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!