Thanksgiving Leftovers: Stuffing Waffles

I found a Rachael Ray recipe for "Leftover Stuffing Waffles" and, since I had a huge amount a leftover slow cooker turkey dressing, I knew I had to give it a try. I love waffles. I love stuffing. Waffled stuffing sounded like definite win.

And, you know, it looked good. I'd followed the instructions exactly -- preheated the waffle iron, liberally brushed it with melted unsalted butter, and packed it with leftover turkey dressing. I put my small oval French oven on top of the waffle iron to press the dressing down nice and tight and let it cook for a full eight minutes. When I lifted the lid, the cooked waffle was golden and crispy on top. It looked pretty darn good.

But then I tried to take the waffle out ... and it wouldn't come out. Oh, the top layer (all crispy-crunchy goodness) did, but the bottom stuck fast. It was a very sad waffle. Next time I would, as the good woman says, "butter yo shit" and maybe that waffle would just slide right out of the iron.

Anyway, fail waffle still tasted okay! Topped the waffle bits with reheated turkey and gravy and The Husband had no issue with it and cleaned his plate.

Thanksgiving Leftovers: Turkey Sandwiches

So, lots of Thanksgiving leftovers and, while sandwiches are an obvious way of using them up, I wanted more than the usual stuffing-cranberry-turkey sarnie. I wanted a turkey bahn mi. Or as close as I could get at home with the ingredients I had on hand.

I shredded too many vegetables, so made a little salad of the extras.

While it's not really a banh mi, I'm still pretty pleased with this sandwich. Spicy and crunchy and tart and full of carbs and tryptophan!

Banh Mi Inspired Turkey Sandwich

Ingredients
Leftover turkey
Sandwich rolls, halved
Sliced cucumber
Shredded carrot
Shredded radishes
Thinly sliced red onion
Unseasoned rice wine vinegar
Light mayonnaise
Sriracha
Dried cilantro

Directions
Toss your vegetables with enough rice wine vinegar to coat and let sit for about 15 minutes.

Marinated some of the cucumbers on their own as The Husband is fussy.

Combine mayonnaise, cilantro, and sriracha to taste. Set aside for about 15 minutes.

My eyes kept trying to tell my brain I'd made Thousand Island Dressing.

Spread mayonniase blend on both halves of rolls. Layer with vegetables. Sandwichize. Eat.

All the colors!

(I made The Husband's sandwich a little differently as I knew he wouldn't like the carrots or radishes. Instead, he had spicy mayonnaise, turkey, marinated cucumber, red onion, and stuffing. He seemed happy enough and went omnomnom).

Brussels Sprouts for Breakfast

Earlier this week, I roasted some lovely little Brussels sprouts and then, just to gild the lily, tossed them with a little bacon jam. Oh, so delicious! However, while I adore Brussels sprouts, there are only so many I can eat in one sitting and I was left with a small bowlful. What to do? Breakfast!

Delicious!

I brushed two thin slices of crusty, crunch garlic bread with garlic oil and toasted them in a hot nonstick skillet until golden.

While they toasted, I thinly sliced the leftover sprouts and set the oven to warm. When the bread was toasted, I popped it on a plate in the oven and transferred the sprouts to the hot skillet. I cooked them, stirring occasionally, until they were well browned. Then I transferred them to the plate in the oven and cooked an egg in the hot skillet.

Put the hot egg on the sprouts, seasoned everything with pepper and a little salt, and went nomnomnom.

(I cooked my egg a little too long -- was distracted prepping the tea things -- and it was not as runny as I like. Lesson learned: Make the tea before the egg).

Fast Greek-Style Dip & Salad

We threw a little shindig at work last week to celebrate our volunteers and, as always, I panicked when I saw the sign-up sheet going 'round. I never know what to bring to these things -- especially since this year, it was a "social hour" instead of a meal, which meant lots of nibble-y things instead of "sit down" food.

