Using left-overs...

So, I hate wasting food. 

I hate throwing out left-overs.

  I feel guilty when we waste perfectly good food

 that someone in another circumstance

would have died to get

their hands on. 

But, sometimes, left-overs are just plain disgusting.

I almost NEVER get my husband to eat them.

The kids never seem to like them even if they liked it the

first time around.

So...one of my FAVORITE things to do is

reconstitute my left-overs.

Take something you made and turn it into

an entirely different meal.

And it's awesome when the family didn't even know they were eating "recycled food"!

So, here are a few of my favorite ways to

reuse our left-overs!

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Last weekend we had family over for dinner

and grilled up a bunch of chicken legs.

I had about 6 or 7 left over so today I

cut the chicken off the bone, cut/shred it up,

added red onion, a bit

of left-over salsa to it...

and some taco seasoning

(which I make myself and keep in an extra shaker)

and made chicken quesadillas!

YUMMY!!

(OK, I have to admit here that my kids only ate

cheese quesadillas b/c they do not approve

of putting onions in things.)

 

Still, I ate it and it was a GREAT lunch!

Way better than PB&J!

Just to keep it going....

I had some left over!

Tomorrow, I will roll it up into a few tortillas,

place in a baking dish and pour some

enchilada sauce over it. 

An individual serving of

enchiladas!

The chicken that keeps on going....

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Small group is tonight and I'm

SO EXCITED

to get together with friends and

eat yummy food!

We are having pulled pork sandwiches

at a friend's house.

My contribution: baked beans.

My mom has a great recipe that she got from my

great aunt Ida.  This is it:

As you can see, it calls for a lot of CANS of beans.

But I like to use dried beans.  So, I spent yesterday

afternoon refiguring this recipe using dried beans.

First problem, Aunt Ida's recipe calls for

a huge can of New England Style Baked beans,

AKA: Boston Baked Beans.

So, I went on a hunt for a recipe to make some! 

I found this:

Boston Baked Beans

I realized after reading over this recipe that it calls

for Navy Beans which I just used last week

when making "Ham and Beans".

And, guess what?

I had left-overs.

So, I turned my "Ham and Beans" into

"Boston Baked Beans"!

THEN, I cooked all my dried beans last night

in a crockpot.  Got up this morning and

drained them and mixed them with my new

Boston Baked Beans.

Put them back in the crockpot on LOW

for today.  I have already turned it down to

WARM as my crockpot tends to run hot.

I have already had a taste and let me tell you...

they are very good.

Aunt Ida would approve!