"Leftover-Makeover" Curry Chicken Fried Rice

I love taking leftovers and creating a new meal from them. One of my favorite left over makeovers is fried rice. I always have the ingredients on hand in my freezer and pantry so it’s a very easy go to dish for a last minute meal. I had Chinese white rice in the fridge and leftover teriyaki chicken in my freezer ( I made teriyaki marinated chicken cutlets for dinner a few weeks ago and diced up the left overs and froze them). This is a very simple recipe because you really don’t have to measure anything. Just dump in what you like and season to taste. Any chicken would work as well. I have used leftover roasted chicken many times and it’s delish.


Ingredients:

1 1/2 pints left over Chinese take-out white rice
1 Cup frozen peas, corn, red peppers, edamame
1 C. Frozen Broccoli
1 T. curry powder
1 tsp. garlic powder
1 tsp. onion powder
1/2 tsp. red chili flake
1/3 C. soy sauce
1 egg
1 C. left over cooked chicken, diced

Preparation:

Coat the bottom of a large sauté pan with oil and set on medium heat. Add frozen vegetables and sauté for 2 minutes. Add white rice and continue to stir until heated through. Add curry, garlic, onion powder, red pepper flake and soy sauce and stir through. Next, make a well in the middle of the rice. Crack an egg into the well. Scramble egg, then mix into the rice. Add the cooked diced chicken and heat through.

Stuffed Pepper Casserole

A spin on the traditional Stuffed Peppers.  My kids have been begging me to make Stuffed Peppers for them all week.  I only had 2 green peppers in the house so I decided to tweak my recipe a bit and make this into a casserole!  It was a huge hit, no leftovers anywhere to be found.

Ingredients:

2 peppers (any color) chopped
1/2 lb  cooked brown rice
1 lb ground beef
1/2 chopped onion
2 cloves of garlic, minced
1 tablespoon of ground ginger
1/4 cup soy sauce
1/2 cup water
1-6 oz can of tomato paste
1/2 can (6-8 oz) jellied cranberry sauce
Salt and Pepper to taste
1/4 cup of grated parmesan cheese
3/4 cup of shredded mozzarella cheese


Preparation:

In a large skillet brown ground beef until cooked through.  Drain oil and set meat aside.  Wipe out the skillet.  Heat oil in skillet and add onion, garlic, ginger sauté for one minute.  Add beef back in and combine with onion mixture.  Add tomato paste, water soy sauce and cranberry sauce and stir and cook for about 10 minutes until cranberry sauce is melted and evenly combined.  (If mixture is too thick, add a little more water).

Now to assemble the casserole:

Grease a 9x9 or similar size baking dish about 9x9 with non stick cooking spray.  Add raw chopped pepper at the bottom of the dish.

Next layer your brown rice.  I used the frozen brown rice from Trader Joes.  This makes it so easy.  Just open the frozen rice and dump in!

Now you can add your meat/sauce mixture on top of the rice.

Cover the casserole with aluminum foil and place in a preheated 375 degree oven for 30-40 minutes.

Remove from oven, uncover and sprinkle on parmesan cheese and mozzarella cheese.  Place back in the oven uncovered for 10-15 min until cheese is melted and browned.  (I took mine a little too far and my cheese is too dark, next time I won't get distracted LOL)

Cilantro Coleslaw

This is a traditional coleslaw kicked up a notch. I LOVE the addition of cilantro, so delicious and really changes the taste of the usual every day coleslaw.  You can also add any veggies that you want, I like the addition of crispy sweet pepper slices.

Ingredients:

2 - 8oz bags of prepared cole slaw mix,  (It's just easier ;)
1 sweet bell pepper, sliced thinly -  your color choice (red, orange, yellow)
A big bunch of chopped cilantro - who needs to measure??
1 cup of milk
1/2 cup mayonnaise
1 tablespoon sugar
2 teaspoons apple cider vinegar
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon black pepper

Preparation:

Place coleslaw mix (discard the dressing that comes with the slaw if you bought a kit) and sliced peppers in a large bowl, set aside.  In a small mixing bowl coming, milk, mayonnaise, sugar, vinegar, salt and pepper and whisk together until combined.  Pour milk mixture over coleslaw and mix until throughly coated.  Place in refrigerator to chill.  Chop up a big bunch of cilantro (I don't measure but you want anywhere from 1/2 cup to 1 cup of cilantro) Before serving remove coleslaw from the refrigerator and  mix in cilantro.  Serve cold!