I knew I wanted a recipe I could throw together in the morning before work with minimal fuss that would still look good on a plate -- as if I had actually made an effort. A quick search on the Internet at lunch turned up Kraft's recipe for "10-Minute Appetizer Spread" and that seemed pretty perfect. I could make it right before work with minimal fuss, it would keep well until the "social hour," and it was savory rather than sweet (there was already a preponderance of sweets on the offing).

I modified what I thought of as the "Mediterranean" version of the recipe and it turned out really well! So well, in fact, that three people asked me for the recipe!

Combine 1 8 oz. package softened neufchatel cream cheese, ½ cup light mayonnaise, and 1 tablespoon Penzeys Greek seasoning blend.

Plop into a serving dish -- I used a shallow soup bowl -- and top with ½ cup chopped seeded Campari tomatoes, ½ cup chopped unpeeled seeded English cucumber, ¼ cup chopped black olives, and ½ cup crumbled feta with garlic and herbs.

I lay the diced seeded tomatoes and cucumbers on paper towels for about an hour before assembling the dish, hoping to get some of the water out of them. I also drained and blotted the olives very well.

As my amounts turned out differently from Kraft's (I did't want to bury the cream cheese mix in a mound of vegetables), I ended up with leftover chopped vegetables. I tossed the excess vegetables and cheese with cold diced beef leftover from Sunday dinner and a little Greek vinaigrette to make a lettuceless salad.

Easy Greek(ish) Chopped Salad

¼ cup diced seeded tomatoes
¼ cup diced seeded cucumbers
2 Tbsp black olives
2 Tbsp crumbled garlic and herb feta
4 oz diced cold roast beef
2 Tbsp Marie's Greek vinaigrette

Combine all. Toss well. Eat.

Comforting Friday Feast & Leftovers

Friday night, I roasted two Cornish game hens in oven bags at 400°F for 70 minutes. At the 40 minute mark, I added a pan of small yellow potatoes tossed with Ukrainian garlic cloves, olive oil, salt, pepper, and smoked paprika to the oven. While the hens and potatoes roasted, I made carrots in a buttery cream sauce -- boiled thin sliced carrots until tender and then tossed them with butter, sugar, salt, pepper, parsley, and a splash of cream. My paternal grandmother always sprinkled a little sugar on cooked carrots and I used to think she was a crazy lady with an enormous sweet tooth, but a little bit of sugar does make cooked carrots better.

I don't usually use oven bags, but the hens came that way from the grocery store and I thought I would give it a try. The hens came out very moist and tender, but lacked the beautiful, dark honey-brown skin I associated with roasted fowl. The bags did make for easy clean up, but when did roasting Cornish game hens ever generate much mess?

We split one Cornish hen and I set the other aside for pie, soup, sandwiches, or what have you. I ended up making these rollups on Sunday, after Snowtober. The guv'nor says Connecticut residents might be without power for a week and, while we have a whole-house generator, it seemed like a good idea to start eating up the perishables, just in case.

Shredded leftover Cornish game hen mixed with Goya sofrito sauce, sour cream, and cilantro. Spooned onto three leftover flour tortillas and rolled up. Broiled until the chicken was hot and the tortillas were crispy. Served with sour cream and spicy-sweet corn salsa. If I'd had more tortillas (or needed to feed more people), I would have mixed a (drained, rinsed) can of black beans in with the chicken.

Leftover Chicken? Easy Enchiladas!

I tend to make enchiladas when I have too much leftover turkey or chicken as it's a quick and easy (and tasty!) way to get supper on the table while using up leftovers I'm getting tired of seeing. I first made this version in 2007, but have made it many times now. It's a very rudimentary recipe and open to substitutions based on whatever I have on hand.

Preheat oven to 375°F. Warm three ounces light cream cheese until softened. Combine with two cups chopped cooked chicken, half a cup of spicy salsa, half a cup of shredded reduced fat cheese, and a handful of dried cilantro.

Spoon a third of a cup of the mixture onto a warmed tortilla, roll up, and place in a baker. Repeat three more times. Top with additional salsa and shredded cheese. Cover and bake 15 minutes. Uncover and bake 15 minutes more.

