Left-over Soup

I got a wonderful email from my hubby today...it said...wouldn't mind if we had the left-over lasagna for dinner tonight.

Well that's good news!  Using up the left-overs means good use of food and money AND I don't have to cook dinner!!! (hmmm, which one do I like better...)

So that's what's for dinner tonight.   HOWEVER, I decided to go alittle further on that left-over theme and see what I had hanging out in my fridge, to make some soup to go with the lasagna.  So, here is what I found in my fridge:  chicken stock, 1 zucchini (left over from my zucchini sticks), rice (from another night of dinner), a smidge of pasta sauce (from yet another night). 

I sauted 1 chopped up garlic clove in some olive oil, then added my 1 zucchini-all chopped up in tiny pieces-and then sauted that too.  I added some oregano, kosher salt and pepper to this concoction.  Once the zucchini was softened, I then added about 2 cups of chicken stock and about 1/2 cup of pasta sauce.  Then I put in a bay leaf and added the rice (probably about 1 cup) and let simmer for about 10 minutes.  Gotta say, it is DELISH!!!!  And talk about multiple uses for ingredients!

Left-Over Soup

zucchini memories

When I was single, every Friday night my room mate and I would go to Houlihans.  We wanted to meet guys and if we didn't, then we ordered the fried zucchini sticks appetizer.  Boy did I love that appetizer.  I actually preferred the appetizer over trying to meet guys!  I actually secretly hoped that she would give up early in the evening just so we could order that zucchini appetizer and thoroughly enjoy it without having to worry about how we looked while devouring this wonderful appetizer.  Well, it was a vegetable after all! 

Well many many many years later, I started thinking about the zucchini appetizer (not the meeting guys part, mind you!) and started to look for a healthier version.  I think I found it!  These zucchini sticks are baked, not fried and use a wonderful double duty ingredient---corn flakes!  Yup, that's right.  Good for breakfast as well as an appetizer.

I don't even know if Houlihan's still offers the fried zucchini sticks on their menu.  But I enjoyed this version  even better than I remember.  Maybe because I enjoyed eating them with my husband!!!!


baked zucchini sticks




Recipe:

2/3 cup crushed corn flakes
4 Tablespoons Parmesan cheese
1 Teaspoon seasoned salt
1/4 Teaspoon garlic powder
1 egg
2 zucchinis, cut up in sticks
-----

Mix all dry ingredients and put in plastic bag.  Whisk the egg with alittle water in a bowl.  Dunk the sticks in the egg then shake with the dry mixture until coated.  Place on a parchment lined cookie sheet.  Bake at 400 degrees for 20 minutes.  Squirt some lemon over, if you please. 

It's good to be back!

Boy o Boy I have missed 3 months worth of blogging!   No excuses, well maybe one--my camera broke and since I love to look at pictures I was using a pictureless excuse to keep me from blogging.  Well problem solved!  I got a new little cutie camera so no more excuses. 

Also, I want to focus on using ingredients in more ways than one.  If not during the same week, then to freeze and re-use another time.  (Dinner in the freezer is like money in the bank!!!) My ingredient for tonight that will do double work: ground turkey (only ground turkey breast, mind you!!)

Since turkey is tasteless (imho), you need to add something in it that has a very distinct taste.  And my choice, for tonight, is pesto.  We love pesto and by adding the pesto to the ground turkey, the turkey will take on that taste.

Last night I invented pesto turkey lasagna.  It came out GREAT and it allows me another meal to invent with the extra turkey meatballs I made.  Which will be spagetti and turkey pesto meatballs, for next week!  Yummy!

Here's what I did:                                                                                      

pesto meatballs that I baked in the oven



tomato basil sauce



a layer includes:
cut up pesto meatballs,
blend of italian cheeses and sauce



finished lasagna!
Do you see the little piece that's missing?
well I had to test it first!




more new rachael ray recipes and its a comfort food dinner night

Tonight was a 2 RR recipe night from the new Rachael Ray cookbook:  Spring Chicken cure a cold Soup (page 90) and  Marsala Burgers (pg 190).  I didn't have all the ingredients for these recipes (of course) but used what I had and both turned out delish!  I added sauted green beans (cuz I had them) and baked some banana bread to end with a sweet note. 

I chose the soup recipe since I roasted a chicken for dinner last night, and had some chicken left over.  Didn't feel like having chicken as the entree, so soup it is!  I usually don't have burgers but I had some marsala wine in the fridge and wanted to use it up.  Saw the recipe in RR's cookbook so thought It was another way to use up the marsala wine,, besides making chicken marsala.  Never would have thought of that one but it really made the burger taste abit fancier.

a tasket a tisket, yes its a brisket

So tonight's dinner is Brisket!!  I LOVE this dinner because it is a great crockpot meal.  The crockpot does all the work and we enjoy all the pleasure.  Basically brisket is an inexpensive cut of meat, which translates it has to be hermetically sealed in a pot in order to cook properly.  And thus, I believe that is why a crock pot works so great.  Leave it in the morning and when you come home at night, your house smells amazing the brisket will fall apart and practically melt in your mouth.  I like to use a rub with it and liquid smoke so it has a bbq/smokey flavor.  Alittle on the unusual side, but delish!!  Can be served as a sandwich or as is. 

more from the new rachael ray cookbook

Last night I tried her three-bean pasta e fagioli (page 39) and didn't think it was so good.  Not a whole lot of flavor and I thought it would be enough food for dinner, but after I made it I realized it was more like a hearty soup.  So, I had to quickly see what I had on hand to add to it to make it a meal.  Luckily, I had tilapia!!  So I made my favorite tilapia dish (melt flavored garlic butter then add panko bread crumbs, salt and pepper.  Take off burner then add parmesan cheese, then pat this mixture on the fish and then bake at 400 degrees for 13 minutes) but changed it up abit: made it into wraps with a fresh salsa drizzled on it.  YUM!!!

Tonight is yet another Rachael Ray recipe.  It is actually in the morning but I made it already---I am waiting for a lame-o UPS delivery...3rd attempt...so I'm making good use of my waiting time! HA!  Anyway, I made the chinese orange-barbeque cashew chicken (page 102).  I tasted it, and while it didn't taste real bbq-ish, it did have a good taste!  But then again, it's 9:30 in the morning so I'm not sure if my taste buds are fully awake.

New Cookbook=New Dinners

So I just got the new Rachael Ray cookbook: Rachael Ray's Look and Cook and have to say it has so many recipes I want to try I can't wait for dinner!!!!  If there are a few recipes I want to make in a cookbook, I consider it a good book, but I must had earmarked at least 20 in this new cookbook!! A real winner in my eyes.  I made two this week:

--Turkey Chili Shepherd's Pie with a sweet potatoe topper (page 19

---Spinach-Artichoke stuffed shells (page 115)

Loved them both!!!