To eat or not to eat... Leftovers? Anti-leftovers?
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Rotisserie Chicken Leftovers - Ideas?
Comments (21)Here's one way that I have used up a chicken breast. If the breast is already cooked, then cook onion in step 2 and add chicken pieces to onion in pan to warm them. Chicken & Chunky Pesto on Whole Wheat Spaghetti I made the pesto (the yellow one at left) rather than the food processor as it was such a small amount and it turned out lovely and chunky. Here's the recipe as I made it for the two of us, using half of my usual pesto recipe: 1 chicken breast cut into bite sized strips 1 small onion - sliced 2 portions of whole wheat spaghetti 1/4 teasp sweet smoked Spanish paprika (optional) olive oil for cooking Pesto - this is the halved version: 2 cloves of garlic - minced 1 cup of loosely packed basil leaves - chopped 1/4 cup olive oil 1/4 teasp salt 1/4 teasp fresh ground black pepper 1/4 cup grated parmesan 1/4 cup pine nuts 1/2 teasp water 1. Put a large lidded pot of salted water on to boil for the spaghetti. 2. Prepare chicken and put into a small frying pan with onion and a bit of oil. Saute until cooked, turning and shaking pan.....about 12 minutes or until chicken pieces are cooked and all is lightly browned. Sprinkle with paprika and stir. Put on lid and keep warm while preparing the rest. 3. Meanwhile put in a ceramic mortar the salt, pepper, minced garlic and a few drops of the measured oil. Pound to a medium paste and add pine nuts, pounding some more, then add the chopped basil leaves, grated parmesan and some more of the oil. Continue grinding to a paste then add the rest of the olive oil. If it looks a little dry, add a few drops of water, up to 1/2 a teaspoon. 4. Boil the spaghetti 12 minutes or according to package. Drain and return to pan. Scoop out the pesto with a spoon and spatula and stir it into the spaghetti, mixing well. Serve on heated plates or platter and top with the chicken-onion mixture. Garnish with a sprig of basil and pass around the block of parmesan with a grater. SharonCb...See Morewhy does day old cooked chicken have that 'left-over' taste?
Comments (41)Studies have shown a great many home refrigerators' temperature are way off. Too warm. I wonder if that's not a large part of it, plus the coating mix. I don't really love chicken but I do roast one about every 6 weeks, primarily for stock, and I don't find that it tastes much different the next day or two. But I also don't like white meat, so that often goes into a chicken curry salad or something. But I have to say that even when I was on Dr. Pat's diet for a while, I broiled the chicken breasts for four days at a time, and they were just about the same on day four as on day 1, even if I got lazy and micro-ed them. My fridge is stuck at 34º, so maybe that helps, and I store in glasslock. I do usually buy Murray's chicken, for whatever that's worth....See MoreCooking for two with NO leftovers
Comments (35)I have never had to go without power for more than a day, but I used to go camping by myself quite a bit and didn't want a lot of leftovers either as there is only so much room in a cooler. Pasta is great. You can cook exactly as much as you need and can put just about any protein and veggie in it. I believe that Classico offers some small jars of pasta sauces, both tomato based & creamy style. A white wine, garlic butter (or olive oil) sauce is easy...if you want to go easy on the fat, use only enough for flavor and then add a bit of chicken stock. Knorr makes a powdered bouillon that is better than the cubes, not as salty, and you can make exactly the amount you need to use. A very nice sauce can be made with some bouillon, a chopped fresh tomato, garlic, some fresh basil or other fresh herb,& some red pepper flakes or black pepper. I generally buy Parmesan in wedges and grate it, but the Kraft pre grated in the green can keeps fairly well without refrigeration. Top Ramen is a great base for a meal. Just adding any meats & veggies you like makes a wonderful lunch. If sodium is a problem, toss the dry soup packet and use canned low-sodium stock instead. The noodles can also be cooked, and then tossed with blanched or raw veggies, meat or seafood and a vinaigrette for a cold plate meal. I like it with an oriental type vinaigrette...rice vinegar, soy sauce, grated ginger, sugar, & a little sesame oil. If your grocery store has a deli, speak to the store manager and suggest that he could probably do a rousing business if he ordered things like the individual packets of mayo, coffee creamers(the kind that don't need to be refrigerated) and salad dressings and offered them for sale. Some random tips... If you use half an onion, don't wrap it. Let the air dry the cut side and then when you want to use it just discard the first, thin slice. (If flies are a problem, cover it with cloth, not plastic). You can do the same thing with cucumbers, tomatoes, apples, oranges. In warm weather, wrapping unrefrigerated veggies and fruits seems to "boil" them somehow, and they actually go bad faster. Fresh basil and other herbs last pretty well without refrigeration if you trim the cut end of the stems when you get them home and put them in a glass of water, just like cut flowers. A few snips of herbs can "freshen up" the flavors of canned foods. You can keep your butter in a small bowl, and then invert the bowl in a larger bowl of water. The water should be changed every day. Butter will stay fresh like this, unrefrigerated, for weeks. Eggs can be left unrefrigerated for at least a couple of days, so if you buy half a dozen, you don't have to eat all of them at once. I know this is all a pain, but it will be over soon and it will give you something to tell stories and laugh about years down the line. :D...See MoreHow large a turkey for 5 adults with leftovers?