When I made Monday's enchiladas, I used Bald Mountain Garlic Farm's hot and smokey "Roasted Garlic and Chipotle Salsa" I'd purchased at the Connecticut Garlic Festival and it definitely kicked these enchiladas up a notch! I really wish I'd bought more than one jar.

Leftover Turkey Enchiladas Verde

When the world gives you too much turkey and you're sandwiched and souped out, make ... enchiladas verdes! This recipe is cobbled together from refrigerator and pantry staples so it is not very elegant, but it tastes good and goes together quickly. Can be made ahead, if you're organized.

Leftover Turkey Enchiladas Verde

Ingredients
1 cup light sour cream
1 jar salsa verde
1 small red onion, finely chopped
3 cloves garlic, pressed
3 cups shredded leftover turkey
8 oz shredded Cabot Seriously Sharp cheddar
8 small flour tortillas
Sriracha, to taste

Directions
Preheat oven to 375°F. Combine sour cream, onion, garlic, turkey, and half the salsa verde and cheese in a large bowl. Season with a generous squeeze of sriracha (ymmv).

Spoon some of the mixture into a tortilla, roll up, and place seam-side down in a baker. Repeat until you run out of tortillas. If you have any remaining filling, spread it around top of tortillas. Top with remaining salsa verde and cheese. Bake for about 30 minutes, uncovered, or until edges of tortillas turn golden and cheese is bubbly.

Necessity is the Mother of Good Noms

Sunday night I realized I had nothing to take to work on Monday. Sure, my kitchen was full of odds 'n ends, but what could I really do with them? This, apparently:

Kitchen Sink Barley Salad

Ingredients
1 cup quick cooking pearl barley, prepared as instructed
2 scallions, sliced
2 small cucumbers, diced
3 large radishes, diced
6 cherry tomatoes, diced
4 marinated artichoke hearts, diced
1 leftover grilled chicken breast, chopped

½ cup light mayonnaise
2 Tbsp light Greek vinaigrette
1 lemon, zested
black pepper, to taste

Directions
In a large bowl, combine first set of ingredients. In a small bowl, combine second set of ingredients.

Add mayonnaise mixture to barley mixture. Stir well. Let sit overnight.

How was it? Pretty darn tasty! Certainly, I felt like some kind of genius as I devoured a portion of it at lunch today and I'm already looking forward to tomorrow's lunch!

Salad of Randomness

I had a bunch of odds and ends huddled in the back of the fridge that all needed eating up at the same time. Not knowing what else to do, I made them into a salad.


Salad of Randomness

Ingredients
1 generous cup coleslaw mix (shredded cabbage and carrots)
7 diced spicy marinated green olives
5 oz can solid white albacore tuna in water, well drained
2 Tbsp minced red onion
1 Tbsp canola mayonnaise
2 Tbsp light Italian dressing (any vinaigrette might work)
Fresh ground black pepper, to taste
2 generous cups baby spinach leaves

Directions
Combine first six ingredients and mix well. Plop on plate or bowl lined with the baby spinach leaves. Season with pepper. Nom!

This was seriously delicious and almost worth buying coleslaw mix for. I've been on a coleslaw kick recently -- not that you'd know, as I haven't been blogging about it!

Repurposed Roast

I wanted to use up my leftover slow cooker roast, but wasn't in the mood for sandwiches, stew, or shepherd's pie. I needed something that could be cooked in hurry and would also use up all the wrinkly or limp vegetables in our crisper drawer. In the end, I just chopped everything into bits and stir-fried them with leftover gravy. Not a very elegant meal, but quick and tasty.

Sort-of Stir-fry

Ingredients
3 cups cubed leftover slow cooker roast
8 asparagus stalks, cut into 1-inch pieces
1 orange bell pepper, cut into bite-size pieces
1½ cups grape tomatoes
3 stalks celery, sliced
3 scallions, sliced and whites separated from greens
2 cloves garlic, pressed
1 cup leftover gravy
Low-sodium chicken broth, as needed

Directions
Heat olive oil in a large pot until hot, add all ingredients except scallion greens and quickly cook until meat is hot and asparagus is crisp-tender, add gravy and toss until everything is thoroughly coated and gravy is hot (add a little broth if the gravy seems too thick). Sprinkle with scallion greens and serve over brown rice or quinoa.

