Recycled Dinner- Using Leftovers in a No Recipe Meal

Leftovers. You either love them or hate that. Some people eat them, others leave them in plastic containers until they return to life in a fuzzy bowl of antibiotics-to-be. Some people refuse to even save them. Sometimes they make a great lunch the next day and sometimes you're eating them for the next three days. Leftovers don't have to be boring and with a little creativity, they don't have to be the exact same meal either. 

Friday night I came home from work dreading the coming winter storm. I walked in the front door and was immediately met by lovely aromas. The Chef was busy cooking dinner. He was making a roast beef, rubbed with a coffee and spice meat rub he put together and slowly roasting in a bottle of Cabernet Sauvignon. He makes an absolutely killer roast beef and uses all the traditional vegetables- carrots, onions, garlic, mushrooms. After a delicious dinner we still had a good portion of roast beef left over, and a small bowl of roast potato wedges so he tucked those away in the fridge for now.

Saturday night meant pizza night, and more leftovers. For toppings, we wanted salami, mushrooms, onions, olives green peppers. I needed one bell pepper, but they came in packages of three, so, you guessed it, two peppers were leftover.

So here we are on Sunday and I need to pull something together using the various left over items from our last couple dinners. This is going to be easy! I've got everything I need- roast beef to chop up, vegetables to add flavor and textures, roasted potatoes to either incorporate or serve alongside, and two beautiful bell peppers to pull it all together!

Get started by preparing the peppers. I used two large green bell peppers. Cut in half lengthwise and remove seeds and membranes. I charred the peppers a little over the gas burners to get a smoky roasted flavor. Spray a baking dish with cooking spray and arrange the peppers cut side up. Set aside.

For the filling I prepared 1/2 cup uncooked rice, using the leftover broth from the roast as the liquid. Just cook it like you would regular rice, and set aside.

Pick out and chop enough of the roast beef to make about one cup, enough for four pepper halves. Chop some of the mushrooms and onions. I smashed a couple cloves of garlic too. In a medium bowl, toss the meat cubes, rice, and vegetables with about 1/2 cup salsa or pasta sauce- whatever you have around. Divide the filling among the pepper halves. Top each with some shredded or sliced cheese. Cover with foil, but tent it, so the cheese doesn't stick to the foil and bake at 375 for about 30-45 minutes, uncovering at the end to brown the cheese.

Wasn't that easy? No recipe, just use whatever you have. You can add veggies such as leftover corn, or olives, or whatever you like. Serve with a salad and some bread and you've got a super fast and economical dinner that helps clean out the fridge!

Banana Cream Pie What ????

It's Saturday morning in mid March in Iowa. Spring should be in the air, green blades of grass peeking out, birds chirping, breezy days, but not today. We awoke to a blanket of white flaky yuck. Now, you're going to say "Hey, you always talk about how much you love winter!" and yes, for the most part I DO! Not once March gets here though! I'm so ready for flowers, pots of fresh herbs on the deck, sunshiny mornings and the first farmers markets of the season. Instead, today I'm thinking of reasons to kick on the oven and stay in. Baking? Maybe!

I may have been obsessing over cake lately but there is always room for pie, right?  Of course there is! As a baker, I love the challenge of making a really good pie. Achieving a perfect flaky pastry, and creamy fillings that are smooth and free from lumps are not that hard to accomplish. Fruit pies are my favorite pies to bake, especially with fresh fruit. Getting that perfect tart sweet balance, and a slightly thickened juicy filling that doesn't make the crust soggy are the big challenges but simple additions like cornstarch make it happen perfectly. Cream pies are some of the easiest pies to make and offer you lots of chances to use time saving products, and that's what we are going to make today, creamy banana cream pie with a surprise topping- bruleed bananas.

You can classify this one under the No Recipe Cooking file because we will be using some store bought products to save time but you can certainly make your own graham cracker crust and pastry cream for the filling. Let's get started!

You will need a graham cracker pie crust, 3 ripe but firm bananas, 1 package COOKED vanilla or banana pudding mix, 1 3/4 cups milk, 1 teaspoon vanilla, granulated sugar, coconut oil and whipped cream. The first thing we are going to do is combine the pudding mix with the milk in a medium saucepan and cook according to package directions. We are using less milk than the box calls for because we want the pie to set better for slicing. Once the pudding is cooked stir in the vanilla, transfer to a bowl and cover with plastic wrap- make sure you place the wrap directly on the surface of the pudding so a skin doesn't form.  If you choose to make homemade pastry cream you want to do the same thing. Chill completely.

