medium heat. Spray with cooking spray. Toast both sides of each tortilla until slightly golden. Set aside on a plate. When all tortillas are toasted. Place 1 tortilla on a cookie sheet. top with shredded cheese, a thin layer of pulled pork, more shredded cheese and a second tortilla. Repeat with remaining tortillas and meat to make 3 quesadillas.
3. Place cookie sheet in heated over and bake for 12-15 minutes until cheese is melted. Remove from oven and cut with a pizza cutter. Serve with guacamole and a green salad with lettuce tomato and a vinaigrette dressing.

This was by far my favorite re-use of the pulled pork. I love quesadillas and this method to make them was so simple. I borrowed it from another one of my favorite bloggers, the Pioneer Woman, she is suggesting it for Superbowl Sunday and I inclined to agree. Whether you are reusing pulled pork or just about any leftover meat or using all veggies like the Pioneer Woman it's a tasty and satisfying treat.

Enjoy!

Breakfast for dinner

Since I have a slow cooker that is far too big for just 2 people because for it to cook properly it needs to filled with a certain amount of food. My slow cooker hold far more food that 2 people can consume in one sitting. So, we ended up with alot of Carnitas leftovers. Since we don't have a microwave and I don't think I can force Mexican on the boy 2 nights in a row. I decided to do a take on one of my favorite breakfasts, corned beef hash and poached eggs. Since poached eggs are gross cold and I was starving by the time we both were able to sit down to eat, there's no picture. Sorry, but you get the recipe which I think is far more important.

Carnitas Hash
serves 2

1 russet potato - cut into 1-inch dice
1 small onion - diced
1/2 red bell pepper - diced
1 clove garlic - minced
1 1/2 cups of Carnitas at room temperature (or any other pulled or diced meat that's already cooked)
salt & pepper to taste
1 Tbsp butter
2 Tbsp (or more) olive oil

1. Heat skillet over medium low heat. Melt butter with 1 Tbsp olive oil. Once pan is heated and butter is melted add potatoes and cover. Let cook on medium-low heat for 10 to 15 mins, checking a stirring occasionally to cook the potatoes evenly.
2. Once potatoes are tender add in onions, garlic & peppers. You will likely need to add the remaining Tbsp of oil here as the potatoes would have soaked it up and you need a bit of oil to make sure things don't burn. Cover and let cook for 5 mins.
3. Add carnitas to pan and gently mix in with vegetables. Turn heat up to medium and let cook for 5 minutes, without stirring. Flip and cook for another 5 minutes, without stirring. This last step is to get a nice crispy crust on the hash. Serve with poached eggs.

Any kind of meat hash is a great way to deal with leftover meat & potatoes. I used raw potatoes, but it comes together even more quickly if you have leftover baked or roasted potatoes. You can also add whatever vegetables you'd like. I've had it with green peppers before, but since I'm not a fan of green peppers I left them out. I like this dish because it's different every time and something you can have fun with.

I could write here how to poach an egg based on what I was planning on doing, but luckily the boy got home and has poached eggs before and took over that job for me. So it just doesn't seem right to pretend I did that myself, although I found these pretty solid directions on wikiHow.

The boy had never had hash and eggs before and seemed to like this. Poached eggs and hash is on my list of ultimate comfort foods and something I wish I had more often. Enjoy!

Chicken Salad

For as long as I can remember my dad would make chicken salad with leftover chicken. One of my favorites was always when he would make it with leftover barbecue chicken and it would have the flavor of the grill and sauce throughout. Well, I roasted a chicken the other day and made a chicken salad with the leftovers. I think I'll have to make for dad next time I see him because I'm pretty sure he'll really like it.

Chicken Salad
(all measurements are approximate)

3 cups of cut up chicken (if you don't roast or grill your own, the roasted chickens you buy at the supermarket work well too)
1 half small onion diced
1 handfuls of chopped walnuts
1 handful dried cranberries
1/2 green apple diced
1/4-1/2 cup mayonnaise
2-3 tbsp Dijon mustard
Fresh cracked black pepper

1. In a large bowl mix chicken, onion, walnuts, cranberries and apple.
2. Add mayonnaise 1/4 cup at a time and Dijon mustard a tbsp at a time to get the chicken salad to your preferred consistency.
3. Once it's all mixed add plenty of cracked black pepper, it adds just the right amount of bite to offset the sweetness of the fruit. Enjoy in a sandwich with some cheddar cheese or scoop some onto a salad.

The boy was very impressed by this salad. It was clearly not what he was expecting when I said I was going to make chicken salad. I was originally just going to use just cranberries and walnuts but on first taste it was missing something and the onions and apples added a brightness and crunch that really pulled it all together.