"Whacked Out Kit Kat Bars"

Hello again! Yes, I am still alive, and still cooking! :-) I made one of my 10-year-old daughter's favorite desserts last night, and weird as it is, I thought I'd post it. It doesn't involve leftovers so much as it does using up something you might otherwise throw out.

Do you ever have saltine crackers in the cabinet that are used in the winter for chili and/or soup, but then spring rolls around and those poor crackers go a bit stale? They aren't good for eating, but I have a recipe where they are actually pretty tasty! My kids have named the recipe "Whacked Out Kit Kat Bars."

Ingredients:

1 1/2 sleeves of saltine crackers
1 1/4 c. brown sugar
1/2 c. (1 stick) butter or margarine
1/2 c. milk
3/4 c. peanut butter, divided
6 oz. semi-sweet chocolate chips

In a greased 13 x 9 pan, place a single layer of whole crackers and set aside.

Remove about 1/4 of a sleeve of crackers and crush finely. Place the crushed crackers in a saucepan with the brown sugar, butter, and milk. Bring this to a boil over medium-high heat and boil 5 minutes, stirring constantly.

Remove the saucepan from the heat and stir in 1/2 cup of peanut butter until well blended. Pour this mixture over the crackers. Top with another single layer of crackers, which should finish them off.

In a bowl, combine the chocolate chips and remaining 1/4 c. peanut butter. Heat on 50% power for about 1 minute, then stir. If needed, return to microwave for 15 second increments until stirring results in fully-melted chocolate. Spread over the top of the crackers gently.

Cool for 30 minutes+ before cutting into bars. Hopefully your kids can wait that long!!!


I hope your kids like these as much as mine do! :-)

Creamy Beef Enchiladas

Since Annie accused me of hiding, I thought maybe that was a little hint that I might want to actually post something. :-) So, here I am! I know - it's about time! I just haven't done anything lately that struck me as "blogworthy." The other night, though, I made these enchiladas and my 9-year-old informed me, "Mom, you have GOT to post these on Not Just Leftovers!" How can I say no to that??

In an effort to rid the fridge of a bit of remaining rice and about the same amount of macaroni and cheese, I made a roast recently, serving it with the aforementioned items as sides. The roast was very good, but we had some remaining after dinner (the mac and cheese was gone, and the tiny bit of rice went into the container for freezer soup). So the next day I checked the fridge and found some flour tortillas. I decided I would make enchiladas with them. Yes, I know that typically you use corn tortillas for enchiladas, but my kids prefer flour. And the girls won't eat anything called a "burrito," so they had to be enchiladas! ;-)

First, I made a beef-flavored white sauce for the "creamy" part of the recipe. I melted a tablespoon of butter, then stirred in 2 T. of flour, then added about a cup of milk and a cup of the beef broth from cooking the roast. Yummmmmm!! I poured some of the sauce into the 13x9 pan and then made 10 enchiladas using the flour tortillas, filling them with the shredded leftover roast and some cheddar cheese. I placed them in the sauce, turning them to coat. When I was done rolling, I poured the rest of the sauce on top and sprinkled on the rest of the cheddar.

I covered these and baked them for about 30 minutes at 350°. They were very good!! The beef-flavored white sauce absolutely made the recipe! This was one of my better uses of leftover roast!

Chicken-Bacon Pasta

I'm not sure where Janelle's been hiding out these days, but I thought I'd sneak in here and post a recipe I made up using some pasta, leftover chicken, and bacon. Janelle will like this one since it can be made with meat from a rotisserie chicken. I used something similar...leftovers from some Crock Pot Sticky Chicken. We ate the meat from that chicken for two meals with enough leftover for this dish, too.

After cooking the chicken in the slow cooker, I picked the meat from the bones, then put the bones right back in the cooker with about a quart of water and let it cook on low for several hours. I used the broth as the base for the sauce in this recipe.

Also, we just happened to have leftover bacon. Yes, I know "leftover bacon" is an oxymoron, but somehow it happened. If you don't have any, you can fry or bake some just for this recipe. Or you could leave it out. I guess. If you're into self-deprivation.

This dish tastes like down-home chicken and noodles that have been turbo-boosted with bacon! I dare you to not like it!