Eggplant Caponata

 

 

It's rare that someone mentions a type of food or a particular dish and I have never heard of it.   This happened to me recently when I was out with a few girlfriends.  Someone mentioned Caponata and I had no idea what they were talking about.  So the next day I did a litte research and I found a "million" recipes/versions of the Sicilian dish/appetizer Caponata.  I couldn't wait to make it and try it for myself.  I decided on this particular recipe from No Recipes because the combination of ingredients appealed to me the most out of all the recipes that I read.  I really loved the combination of sweet eggplant, smokey roasted peppers, salty capers and tangy balsalmic vinegar.  I brought this to the beach for an appetizer last weekend and everyone loved it.  I will defintely be making this again.

 

Ingredients:

 

1 medium eggplant peeled and cut into 1/2″ cubes
1 Tbs kosher salt (less if you’re using table salt)
1 red bell pepper quartered, seeds removed
1/4 C olive oil
1 small onion chopped
1 tsp fresh thyme
3 Tbs balsamic vinegar
2 Tbs drained capers
1 clove garlic minced
1/4 C leaf parsley, stems removed and chopped

Put the eggplant in a colander and sprinkle with 1 Tbs kosher salt. Toss to coat and leave it over a colander for an hour.

Grill red pepper directly on your BBQ or over a flame on your gas stove top until the skin is charred then wrap in foil or put into a brown paper bag and seal.  Leave the pepper until cool. Trapping the steam like this makes it much easier to remove the skins. When cool, peel the pepper and remove any excessively charred bits. Slice into thin short strips.

When the eggplant is done salting, rinse in a bowl of cold water to remove excess salt. Squeeze the eggplant with your hands to wring out as much moisture as you can.

Heat the olive oil over medium heat and saute the onions until until they are translucent and just start turning brown around the edges. Add the eggplant, bell peppers and thyme. Salt and pepper to taste stirring until the eggplant is very soft and starts to loose its shape.

Add the balsamic vinegar and capers and stir until there is no liquid left. Take off the heat and add the garlic and parsley. You can serve this immediately with some crusty bread, but it tastes even better the next day.

 

 

Mexican Sushi Rolls with Avocado Crema

A new recipe that we just tested for a catering event next week. We originally were going to make these with chicken but we made a vegetarian version for a family event and they were so yummy that we decided to keep them vegetarian. We didn't even miss the chicken. These are easy to make, they look really pretty and best of all they taste delicious. They are a really good summer bbq appetizer because they are best served at room temperature.

Ingredients:

6 flour tortillas (we used whole wheat)

1 1/2 - 2 cups white rice cooked and cooled

Juice from 1/2 a lime

1 can black beans, drained and mashed

1 cup shredded mexican blend cheese

1/4 cup of cilantro, divided

1 jar of corn salsa (we used the kind from Tradcr Joes)

1/2 a jalapeno chopped finely and add to the corn salsa (omit if you don't want the extra spice)

1 orange pepper, sliced very thin

1 scallion, sliced length wise thinly

Preparation:

Place cooked and cooled rice to a medium bowl and squeeze the juice from 1/2 a lime onto rice and add 1 tablespoon of cilantro and stir to combine.  Add shredded cheese to mashed black beans in a microwave safe bowl and cook on hi for 45 seconds.  Remove from microwave and stir to combine well.  If cheese isn't completely melted return to microwave for 15 second increments until melted.  Take a flour tortilla and using a sharp knife cut off the rounded edges on all 4 side to cut tortilla into a square shape.  Spead a thin layer of mashed black beans/cheese onto the cut tortilla leaving a 1/2 inch border on all side.  Next press down a small amount of rice into the black beans in an even  layer.  Next, add the rest of the ingredients in a neat line in the middle of the rice.  You want to be able to see each ingredient when you roll up your tortilla so it's important to carefully place your peppers, corn salsa, scallions and extra chopped cilantro.

Roll up your tortilla starting from the bottom (side closest to you) and roll up, tightly without ripping tortilla.  Once rolled you may need to use a little extra mashed black bean/cheese mixture to help seal the edge.  Once rolled up, use a very sharp knife and cut your roll in half.  Then cut each half into equal thirds.  You will end up discarding the very ends of the roll, just have that as a snack ;).   Turn rolls on their sides and serve immediately. 