To prepare the pie, slice two of the bananas into the crust and spread them out evenly. Remove the plastic from the chilled pastry cream or pudding and spoon into crust, smoothing out to cover the bananas. Place in the fridge while you make the bruleed bananas.

To make the bruleed bananas, slice the remaining banana into ten even slices. They should be fairly thick so they cook too much and get soft. Sprinkle some granulated sugar onto a small plate and coat both sides of the banana slices with the sugar- press it gently to get lots of sugar to stick.  

Heat a small nonstick skillet over fairly high heat. Add a small amount of coconut oil to the skillet and add the banana slices. Cook quickly to brown and caramelize the sugar, turning once. Work fast so the bananas don't overcook. Set aside on small plate to cool. If you have a kitchen torch you can use that to melt the sugar too.

Decorate the top of the pie with dollops of whipped cream and a banana slice.

Wasn't that easy? Your friends and family will rave over this pie and the extra step of bruleeing the bananas makes it look like you invested a ton of time- when really, it was a snap!! Give it a try, it's one of my family's holiday favorites.

No Recipe Baking? Yes you can!

It's my one week anniversary and yes, I'm still feeling a little loved-up and in the bubble. I can't help it! Whenever I feel this happy and homey and surrounded with happy, I of course want to show that in the kitchen. What better way on the eve of October then to bake a pie? Autumn is apple season and the markets are loaded with beautiful apple varieties. Honey crisp is one of the first fall varieties of apples available in Iowa. If you've never had this type before, you need to find some. They are the perfect fresh eating apple. Juicy and sweet, the skin is a blushing red and yellow. They can be pretty big too. Also readily available right now are Granny Smith apples, the perfect pie apple.

Now we all know that generally speaking, baking is an exact science and it's not easy to "wing it." Finding the right balance of dry to liquid ingredients, the right leavening agent, the perfect balance of sugar and tart, these take a carefully followed recipe. However....... I am going to show you how to make a delicious, juicy and just right sweet apple pie from fresh apples- no gross sloppy canned pie filling here- and flaky crust. If you want, you can cheat and buy a pre-made pie crust- which honestly, I do quite a lot of times, or you can whip up a super fast crust if you're good at eyeballing ingredients. Spoon about 2 cups flour into a bowl and add a good pinch of salt. Grab a stick of cold butter and slice most of it, about 2/3 of the stick, into pats right into the flour. Cut it in with a fork until it looks like fine crumbs then toss with a couple tablespoons ice water just until the mixture holds together. Gather into a ball- DON'T KNEAD it, wrap in plastic and chill about an hour before cutting in two and rolling out for your pie.

Fruit pies are a favorite and are so much easier to make than you think! You don't need all the goo and saucy stuff common in prepared pie fillings, in fact that usually makes a soggy pie. Yuck. Fresh fruit needs only a few adjustments to be perfect in pies- a little sugar, a pinch of salt, a splash of lemon to make everything taste awesome, sometimes a little spice like cinnamon, ginger, gloves, and some kind of thickener. I prefer using flour or cornstarch in my fruit pies. I use flour for the less juicy fruits and cornstarch for berries and very ripe peaches. Once you have this basic recipe figured out, you can whip up a homemade fruit pie any time just off the top of your head!

For the filling you want 4 or 5 fresh apples. Granny Smith apples make the best apple pie, trust me on this. We are making an 8 inch pie so 4 to 5 apples is plenty. Grab a large bowl, peel, core and slice the apples into bite sized pieces. Add about a tablespoon of lemon juice, some sugar to taste (I keep a tablespoon in my sugar canister and I just spooned 4 or 5 heaping tablespoons into the bowl), a few dashes of cinnamon and any other spices you like- nutmeg and ginger go great with apple, and a bit of flour. Experience tells me a couple tablespoons is plenty for apples. Toss it all together to mix it thoroughly.