Comments (8)Well, I've got to go with what my dad has always done in the past. I swear two 25-27 lbers served 50 people when we used to rent a hall for the entire family, and there *were* leftovers. But I guess my parents really like their sandwiches. As I said, my dad's a big eater. According to what I read online, smaller birds have more % bone so 2 lbs per person instead of 1.5 lbs is a better estimate, but *still* I'd think that 11.4 lbs would be enough for 5 adults (2 of them women who don't eat much, my mom would eat like 1 slice of breast meat and I eat the equivalent of 2 chicken thighs max and that's pigging out, won't eat again that day even if we have the big dinner at 2pm or so) and 1 very picky 11-yo. For example, my guys will eat 2 chicken thighs each if I make them, and serve them on the bone (I would normally only eat 1) but if I make soup like I did last night (30 minutes in pressure cooker), or a casserole of something with lots of "filler" then 4 thighs is more than enough for the 4 of us. Tonight I browned 1 lb of ground turkey, saved about 1/2 of it, used 2 quarts of beef broth, 2 cans of beans and some leftover spaghetti sauce with ditalini to make soup. We each had 2 bowls (DS and DH might have had 3, I wasn't counting), and I have more than a quart of soup left over (DD just ate some leftover noodles with plain browned meat). On The Washington Post site I found this quote "One of our staple resources in the Food section is the âÂÂChefâÂÂs Book of Formulas, Yields & Sizes,â by Arno Schmidt. The book says one 22-pound turkey will yield 12 pounds of roasted meat, including scraps, which equates to 22 servings �" lining up perfectly with the USDA guidance." which is 1 lb uncooked per person. That's just over 1/2lb of cooked boneless meat per serving. I'm sure the guys *could* eat 1 lb each (though DH and DS maybe less since there will be side dishes) but yeah, good estimate if they each have a sandwich later that night, there's 3 lbs. Mom, DD and I combined will eat 1.5lbs perhaps (that's with me pigging out b/c no way is DD going to eat 1/2lb of meat), there's 4.5 lbs of meat, no bones. If an 18 lb turkey yields 9-9.5 lbs of meat then we'll have about half left over, I would be fine with 2 lbs of leftovers for sandwiches(plus half the bones to make soup), that should last a week (DH and DS go through a lb of turkey lunchmeat each week but carved turkey is thicker, I think you tend to use more, and I'll be eating it too). That leaves 2.5 - 3 lbs or so (plus half the bones) leftover for my parents. So I really think 18 lbs is enough, no reason to buy 20 (4 lbs per adult!)....See More
9 months agolast modified: 9 months agoI'm sitting here snacking on Snyders Honey Mustard Pretzels pieces. Lunch will be Italian Shepherds pie. Lots of mozzarella cheese in the middle. I made it with the left over mashed potatoes.
Edited to add: floral....I cook something every day. Making extra saves me tons of time AND money. The turkey was .79cents a lb! The russet potatoes were .97cents/5 lbs! I'll be unthawing leftovers and making dishes for the next 4 weeks. We also got a FREE turkey. We're delivering it tomorrow to a friend at the gym with a BIG family. He's on disability, so we help whenever we can.
(Safeway Grocery Store had a deal, where if you spent $100 you get a FREE turkey, your choice of size)plllog thanked nicole
9 months agolast modified: 9 months ago- 9 months ago
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9 months agolast modified: 9 months agoplllog thanked carolb_w_fl_coastal_9/10- 9 months ago
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9 months agolast modified: 9 months agoI ended up lazily doing a mashed potato 'souffle' - thanks for that inspiration about adding eggs to the leftover mash, pllog
4 egg yolks, parm and gruyere, spinach and cilantro, and lemon juice (to about 2 1/2 cups mashed potatoes. Folded in beaten egg whites, and baked. All in the spirit of using things up.
And a boring but nourishing boiled veg dish of carrots, broccoli and shallots, all of which needed using. Dare I say it was transformed enough to be fresh and tasty. Anyway, end of our leftover saga
plllog thanked lat62- 9 months agolast modified: 9 months ago
I had a lot of ambitions for today, mostly involving eggs. Lat62, that's lovely!
It ended up that I had a lot of stuff to do, so only accomplished one. I call it "Cranberry Rice Bread Pudding" on the labels for the freezer. :) This isn't a recipe, it's just the only way I can explain it.
All the breads that came out of the freezer for the stuffing but didn't make it into the bowl, torn and fit nicely into the blue EH casserole (a useful gift from a friend of my mother's)
One cup of never were great chow mein crunchies from the otherwise good quality ingredients local Chinese restaurant.
3 cups of cooked rice from the same place (they give us far more than we can consume).
12 eggs
1.5 cups each of half and half and cream (my milk had gone sour and people keep saying that the pasteurized milk nowadays doesn't sour, it just spoils. I grew up baking with sour milk, and it seemed like sour milk to me, but I talked myself out of it, since I don't know who will be eating it.)
Penzey's Ethiopian, my favorite (cayenne red pepper, garlic, ginger, fenugreek, cardamom, cumin, black pepper, allspice, turmeric, cloves, Ceylon cinnamon and coriander )
Extra cardamom, black pepper plus mace.
3 cups of organic cranberries (one bag), sorted and rolled in white sugar
4 small handfuls commercially sliced almonds
Toasted mixed bread crumbs
Avocado oil mist spray on the dish, and on top to keep the breadcrumbs nice.
All but the berries and nuts soaked under weight, then layered with the cranberries and nuts in the dish. Topped with the bread crumbs left over from toasting the bread for the stuffing.
It's really good. :) I was surprised. I was also surprised at how much custad the rice soaked up. I should have made more but I'd have to resort to canned goat milk. It was sufficient. The rice and breadcrumbs provide a lot of texture. The almonds aren't very noticeable. It's portioned and chilling to go in the freezer tomorrow.
colleenoz