Today is one of those days... I have a list of grievances that happened this morning that are all mostly just little things, and my patience is not what I would want it to be. Yes, even now as I sit here and drink my morning cup of Joe, I feel like going back to bed and sleeping some more and hopefully waking up on the right side. One of the thing that happened this morning after I woke up was me finding the words I had started last night for this very blog post were all gone... Granted, there weren't that many written, but the only thing left was a single picture and a blank canvas. I wasn't going to talk about my horrible morning made up of small things that upset me, but after eating something and giving myself a chance to just breathe, I can make a comparison from my day to this food. Today is about salvaging, just as making chilli with leftovers is. See, many people throw away leftovers because they hate eating them, but me? I use them for something else because that is one more meal, you know? Tacos are something I make a lot; I make them at least biweekly or sometimes even weekly because they are inexpensive and nutritious in a lot of ways depending on the fillings and toppings. That and they are delicious and it's hard to get tired of them. It isn't often that I have leftovers... Sometimes I make just enough, sometimes not enough, and too much happens once in a great while. Here are things I tend to put into my tacos...
I had maybe two cups or so of leftover meat and refried beans, which I mix together, rather than make separate, as my husband prefers it that way. This last time, I had used about four cups each of cooked pintos and black beans, which I pureed with my immersion blender with beef fat and the same seasoning that went in the meat. My husband usually takes care of the leftovers if we have any, but they ended up being left alone for the most part and were in the fridge for several days. I did not want to be wasteful. So what I did was fry up some breakfast sausage, fresh bell peppers, I used about eight roma tomatoes and gave those a quick toss in the pan with those things along with some leftover onion... Once the onions and peppers were soft, I dropped in some tomato paste to activate and then put all that in the crock pot with the leftover meat/bean combo, a half gal. of tomato juice, and four or five more cans of beans (both black and pinto) and let it cook for six hours on high. That's it! So here is a recap of the fresh and other leftover ingredients I added so you at least know the amount. This is not a set recipe, but a general idea... About 1 cup of diced onion (leftover) About 1 cup of diced green pepper (leftover) About 8 large garden roma tomatoes that were going to go bad if I didn't use them, diced 1 lb of pork breakfast sausage 2-3 cups of taco leftovers (both meat and beans) 1 small can of tomato paste - I probably could have used two 1/2 gal tomato juice, I use bottled but canned works too Things I topped my chili with - Leftover shredded cheese More diced tomato Avacado Sour cream I also scalded a few tortillas for some of the chili the next day, then sliced them like noodles and this tasted fabulous in my leftover chili. I hope you've enjoyed this first post about leftover reboots and could see how easy it was to take one thing and make something new from it using both leftover and new ingredients. This chili was pretty tasty. So you know, the refried beans did not affect the outcome of the chili, not the texture or the flavor. If anything, it may have helped to thicken the gravy a little, but other than that, it just dissolved into the dish after a long time in the slow cooker!
Until next time, my foodie friends. P.S. Don't let a bad day get you down. Love, Kimmie |
The Eccentric Foodie
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Cooking bacon in the oven is the easiest way.
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These are various recipes that either I created, or I found and adjusted to what I thought would be awesome or even healthier. Archives
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