Leftovers for The Win

When considering your week, think about what you may make for dinner. I like having my freezer full with protein choices, then I just have to prepare and shop for the veggies. We get our fish from Wild Alaska, and meat from Wild Pastures https://wildpastures.com/ .

Last night I had some pork sausages that we grilled. With the sausages I cut up cauliflower, broccoli and one carrot and steamed that, and heated some creamed corn that I made the night before, and we used that up.

This morning for my first meal I diced one of the sausages, sautéed it for a minute to heat it up, added 2 handfuls of spinach and eggs. My mom and I had that for breakfast (10am).

The other night we had steak and chicken leftover; just enough for the three of us. I thought tacos — I diced the meat and added a can of diced green chiles and sautéed that just enough to heat it up and flavor the meat. I chopped up an avocado and tomatoes and added that to some mango salsa for a topping, and a can of black beans on the side. Done! Dinner for 3.

Sometimes successful weeknight cooking is making sure you have a variety of good pantry ingredients so your leftovers will go far. Make sure to have roasted red bell peppers, tomato sauce (check the label for healthy ingredients), and canned tomatoes, beans, artichoke hearts packed in water, grains that you like, tuna, coconut milk and olives for starters. Opening up the pantry and finding ingredients that can be added to leftovers is inspiring and freeing.

Making a soup, of course, is always a great way to use up what is in the fridge! Dice up meat and vegetables, add stock and you are 90 percent done. Want to make it creamy ? Add coconut milk. Italian spices or Mideastern spices like curry and turmeric can turn an ordinary soup into a flavor marvel!

Here is the recipe for my creamed corn:

Take out a medium mixing bowl and cut the corn off 3 ears of corn. (Using a mixing bowl keeps the corn from going all over the counter!) Dice 3 celery stalks. 2 cloves garlic minced. 1/2 purple onion diced. Melt 1 Tbs butter and 1 Tbs olive oil on medium in a saucepan. Add the celery and onion and cook for about 3–5 minutes until onion begins to be translucent. Add the corn and garlic and cook until the corn is soft, about 5 minutes. Add 1/2 can full fat coconut milk with 1/2 cup grated white cheddar cheese. Add 1 tsp dried oregano, sea salt and pepper.

Enjoy your leftovers and be creative!

Here4You Health Coach