Cleaning out the Fridge
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Last night my oldest daughter and I cleaned out the refrigerator together (one of the last times before she marries, sniff, sniff), and then made supper based on what we found.
This is an old recipe we use when we want something like Quesedillas, but we haven't enough tortillas left to go around. It's a flexible, what-do-you-have, -add-a-little-more-of-this, -this-sounds-good, sort of recipe.
Chop up a goodly amount of any combination of these sorts of vegetables. You'll want enough to feed your family at least one serving:
onions
bell peppers, green, yellow, and red (I buy bags of these frozen, as it's cheaper than the fresh peppers most times of the year)
green onions
hot peppers (we don't do these)
A little bit of leftover chicken or beef, if you have it. We usually don't.
slice tortillas in strips, and then cut the strips in half. This is easiest if you roll the tortillas up and then slice them. It doesn't matter how many you have. We generally do this when we have less than one tortilla per person. It also works for older, dried out and tearing tortillas.
Tomatoes if you have them
black olives if you like them in your Mexican food
Grated cheese
Stir fry the onions in a hot skillet. Add garlic and a bit of chili powder or taco seasoning. I usually start with the onions because we like ours very well cooked, and then add the peppers because we're usually using already cooked, but frozen peppers. Add the meat, if you're using it, and continue to cook and stir until it's heated. Now, make sure there is still plenty of fat in the skillet, and add the tortillas and stir these as they fry. When they are golden brown, add tomotoes and/or salsa, stir until heated through, and then top with grated cheese and olives if you want them. The amounts don't matter- what do you have on hand? What seems good to you?
Serve this with sour cream and more salsa, and of course, cilantro if you have it. In spite of the chopping involved, it's a fairly easy lunch to make for a crowd of hungry children, and it's pretty filling. It's easy to adjust to what I have available in the refrigerator, and it's a nice way to use up the last of the tortillas without anybody feeling slighted.
We had a salad of odds and ends on the side- diced zucchini, corn cut off the last corn on the cob that nobody finished, dill, and a bit of ranch dressing.
And then we had a jello-dessert.
There was about a cup of a fruit salad leftover from a birthday bash, and one container of yogurt. I made jello the usual way (it was cherry), except I used a handful of ice-cubes instead of cold water for the quick-set version. I diced the rest of the fruit (mostly peaches, strawberries, and cherries) and stirred that and a container of peach yogurt in and chilled until set.
What are your favorite 'use up the leftovers' recipes?
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5 Responses to “Cleaning out the Fridge”
July 10th, 2009 at 8:07 am
It’s not so much a recipe as just a tasty way of using leftovers – I take a salad to work for lunch every day. And periodically, I go thru the fridge and dump any protein and/or veg leftover into my salad container along with the lettuce, a little grated cheese and a couple cherry tomatoes. When lunch time comes, I add the dressing, cut everything up and enjoy. It’s like a leftover “cobb” salad.
July 10th, 2009 at 8:25 am
Wow!! Those both sound great!! What a great idea for leftovers.
Thank you
July 10th, 2009 at 10:44 am
I crockpot cook pork butt roast a lot… basically because it’s a cheap cut of meat and always tastes good with mashed potatoes, gravy and a veggie. But sometimes the roast is too big, so with the leftovers I make wet burritos with the leftover meat… flour tortillas filled with meat, onion, refried beans or whole cooked pinto beans (optional), roll them up and put them in a 9×13 casserole dish. I then cover with canned enchilada sauce (or my homemade concoction of leftover pork gravy and jarred salsa) and bake at 350F for about 30 minutes. Cover with cheese and bake till cheese melts. Top with sour cream, salsa, chopped lettuce, tomato and onions, if desired, and serve alone the burritos or with spanish rice and/or beans if desired. Yummo!!
July 11th, 2009 at 4:43 pm
Wow! How creative and what a great way to use up leftovers. I have never been that ingenious and I appreciate your sharing this with us.
July 13th, 2009 at 12:47 am
Sometimes we need to modify old recipe to make something different for our food. I also like doing that when I have time to cook by myself.
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