Roll out your pastry, and fit the bottom into an eight inch pie pan. Pile the fruit in the crust and dot with butter all over. Roll out and fix the top crust on top, seal the edges, crimp and flute. Decorate your pie however you like, and be sure to cut some vents in the top crust. You can do a traditional full top crust or something fancy like lattice or pastry cut outs. Brush the pastry with milk and sprinkle with additional sugar for a sparkly crisp crust, if you like. Preheat your oven to 375 degrees and slide that pie into the hot oven. Bake for 50 minutes until the crust s golden brown and apples are tender. Let cool slightly before serving with whipped cream or ice cream.

Wasn't that simple? And just think, you did it without following a written recipe! Like I said, this basic fruit pie recipe works great with just about any fruit. Apples and pears need just a couple tablespoons of flour to thicken the juices, but some berries will need more, or use about the same amount of cornstarch, which is roughly twice the thickening power. Adjust your sugar as needed- if working with something really tart like rhubarb or gooseberries, you want to bump up that sugar a bit. Don't be afraid to experiment and have fun!

Sheet Pan Dinners- No Recipe Cooking

The idea of the sheet pan dinner is taking social media by storm. Foodie bloggers are raving about them, Pinterest is positively bursting with pins featuring sheet pan creations, and a quick scroll on your Facebook feed, I'll bet anything you will see at least one or two posts about them. They are such a great idea- totally homemade fast food that isn't junky and fried. Besides saving time, they save on cleanup too- you use one sheet pan. Period. Maybe a bowl, a knife and a cutting board. No stacks of pots and pans to wash after dinner? Sign me up!

Today we're going to look at the sheet pan dinner phenomenon and get some great ideas together. A few weeks ago The Chef and I were coming home after a short trip to Colorado. We arrived home late in the evening, road weary and hungry. Now, every kind of fast food you can think of is within a three block radius of our house- hamburgers, tacos, fish, fried chicken, coneys. We could have taken the lazy way out and just hit the drive thru (believe me, we're not health nuts and we DO sometimes succumb to the temptation) but that's not what we were wanting. Even though we hadn't been home for several days we still had some food in the house, easily the makings for a quick and easy sheet pan dinner.

Grabbing my big stainless steel mixing bowl I grabbed a few ingredients- a kielbasa, a couple potatoes, an onion, a couple stalks of broccoli and a cauliflower that needed to be used up very soon. All I had to do was scrub the potatoes- I never peel unless I'm making mashed, chunk the onion and potatoes, cut up the broccoli and cauliflower- dump everything in the giant mixing bowl. Drizzle some olive oil over everything, added salt, pepper, some herbs and a couple big tablespoons of grainy mustard- tossed it all together to coat everything evenly and spread it out on a sheet pan. 

Into the oven at 400 degrees for about 30 minutes and voila- dinner is served. So easy and minimal prep. This particular dish had a great kick from the mustard and the veggies had that lovely roasted thing going on that I love so much- the mix of texture, bits of char, still just enough crunch.

A few days later I was ready to do it again. Long days at work and nights I just didn't feel like dealing with cooking.....or dishes. This time I managed to scrounge up a pork tenderloin, a couple potatoes, a bunch of fresh asparagus, onion and a box of fresh mushrooms. I cut the pork into bite size cubes and tossed with olive oil and fresh herbs. It was delicious!!

Wanna know the best part? If you line that sheet pan with some heavy duty foil you don't even have to wash that! 

Need some ideas for your own super easy sheet pan dinner? For speed, always use a lean meat that you can cube into bite sized pieces. Chicken and pork work great. Sliced sausages are great too- stick with fully cooked sausage. There are some recipes around using bone-in chicken pieces but they don't cook in 30 minutes. Try one if you find one though! Any vegetable works great too. Sweet potatoes, regular potatoes- I love baby potatoes made this way. Carrots, beets, broccoli, just use your imagination.

A recent trip to Trader Joe's inspired yet another sheet pan dinner. They have such beautiful produce there I could not resist grabbing some haricots verts and rainbow baby carrots to make a fun and colorful weeknight dinner. 

Again, in the big mixing bowl I combined the beans, and the carrots, after cutting them in half lengthwise, about 4 cloves of chopped garlic, plenty of olive oil and seasonings, salt and pepper. 

In another small bowl I tossed the cubed pork tenderloin with olive oil, more chopped garlic and citrus barbeque meat rub. 

Spread the vegetables onto the sheet pan and add the meat to the top.