Annie's Chicken-Bacon Pasta

Shredded cooked chicken (as much or as little as you like)
Crumbled cooked bacon (again, as much or as little as you like)
2 Tablespoons bacon drippings or fat of your choice (trust me, use the bacon drippings)
2 Tablespoons flour, more or less
2 cups chicken stock or broth from bouillon
Salt and pepper to taste
8 ounces dry pasta, any shape or size, cooked per package directions (I had some in the freezer that was already cooked; I just added it to the hot sauce mixture and heated it through)

Heat bacon drippings in a large deep skillet or pan. Add flour; stir until smooth and cook for about 2 minutes, stirring frequently.

Carefully stir in chicken stock, whisking constantly, until sauce is smooth and thickened as desired.

Stir in shredded chicken and crumbled bacon. Let sauce simmer over very low heat for about 5 minutes, then taste the sauce. Add salt, pepper or even a little bit of instant chicken bouillon if needed. (Don't add salt without first tasting the sauce after it simmers; it may end up too salty if you do.)

Stir in cooked pasta and serve.

Makes 4-6 servings.

A "Free" Dinner in my Future

It's been a long time since I made Freezer Soup. I guess the reason it's been so long is that I generally use up all of my leftovers. But there is always, always room for improvement, right?

A couple of days ago, I cooked a pot roast in the crock pot with potatoes, baby carrots, and celery. I used the leftover roast last night for pizza, because my kids think that "steak" pizza is the bomb! But this morning, I looked a bit wistfully at the container in my refrigerator with the remaining potatoes, veggies, and beef broth. I didn't really have a meal plan for those items, and suddenly I realized that this was the PERFECT beginning to another Freezer Soup.

I diced up the potato chunks and the lengths of celery and cut the baby carrots in half and put them in another, larger container with the broth. Now it's sitting on a shelf in my freezer, waiting for other random leftovers to be added. Once the container gets close to full, I'll thaw it and add it to a saucepan with some broth and have an easy, free meal.

The neat thing about Freezer Soup is you can add even the smallest amounts of items. Say you cook a can of green beans and only have 3 or 4 left, which you would normally toss. Instead, put them in the freezer container and they will add an element to your Freezer Soup. There are no rules or guidelines....just put all those tiny amounts of leftovers in a container and you get what you get. When I made it in the past, it was very tasty. I was surprised at how much everyone enjoyed it.

So what are you waiting for?? Go put a container in your freezer and start adding little bits of everything. Soon you will have a neat mystery dinner that you will probably really enjoy!

Lovin' Leftovers,

Leftovers to the Power of.....

Well, I've done it again. And I didn't get any pictures, dang it! A few nights ago I pulled a meatloaf out of the freezer for dinner. We didn't finish it, so the next evening I cut it into cubes and we had spaghetti and "meatballs." Since I use the same meat mixture for my meatloaves and meatballs, the kids have no problem getting past the cubes. :-)

That night, we ate all the spaghetti, but sauce and meat still remained. The following day (yesterday), I had a pizza mystery shop which provided us with one large pizza. That doesn't go far with a family of 5, but it will feed three kids just fine when only one is a teenager. So, I decided to let the kids have the pizza and do something with my leftovers. And another leftover leftovers meal was born.

I cooked about half a box of penne pasta and drained it. I dumped in the sauce and "meatballs" and stirred it up. Then I mixed in a big scoop of cottage cheese and some Italian Blend shredded cheese. I poured this into a glass casserole dish and sprinkled on some more of the shredded cheese, then popped it into a 350° oven for about 30 minutes until the cheese was nice and bubbly.

It was SUCH a good dinner! It was sort of like lasagna, but the penne pasta gave it a completely different feel. It was fantastic! I had just enough left for lunch today. :-) I just love it when I can make yet another new meal from the first new leftovers dinner! The meatloaf in question that made three dinners (2 for 5 and 1 for 3 since the aforementioned teenager had some, too) cost me $4.95 to make. Can't beat that!!!