Kitchen Sink Stuffed Peppers

While I really enjoyed making (and eating!) my homegrown version of cheesy blasters, that experiment did leave me with a lot of leftover ingredients. While I'm not particularly thrifty these days, I still am not keen on wasting food and didn't just want to bin my leftover cheesy blasters bits. Eventually, after a good rummage through my cabinets, I came up with an idea for stuffed peppers ...

Kitchen Sink Peppers

• 1 lb lean ground turkey
• Penzeys "Arizona Dreaming" seasoning blend, to taste
• 1 can low-sodium organic black beans, drained and rinsed
• 1 can Muir Glen low-sodium diced tomatoes, drained
• 1 container unnecessary salsa con queso
• 4 organic bell peppers, tops and seeds removed
• Leftover pizza sauce (about 6 oz)
• Leftover shredded mozzarella-cheddar cheese blend (about 4 oz)

Preheat oven to 375°F.

Generously season turkey with seasoning blend and cook until no pink remains. Stir in queso, beans, and tomatoes. Set aside.

Bring pot of water to boil, add peppers to boiling water, and cook for about 5 minutes. Remove peppers from pot, drain, and place in a square baking pan. (One of my peppers suffered from poor balance so I just propped it up against its mates -- if I were less lazy, I would have trimmed its bottom so it could stand on its own).

Fill peppers with meat mixture, pour pizza sauce over them, top them with cheese, and bake, uncovered, in preheated 375°F oven for about 35 minutes.

Thanksgiving Leftovers: Egg Stuffing Cups

Lots of Southern Living's "Slow Cooker Cornbread Dressing" leftover from Thanksgiving. Been eating it on sandwiches and used some to thicken turkey soup, but still have too much left! What to do? This, apparently:

Pat leftover stuffing on the bottom and up the sides of a ramekin. Crack one egg into the ramekin. Bake at 350°F for, probably, 15-20 minutes.

I say "probably" because I forgot to set the kitchen timer, completely lost track of what I was doing, and didn't pull the ramekin out of the oven for at least thirty minutes. At which point, I had a hard cooked egg when I really wanted well set whites with a runny center.

(Also, you'll wanted to grease the ramekin well if planning on decanting the stuffing cup onto a plate).

I've been making Southern Living's "Slow Cooker Cornbread Dressing" since 2006 and this was the first time I was not completely pleased with it. It was just too moist and sweet this year. Happily, I know where to place the blame -- the cornbread. To save time, I bought a pan of cornbread from the Stop & Shop bakery and it was just too cake-like for this recipe. Soft, moist, and sugary when I really needed a dry, crumbly, gritty cornbread. Next time, I will stick with Southern Living's recommended Martha White Yellow Cornbread Mix.

Mind you, while I thought this batch of cornbread dressing wasn't quite the thing, my mother and cousin both enjoyed it enough to ask for the recipe!

Thanksgiving Leftovers: Poultry Plucker's Pie

While I'd originally planned to make a pot pie with Thanksgiving's bountiful leftovers, I had so much garlic mash left that I decided to make a cottage pie by modifying my "Sheepish Shepherd's Pie" recipe, instead.

Poultry Plucker's Pie

1 Tbsp. unsalted butter
1 small onion, minced
3 cups leftover roast turkey (dark and white meat), cubed small
1 cup leftover garlic braised green beans, cubed small
1 cup leftover julienned carrots in buttery thyme sauce
1 recipe broth-based turkey gravy (see below)
3 cups leftover garlic mashed potatoes
1 egg yolk
Paprika, as desired

Preheat oven to 400° F.

Melt butter in skillet. Sauté onion until translucent. Stir in turkey, gravy, vegetables. Pour into a 11x9-inch baker.

Beat cold potatoes in stand mixer until softened. Beat in egg yolk. Spread over pan. Sprinkle with paprika. Place dish on a baking sheet and bake, uncovered, for about 30 minutes or until browned and bubbly.

Let rest about 10 minutes. Nom.