Again, into a 400 degree oven and about 30 minutes later- the carrots are perfectly tender, the beans still slightly crispy, the garlic sweetens and the pork was tender and juicy. So delicious.

I hope you give these ideas a try. You won't believe how easy it is to get a healthy and delicious dinner going with a minimum of fuss.

Disclosure of Material Connection: I have not received any compensation for writing this post. I have no material connection to the brands, products, or services that I mentioned. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission's 16 CFR, Part 55: "Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising."

Another No Recipe Cooking Weekend

We all know one of those planning kinds of people. You know the ones, they sit down with a notebook and a cup of coffee, their calendar and some coupons and plan an entire week's, or more, worth of menus, and actually stick to it. I am NOT that person. Oh I tried, and tried, and tried. I failed. I threw away uncooked vegetables that went bad because I didn't stick to my plan. I just did that in fact, this morning, tossing weepy organic arugula and green beans that I forgot to use for meals during the week. Darn me. I HATE when that happens. I regretfully had to toss an unopened package of beautifully prepared chili lime grilled chicken breast strips because I got lazy and didn't make dinner a few times. I just can't plan ahead! 

A few basics in the pantry and you can make a whole
takeout menu full of recipes for pennies.

Unless.......... it's a manageable amount of food- like say, six bone in chicken breasts. I had a package in the fridge that needed to be cooked or meet a freezing fate in the freezer, so I decided it's time to make some Planned Leftovers. Easy- line a baking sheet with foils, and arrange the chicken breasts on top. Season them liberally. I used the last teaspoon of some Fines Herbes from Penzey's, some garlic salt, Montreal Steak seasoning (I use this for everything), a sprinkle of smoked paprika and some tomato basil seasoning I found on the shelf and rubbed all over the chicken. I popped the chicken breasts into a 350 degree oven and roasted them for about an hour, then I let cool, popped in the fridge, and when cold, pulled the chicken off the bone and saved for some easy meals over the weekend, and I was soooo glad I did. I think I'm going to do this again- on purpose!

Dessert is a snap when you start with a mix

Having had a fairly stressful work week, the weekend was my relax time, my time to do nothing. Cooking wasn't even on my radar. I was whiny, sad that I am missing out on the Italian American Festival and the American Cheese Society's Festival of Cheese- and come on!! Who want to miss these events? One of my Foodie Resolutions was to attend more food events in 2016- and so far it's been a tough one to meet. Not for the last of wanting, however, I have had to miss out on several awesome tastings, cooking classes, and a few other events and I'm not too happy about it. So I had a teeny meeny pity party over missing out. Cooking just wasn't in my game plan this weekend. Thankfully, that roasted chicken will come into play a couple times this weekend.

Faced with certain starvation and a fridge with some pretty tasty ingredients contained therein I opted for the easy way out- a salad. Rescued from the veggie drawer, a mostly full bag of organic baby spinach formed the foundation of my salad. I wish I'd also had some fresh basil leaves but i was forced to make do. A couple of very ripe and juicy Roma tomatoes get cut up into bite size chunks and tossed in the bowl. Half a ball of fresh mozzarella, cubed, goes in next, followed with a generous handful of cut up leftover roast chicken breast. Whip up a quick vinaigrette with some olive oil, Dijon mustard and Balsamic vinegar and toss the whole thing together with some crunchy Italian bread croutons. I didn't have any croutons and I missed that crunch. It was a great light dinner I'd definitely make again.

Sunday was a lazy day. Neither the chef nor I wanted to cook again.....and we still had veggies and chicken to use. Sounds like a crazy stir fry of some sort, with rice, was in order.

Out of boredom, I thought I'd check the pantry and maybe whip up some kind of dessert. I spied some good recipe basics on the shelf and decided a cake of some kind would be easy to pull off. Simple to throw together, mix up a one layer yellow cake mix as the package directs. Pour into 8x8 pan. Grab a can of pie filling of choice- I used red raspberry, and spoon it randomly onto the cake batter, swirling a bit. Sprinkle with a topping if you like- I had some leftover pecan brittle from the Naughtiest Bacon so I used that. Chopped nuts, coconut, a streusel recipe- all would be great. Popped into the oven at 350 degrees for 35 minutes and it was perfect. No frosting needed, a little whipped topping or vanilla ice cream would have been great. 