Lovin' Leftovers,

Muffins Make Another Appearance

I should start this post by sharing my recipe for Cappuccino Muffins. They are a fairly low-fat muffin that taste realllllly good and my kids love them. I make them for breakfast now and then, and recently, they were an accompaniment to an egg bake for dinner. Here's the recipe:

Cappuccino Muffins

1 c. all purpose flour
1 c. whole wheat flour
3/4 c. sugar
2 1/2 t. baking powder
1 t. cinnamon
1/2 t. salt
1 c. milk
2 T. instant coffee granules
1/2 c. vanilla fat-free yogurt
1 egg
2/3 c. cinnamon chips

In a mixing bowl, combine flours, sugar, baking powder, cinnamon, and salt. In a separate small bowl, stir coffee granules into milk until dissolved. Add beaten egg and yogurt to milk mixture and then stir into the dry ingredients. Fold in chips.

Fill muffin cups 2/3 full and bake at 375° for 15-20 minutes.

This will make about 18 muffins, and they are really good!

The day after the egg bake and muffin dinner, it was time for dessert. My children expect a sweet treat around 7 each evening, or they get pretty grumpy. I was very tired that evening and did not feel like making anything exciting. I contemplated the Little Debbie snacks in the freezer downstairs, but then spotted the Cappuccino Muffins that needed to be eaten. In order to make them presentable as dessert, I dressed them up a bit. Here we have a winner (according to my kids), Cappuccino CUPCAKES:

Isn't it amazing what a little leftover canned icing and some red sprinkles can do???

Going Beyond the Quiche

I've posted about making quiche to use up leftovers a couple of times. Earlier this week, I had an overabundance of eggs that were about to expire - gasp! I knew that eggs needed to be the star of dinner one evening, but quiche only uses a few. So, instead of a quiche, I opted for an egg bake! Of course, I told the kids it was a "crustless quiche," so they ate it straight-away! :-)

I took a glass pan (I think it's 11 x 7) and began to raid my refrigerator. I found a quarter bag of shredded cheese from soft tacos night (you might have read about THAT adventure on my Monkeys blog...ugh!). In it went. Then there were a few slices of crisp bacon from a family breakfast. A few quick squeezes of the bag and the bits went into the pan, too. I also had some leftover cooked cubed ham that went well with the plan. Once I had the bottom of my pan filled with yummy filler ingredients that had been hanging out in my fridge, I started on the eggs.

I placed 10 eggs in a large bowl and beat them a bit to break up the yolks (no, I wasn't worrying about the cholesterol that night!) and then stirred in about a cup of milk. A bit of salt, pepper and nutmeg were stirred into the mixture and I poured it over all the filling. I popped it into a 350° oven for about 45 minutes until a knife in the center came out clean. I didn't even get a picture taken before it was about half-gone, but here's how it looked:



Alongside the entree, we had home-canned peaches and the kids' favorite Cappuccino Muffins. It was a very good dinner and cleaned out the fridge. There was only a small piece of the bake left, and my son was happy to take care of that for me the next morning for breakfast.

After dinner, we still had a few muffins left. I had fun with three of them, and I'll tell you all about it in another post momentarily! :-)

Stuffed Peppers

Hi. Annie Jones here, making a guest appearance from my blog Real Life Living. For those who aren't familiar with my blog, it's all about living simply, stretching a dollar and trying to get out of debt. It's also all about gutting and remodeling our only bathroom without ever losing the ability to flush. But mostly, it's about food.

Yesterday, I put together a dish that I knew would be perfect for Not Just Leftovers - Brand New Meals. Using the art of gentle persuasion and a little ESP, I convinced Janelle to let me guest post here.

Let me start at the beginning. On Sunday, I made this recipe for Sicilian Meat Roll. It was yummy and we ate all but three slices of it. My husband Shane is a big eater. I knew there was no way three slices of meat roll would make another meal for us, so I chopped those slices into small bits and tossed them into a bowl.

I found some cooked rice in the freezer, a smidgen of corn in the fridge, and a little bit of shredded cheese. I tossed those into the bowl with the meat roll and stirred in some pasta sauce. I stuffed this filling into a couple of bell peppers that weren't being saved for anything else and made a brand new meal! I had to open a new jar of pasta sauce (because I couldn't find anything "tomato-y" in the fridge except ketchup), but everything else was more or less left over from previous meals.

In addition to being thrifty, this dish is also versatile. I went with Italian flavors (except for the cheese, which was a colby-jack blend), but it could easily be adapted to Mexican flavors by using salsa instead of pasta sauce.