I don't usually use drippings for gravy, but make it from broth because that means I can make the gravy while the meat is still cooking and everything can get to the table that much faster. Also, I simply don't like dealing with drippings ...

This recipe can be modified to use any kind of broth or whatever seasonings you prefer. I often make this gravy with low-sodium chicken broth, 1% milk, thyme, and rosemary.

Gobble-less Gravy

1 14.25oz can turkey broth
2 Tbsp unsalted butter
1 Tbsp Bell's Seasoning (or thyme or rosemary to taste)
1½ cup heavy cream
1 Tbsp. corn starch
Dried parsley, as desired
Ground black pepper, as desired

Bring broth, butter, and seasoning to boil. Whisk together cream and corn starch. Slowly add to broth mixture, whisking constantly while gravy thickens. Whisk in parsley and pepper, if desired. Remove from heat.

Out of One, Many

So, Monday I roasted the last freezer turkey and we had a little unThanksgiving feast with cornbread stuffing, garlic mashed potatoes, gravy, and braised green beans. It was all delicious, but made for a huge amount of leftovers.

What to do with all those leftovers?

Salad! And such yummy one at that -- mixed greens, red cabbage, red onion, cucumber, celery, red bell pepper, yellow pear tomatoes, chopped leftover roast turkey, goat cheese crumbles, walnuts, and blueberries all drizzled with fig balsamic vinaigrette. I ate this salad for three days running and did not tire of it.

Soup! A modified version of "Chicken Tortilla Soup" from Better Homes & Gardens's Quick-Fix Family Favorites topped with sour cream and diced avocado. Used leftover roast turkey instead of chicken, Muir Glen fire-roasted diced tomatoes instead of stewed Mexican seasoned ones, three tablespoons Penzeys Bold Taco seasoning, and a whole bag of sliced frozen mixed peppers.

I served this soup with tube biscuits I coated with shredded Cabot Seriously Sharp cheddar before baking and they came out pretty well. If I made them again, I'd sprinkle them with a little garlic powder and maybe brush them with a little butter ...

Pot Pie! Filling is made of diced leftover turkey, gravy thinned with low-sodium chicken broth, thyme, black pepper, leftover braised green beans, mushrooms, onion, celery, and garlic.

And, of course, manymany sandwiches!

Delicious as it all was, I don't think I want to see another turkey before 25 November!

Dogs & Eggs

I had some hot dogs leftover from our Labor Day picnic and decided to make a breakfast from my childhood -- hot dogs and scrambled eggs. I'm sure my mother saw this dish as a fast, easy, and economical way to repurpose leftovers, but to me it was just pure delicousness. Drowned in ketchup with hot, crunchy toast on the side? Heaven.

Tomatoey Dogs & Eggs
Serves 1 hungry person

Ingredients
2 hot dogs, sliced into rounds
1 small tomato, seeded and coarsely chopped
2 eggs
2 Tbsp low fat milk
Fresh ground black pepper, to taste

Directions
Cook hot dogs in a hot pan until browned on one side. Flip over, add tomatoes, and cook until the other side is browned. Meanwhile, whisk eggs with milk and pepper.

Pour egg mixture into pan and cook without stirring. When eggs in bottom of pan start to thicken and firm, stir gently. Cook, still stirring gently, until eggs are slightly firm but not runny. Sprinkle with more pepper and eat.

Chicken & Egg

Lunch for The Husband -- grilled chicken leftover from Sunday's picnic on artisan bread from the Price Chopper bakery with Bibb lettuce & Stonewall Kitchen's Blue Cheese Herb Mustard. Because I love him so, I also gave him the last devilled egg.

Sunday's grilled chicken was based on Betty Crocker's recipe for "Grilled Provençal Chicken Breasts" and came out rather nice -- tender and moist with really good flavor. Of course, I modified the recipe a bit, based on the ingredients I had on hand and the number of people I needed to feed ...