**you can make these an hour or so in advance and refrigerate until ready to serve.  They hold up really well. 

Avocado Crema

2 ripe avocados

1/2 cup sour cream

1/4 cup cilantro, chopped

Blend all ingredients in a food processor until combined well. Serve as dipping sauce. Also makes a fantastic dip for chips!

Shortcut Sausage and Peppers

Sausage and Peppers seems to be a crowd favorite in all of our families and although there aren't very many ingredients and it's fairly easy to make it can get a bit messy and be time consuming.  Nanci came up with this great short cut and I think it tastes just as good!  Nanci uses fresh onions and peppers but recently I decided to try it with frozen onions and frozen tri-colored peppers to see if I can make this even easier to throw together and it was delicious!  I might even go as far to say that it's better than our original recipe...

Ingredients:

1 package of Italian sweet sausage
1 - 12 oz bag frozen chopped onions (or one fresh medium onion sliced)
1 - 16 oz bag frozen sliced tri colored peppers (or 3 fresh peppers sliced)
1/4 cup of pasta sauce

Preparation:

Preheat oven to 425 degrees F.  Spray a casserole dish with non-stick cooking spray.   Put onions and peppers into the casserole dish and place the sausage on top.  Bake in the oven for 25-30 minutes until the sausage is browned.  Turn the sausage over and bake for an additional 15-20 minutes to brown other side.  Remove from oven and take out sausage and slice into 1/2 inch pieces and place back into the casserole dish with the onions and peppers.  Add the pasta sauce and stir to coat.  Place back in the oven for an additional 20 minutes or until desired doneness ( I like mine well done and browned and caramelized)
Linked to Country Pot Luck

Stuffed Peppers with Chicken and Orzo

I've never made stuffed pepper before EVER!  Our Mom used to make them when we were growing up but I have no idea what she put in them and I don't remember liking them all that much.  I had these gorgeous colored peppers and I didn't want to make the usual sausage and peppers so I decided to try my own version of the typical stuffed peppers using orzo instead of rice and ground chicken instead of the typical ground beef.  I also wanted to kick up the usual tomato sauce and decided on this version of a sweet and sour sauce so this is what I came up with.  They came out delicious.......this new recipe is a keeper! 

Ingredients:


4 peppers cut in half
1/2 lb  cooked orzo pasta (very aldente)
1 lb ground chicken
1/2 chopped onion
2 cloves of garlic
1 tablespoon of ground ginger
1/4 cup soy sauce
1/2 cup water
1-6 oz can of tomato paste
1/2 can (6-8 oz) jellied cranberry sauce
Salt and Pepper to taste
1/4 cup of grated parmesan cheese


Preparation:

Heat oil in a skillet and add onion, garlic, ginger saute for a minute.  Add chicken and cook chicken until cooked through and white in color.  Add tomato paste, water soy sauce and cranberry sauce and stir and cook for about 10 minutes.  Add cooked orzo and stir to combine. Season with salt and pepper to taste.  Stuff pepper halves and top with parmesan cheese.  Bake in a 375 degree oven for 35-45 minutes until parmesan cheese is browned and peppers are soft.

Linked to This Chick Cooks

Sausage and Peppers

Tonight's Dinner - 1/5/11
















I Like to make this recipe with turkey sausage and whole wheat pasta. It requires very little oil so it is a yummy low fat meal. If you want you can spray the bottom of the pan with cooking spray and avoid the oil all together. I also like to mix the pasta in with the sausage and peppers before I serve it as you can see in the picture.

Ingredients:

2 lbs sweet Italian turkey sausage

3 large peppers, sliced (red/yellow/green)

1 T crushed garlic

1 large red onion, sliced

1/2 can of tomato paste

1/4-1/2 cup of white wine

olive oil

Preparation:

Coat the bottom of a heavy bottomed pan with olive oil. Over med/high heat, brown sausage on all sides and remove from pan. Pour in a little bit of white wine to deglaze the pan (use wooden spoon to scrap up all the bits). Put in garlic and onions and cook until soft and golden. Then add peppers and cook until soft. Add tomato paste and 1/4 cup white wine. Slice sausage into bite sized pieces and add back into the pan. Cover and cook for approximately 30 minutes. Serve over whole wheat pasta.