This quick dessert is a great dish to use and experiment. Use your favorite cake flavors and different pie fillings, or fresh fruit, leftover fried apples, whatever!

No Recipe Cooking - Pepper Steak

A few nights ago I was struggling to come up with an idea for dinner. My checkbook laughed at me when I considered take out and the fridge was looking a little pathetic. As I stood there with the door wide open, basically refrigerating the rest of the kitchen, I thought surely I can come up with something, right? I had a few different salad veggies, although no lettuce or spinach, a small piece of sirloin steak, some seasonings and sauces, and a pantry full of staples. Now I could have just cooked the steak, thrown a potato in the micro and called it a day, but I was hoping for something a little better, and a way to stretch that piece of steak into a meal for two.

Standing in the kitchen, feeling completely uninspired, my mind wandered off into memories, laughing to myself at some of the dishes my mom used to make. We have talked about Erika before. Don't get me wrong, my mom made some really incredible dinners. She made that chicken paprika, as she called it, that is one of the best things I have ever eaten. Her lentil soup and potato pancakes were always a family favorite, and still are when my family begs me to make it. Pot roast was perfection in our house growing up. Mom's gravy was awesome, and the roasted potatoes would get beefy and browned in a way I have been able to replicate in my own kitchen. She surely had her secrets.

And then........she had some things that were total bombs. Dad prided himself on his yearly garden and would pick whatever fresh vegetable of the day for Mom to make for dinner. Mom cooked vegetables to death. Fresh green beans no longer resembled fresh green beans, they were more like canned beans. Same with broccoli. Gone was the bright green and slight crunch and in it's place, a bowl of dull, brown, limp looking florets that even cheese sauce couldn't salvage. It was during these memories that I finally got an idea- with 4 or 5 bell peppers in the drawer, why not make pepper steak! I always have Asian style spices and sauces around, and a big container of rice to cook- yes, pepper steak it is. What does this have to do with my mom? Guys.......her pepper steak, though delicious, was one of those dishes that would end up being stripped of all texture and color and end up looking like something I cannot even describe.

Moms favorite cut of meat was round steak. The big whole slab of round steak with the little round bone in the middle. She would pull out the built in sliding cutting board and slap that big slab on there and cut it into strips. Mom had a special pan just for making her pepper steak, a big black enameled metal roaster and she would heat that thing until it was screeching hot and then add some oil and brown that steak. If you have ever coked anything with round steak you know this is not a tender cut of meat. So mom browned it, then added a bunch of water and beef bouillon cubes (she looooved those bouillon cubes) and some soy sauce. That's it. Simple. Then she would slice up a couple onions and several green bell peppers and add them to the pot. Cover goes on, and that pot would simmer for along long long time. Long enough to make that steak tender as can be, but also cooked those peppers and onions until they were very very very soft and faded. Like me, Mom always made rice to go with it, and it was one of our favorite dinners, in spite of the soft peppers. 

Years later my mom would discover the wonders of an electric wok and her pepper steak cooking would be revolutionized. No more cooking in the roaster, she would, as she would say in her terrible English, "steer fry" the steak and vegetables before popping on the lid and going through the same long simmer in that bright red electric appliance. Good times folks, good times. I'd give anything to have that pepper steak just one more time.

Fast forward to today, and me standing in the kitchen. I grab my little sirloin and season liberally with steak seasoning- I keep it in a small crock right on the stove top because I use it for literally everything. Slice it up and throw it in a bowl. Add a few cloves chopped garlic, several good splashes of soy sauce, a couple tablespoons of oyster sauce, and a dash of red pepper flakes for just a hint of heat.

Next I cut a great big sweet Vidalia onion into thin wedges and tossed that in the bowl as well, One red bell pepper, one green bell pepper and half of an orange bell pepper that was leftover from a salad went next, sliced into strips. Instead of a roasting pan or fancy electric wok, I grabbed my handy IKEA Skanka pan, basically a handled wok, and preheated over high heat. Once the pan was very hot I swirled a couple tablespoons of oil in the pan and added the steak strips and vegetables. Cook over very high heat, tossing and stirring until the meat is cooked an the veggies are still crisp tender. Don't cover, don't simmer and don't cook the vegetables to death.

Serve over hot cooked rice with additional soy sauce for a quick No Recipe Needed dinner.