Provençal Greek Chicken Breasts
¼ cup lemon juice
2 Tbsp. Penzeys Greek Seasoning
⅛ tsp pepper
4 boneless skinless chicken breast halves

Place chicken in a storage container with a tight-sealing lid. Whisk together first three ingredients, pour over chicken. Seal container. Shake. Refrigerate overnight. Heat grill. Cook chicken for about 10 minutes on each side or until beautifully browned and cooked through.

[Interesting lemon tip: Jacques Pepin, on either Disc 1 or 2 of More Fast Food My Way, says you can get more juice out of a hard citrus by microwaving it for a few seconds. I usually just roll mine around the countertop.]

Sunday's devilled eggs were also from Betty Crocker. I used the recipe for "Chive 'n Onion Deviled Eggs," but got a little confused while making them -- put the paprika and chives in with the yolks, used mustard powder where the recipe called for "yellow mustard" -- and mucked them up a bit:

Confused Chive 'n Onion Eggs
6 eggs
¼ cup chives-and-onion cream cheese spread (from 8-oz container)
1 tsp milk
1 tsp yellow mustard powder
⅛ tsp Penzeys Hungarian Sweet Kulonleges Paprika
2 tsp chopped fresh chives

Hard-cook eggs using your preferred method, cool, shell, and halve.

Place yolks in a bowl and add cream cheese spread, salt, milk, mustard, paprika, and chives; mash with fork until smooth. If making ahead, store yolk filling and eggs separately in the fridge until needed. Pipe yolk mixture into egg whites. Sprinkle with additional paprika. Serve.

[You want to use eggs with bright, golden yolks for these. I used Farmer's Cow eggs which have buttercup-gold yolks.]

Kitchen Economics

Two months ago, I bought a three pound roasting chicken on sale for 99¢ per pound. Last week, I thawed and roasted it with fingerling potatoes from the farmer's market. Sunday, I scavenged the carcass for meat and turned it into a pot pie (which also used some of the leftover potatoes). Tuesday, I made soup with the last of the roast potatoes, the chicken carcass, and the frozen carcasses of two other roasted chickens. One bird, three dishes, many meals. Is that not awesome?

If I've done my math right (and this is doubtful) it is generally more economical to buy whole poultry or a large cut of meat rather than parts or ground meat ...

Chicken Surprise

As last week's kale and potato soup did not go down amazingly well, I thought better of my New Year's Day menu plan and decided not to inflict "Mashed-Potato Cakes with Onions and Kale" upon The Husband. Instead, I quick-thawed the turkey breast that had been happily slow-thawing in the refrigerator ...

Except that turkey breast turned out to not to be a turkey breast at all, but a roasting chicken! Granted, it was still wrapped in a shopping bag from when I brought it home from the market months ago, but you still think I would have noticed.

Anyway, it was an awesome chicken and we ate it up. Yum. I used a recipe from Stonewall Kitchen's Harvest cookbook as my guide -- "Roast Chicken with Roasted Garlic-Herb Butter and Roasted Vegetables." As suggested in the recipe's end notes, I lined a shallow roasting pan with beautiful fingerling potatoes and put the chicken on top making the potatoes a defacto roasting rack. The potatoes needed no seasoning or lubricant of their own -- they were basted and seasoned with the chicken's juices and turned out very nicely, indeed.

The garlic-herb butter was rather fun to make, but I'm bound to like anything that involves roasting and mashing. All I did was roast garlic cloves in a little olive oil and then mash them into softened butter along with some thyme, sage, rosemary, and pepper. Dead easy and it made the chicken so delicious!

Oh, that chicken. So moist and tender that the meat actually slid off the bones. I read about that happening to other cooks, but I can count on one hand how many times it has happened to me!

Since we had some leftover chicken, I made a pot pie for Sunday's supper by modifying the "Chicken or Turkey Pie" recipe out of my mother's old copy of Miriam B. Loo's Recipe Treasury (Current, 1982):

Modified Chicken Pie

1 carrot, sliced thin
1 stalk celery, sliced thin
Water, as needed
4 Tbsp unsalted butter
6 Tbsp King Arthur White Whole Wheat Flour
2 cups low-sodium chicken broth
Thyme, to taste
Freshly ground pepper, to taste
Dried parsley leaves, to taste
3 cups cooked diced chicken
1 cup sliced leftover roasted fingerling potatoes
1 cup frozen corn, thawed
1 refrigerated pie crust

Preheat oven to 450°F.

