Tag Archives: Leftovers

Warm Spaghetti Salad

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Aaaand we’re back! I’m now a happily married woman as opposed to a happily engaged woman. Our trip to Mexico was AMAZING and one I will never ever forget. Every single shot at the wedding is full of smiles and utter joy. And I’m not talking about just me – because I do tend to smile a lot – but everyone there was smiling and having a good time. Ahh…wedding bliss :)

Okay, now to more serious issues: Food. The title to this post seems a little odd. You’re probably imagining a bowl of spaghetti noodles with dressing and a few croutons tossed in. Maybe it should be called Baked Veggies On A Bed Of Spaghetti Noodles…because really that’s what I did.

Yesterday I found myself with the task of using leftover spaghetti noodles from the night before (I made a really nice creamy tomato sauce with tons of vegetables and too many noodles – why is it still hard for me to determine the right amount of noodles?). Of course I could have made another sauce to pour over the noodles but I seem to prefer variety in my daily meals. So if you ever find that you have tons of noodles leftover and you don’t want a repeat from the night before then try a Warm Spaghetti Salad:

Cooked spaghetti noodles

Tomato sauce, I used Ragu

Baby spinach, coarsely chopped

Mushrooms, thickly sliced

Grape tomatoes, cut in half

Onion slices

Red bell pepper, cut into bite size pieces

Bits of artichoke hearts

Olive oil

Oregano

Fresh ground pepper

Balsamic vinegar

Grated cheese

Preheat the oven to 350F. Place the noodles in a greased baking pan and pour a bit of tomato sauce over them – you don’t need to mix the sauce into the noodles unless you want to. In a bowl mix all the veggies together and then toss with the olive oil, oregano, balsamic vinegar, and pepper. Spread over the noodles, top with grated cheese and bake for about 20 minutes.

All portions and amounts are to taste and liking. I didn’t measure anything, just eye balled how much I thought I would want to eat. The amount of time you bake this also is up to you. I just chose 20 minutes because I wanted the veggies to still be slightly crunchy…like a salad. I think next time I’ll add beans or chick peas for added protein.

Time to Clean Out the Fridge Beef and Bean Stew

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You know when you look in the fridge and all you see are miscellaneous things like half an onion or a quarter of a zucchini and you don’t know what you should do with them? That’s what happened last night so I decided to throw together a beef and bean stew with leftovers from the fridge. Dishes like stews and stir frys are awesome for this reason!

Here’s what I used (I hope I can remember now):

approx a pound of beef (best to use stewing beef)

3 or 4 cloves of garlic, roughly chopped because I like biting into whole bits of garlic but if you’re not a fan of that you can finely dice the garlic.

1 onion, diced

1 28oz can of diced tomatoes

2 bay leaves

1 cup of water – depending on how thick you want the stew add more or don’t add any at all

approx 1 tsp of oregano

approx 1 tsp of cumin

1 can of kidney beans

1/2 cup of red wine, if you have it

half a  jalapeno pepper, which I had completely forgotten about being in the fridge so that worked out great

salt and pepper to taste

And the rest of the ingredients were leftovers like:

3/4 of a zucchini, sliced into small pieces

1 carrot, sliced

2 mushrooms, roughly chopped – of course if you have more than 2 mushrooms by all means use more – for some reason we only had 2 haha.

I think any vegetable could work with this mix.

In a large pot brown the beef in some olive oil at medium-high heat. Lower to medium heat. Throw in the garlic and onion and sautee until soft. Add the can of tomatoes, bay leaves, and cook for 10 minutes. Add cumin, oregano, jalapeno pepper, and 1 cup of water, if needed, and let it cook on medium heat for about 20 minutes, covered. This would be a good time to dice all your veggies, if you haven’t done so already. Turn heat to low.  Add the  veggies and other leftovers you want to use, and red wine, if it’s handy. Let that simmer, stirring every so often, for about 30 minutes or longer if your stomach can wait. I think we made it to 30 minutes before we dove in – the spicy aroma was too tempting.

 

 

Jay’s “Manwich”

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Yesterday afternoon, sitting at the kitchen table, I was busy working on a short story and eating the cookies I made earlier. Jay entered the kitchen and began to pull out contents from the fridge for a snack. I had my back to him while he chopped and cut and did who knows what. “Well, that’s the last of the stuffing. We are officially out of Thanksgiving leftovers,” he announced and he left the room for a minute. Curious, I turned around to find this:

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That’s a sandwich (or manwich as Jay calls them) made with home made bread, tuna salad, stuffing, pickles, and cheese. I think that’s about it. I wasn’t around to watch him eat it though I do wonder how he managed to fit that inside his mouth.