These stuffed peppers turned out great. We especially liked the sweeter, riper orange ones. I couldn't get our granddaughter Kat to try one, but that wasn't a problem. It just meant there was more for us!



Annie's "Leftover" Stuffed Bell Peppers

1-1/4 cups chopped leftover meatloaf
1-1/2 cups cooked rice
1/4 cup cooked corn
1/2 cup shredded cheese, any kind
1/2 cup pasta sauce
salt and pepper to taste
2 large bell peppers, halved top to bottom, seeds removed and par-cooked
additional pasta sauce for topping
additional shredded cheese for topping

Combine meatloaf, rice, corn cheese, pasta sauce, salt and pepper in large bowl. Set aside.

Place cleaned pepper halves in shallow microwave-safe dish, cut side up. Add 1/2 cup water to dish. Place dish in microwave and cover with inverted large microwave-safe bowl to form lid. Microwave on high for 3 minutes. Remove from microwave and carefully drain any liquid from peppers.

Heat oven to 350°F. Spray casserole dish with pan spray. Fill pepper halves with filling and arrange in dish (I cut them from top to bottom so they will sit better in the pan). If there is extra filling, place it in the bottom of the casserole dish first, then rest the pepper halves on top of the filling. Cover dish with foil and bake for 20-25 minutes.

Remove casserole from oven. Remove foil, then spoon on additional pasta sauce and cheese. Return to oven for about 5 minutes or until cheese melts and begins to brown.

Makes 2-4 servings.

Exciting News!

I know everyone probably thinks that since I haven't posted lately, I've given up on leftovers, but I haven't! In fact, the other night, I made what is quite possibly the weirdest pizza ever created. I had some leftover sweet and sour chicken that I had made the night before, and just for fun, I put it on my pizza crust and topped it with a combo of mozzarella and cheddar cheeses. Everyone LOVED it! Honestly....would you have EVER thought about sweet and sour PIZZA??? So strange, but so good! I love leftovers!

I'm sorry for my lack of posts lately, but I do have some exciting news! I am going to have a guest poster! My friend, Annie Jones, who has a great blog called Real Life Living, is going to share one of her own leftover ideas. She is truly amazing and has some fantastic ideas. I can't wait to read what she has to say, and I know it will be valuable information to all of you, as well!

In the meantime, please check out her blog, Real Life Living. I can guarantee you that you will find some useful information on living happily and frugally. Grab a cup of tea and settle in....you'll feel like you're reading a letter from a cherished friend. Enjoy, and check back soon to see Annie's guest post!!

Taking it A Step Further

At what point do you consider yourself over-the-edge when it comes to using leftovers?? :) I have to laugh at myself this morning with what I just did. A couple of nights ago, we had a whole chicken that I prepared in the slow cooker. I deboned all the meat and then yesterday I made chicken enchiladas. I tried a new recipe and the entire family inhaled them! What I did differently is I added cottage cheese to the mix.

To make them, I mixed cottage cheese with some Mexican blend cheese. I also added some leftover rice to the shredded chicken to stretch it, but you wouldn't have to do this. In each corn tortilla, I placed a scoop of the cheese mixture and a scoop of the chicken mixture and rolled them up. They were creamy and the kids LOVED them!

I messed up a little, though, by over-estimating how much filling I would need. I was left with some of each of the mixtures. Since we didn't want to have enchiladas again tonight (Friday is pizza night!), I wasn't sure what to do with everything until inspiration struck this morning!

I took the leftovers from my leftovers and made another meal which is currently in the freezer. Crazy? I took a foil casserole pan that I had scavenged from a class party and placed a layer of corn tortillas in the bottom. I poured on a bit of sauce to cover them, then layered in half of the chicken and rice and some shredded cheese. Another layer of tortillas, topped with sauce and the rest of my cottage cheese mixture. Then more tortillas, sauce, and the rest of the chicken and rice. I topped it with more tortillas, the rest of the sauce, and some shredded cheese and popped it in the freezer.

Once I bake it, I will try to come back and post how it turned out, but I think it will work okay! I just think it's funny that I made a meal out of leftovers from a meal made of leftovers. I've really gone over the edge now!! :-)