In a saucepan, cover carrot and celery with water. Bring to boil and let simmer about 3 minutes or until vegetables are just tender. Drain and sent aside.

In another saucepan, melt butter. Whisk in flour and cook over medium for 2 minutes, whisking all the while. Slowly whisk in broth. Still whisking, bring to mixture to boil over medium high and let boil until thickened. Season to taste.

Add carrot-celery mixture, chicken, potatoes, and corn. Pour into a pie dish and top with pie crust. Poke holes to vent. Bake at 450°F for 15 minutes or until the crust is golden brown.

The original pie recipe called for a biscuit top, but I was pressed for time and used a refrigerated pie crust leftover from Thanksgiving. The pie came out really well and I will certainly try it with a biscuit top, next time.

This is only the second pot pie I have made since we moved and I would like to get into the habit of making them more often as they are both tasty and thrifty. Also, The Husband likes pot pies and I like The Husband ...

Menu Plan Monday, Week Thirty-Nine

Lots of simple, easy dishes on this week's menu as all my energies are focused on Christmas. The only grocery shopping I plan on doing is for Christmas Dinner's ingredients, so we will be eating out of the cupboards and freezer for most meals.

(Christmas is almost here! Squee!)

Monday

• Pasta with farmer's market ground beef, freezer tomato sauce, mushrooms, onion, garlic, and peppers.
  

Tuesday (work)

• Frozen Kashi meal with salad and satsumas.
  

Wednesday

• Kashi frozen pizza and salad followed by binge cleaning and stress snacking.

Thursday (Christmas Eve Supper)

• A tasty and easy repeat from last year: tiny Cornish hens, roasted, with baked potatoes and peas. Ingredients: Cornish rock hens, butter, lemon, thyme, salt and pepper.

Friday (Christmas Dinner)

• Beef tenderloin with port wine sauce, garlic-herb mashed potatoes, garlicky green beans and/or buttery parsley corn, tossed salad, fresh rolls, and pickle plate. Ingredients: many.

Saturday

• Leftover beef tenderloin stir-fried with carrots, celery, and onion over parsley-rice with leftover salad. Ingredients: beef, carrots, celery, onion, home-made stir-fry sauce (water, cornstarch, broth, soy sauce).
  

Sunday

• Stew from the leftover tenderloin (based on "Leftover Beer Roast Italian Stew") with leftover rolls. Ingredients: beef, onion, garlic, leftover vegetables, bell pepper, low-sodium broth, low-sodium diced tomatoes, oregano, basil, mushrooms.
  

A Taste of Nostalgia: Fish Cakes

For Wednesday's supper, I made easy-peasy "Tuna-Potato Cakes" from Better Homes and Gardens Quick-Fix Family Favorites (Meredith Books, 2008) with tiny peas and rice pilaf.

These cakes took me straight back to my childhood -- my mother used to make salmon-potato cakes which I would eat drowned in ketchup with buttery parsley potatoes and peas. While I have my mother's recipe, I have never tried making them as removing the skin and bones from the canned salmon gives me a bad case of the ewwws.

Tuna, it turns out, works just fine. So, probably, would crab meat or minced clams. Mmm, clam cakes!

My experience with this recipe:

• When I made these cakes, I did not have a twelve ounce can of tuna so I substituted two five ounce cans of solid white albacore low sodium tuna.
• I also threw in some parsley flakes and used seasoned salt-free breadcrumbs.
• Using a one-third cup measure to scoop out the cakes worked really well and I did, for once, end up with four servings (2 cakes each).
• The trick to keeping them from falling apart when flipping was to not touch them at all as they cooked for four minutes per side. This way each side became beautifully brown and crispy and everything held together well (I learned this the hard way while making "instant" latkes last week).

I think, like the "Two-Step Crunchy Chicken Strips," these tuna-potato cakes are going to start making regular appearances at my supper table.