Leftover Re-vamp

Yes, my very first actual post is about leftovers.

Well, I decided I will just post what we eat. Sometimes, I will post recipes. Sometimes (assuming I can figure out how all of this works), I will post pictures. Sometimes, I may post, "Tonight, we ordered pizza." Because, well, sometimes we order pizza.

Tonight's meal was a re-mix of leftovers from a couple of nights ago. On Wednesday evening, I got home from my girls' cheerleading practice to discover that I had not put anything in the crockpot for dinner. Hence, we had no dinner. I needed something quick, so I started a pot of brown basmati rice.

Next, I heated a little olive oil in the bottom of my soup pot and added one small head of cauliflower, cut into bite-sized pieces, four or five peeled and diced potatoes, and a few cloves of minced garlic. When the cauliflower had started to soften, I added a bunch of roughly chopped asparagus, a couple or three handfuls of organic frozen mixed vegetables, a can of organic diced tomatoes + one can of water. I seasoned it all with curry powder, dill weed, basil, mint and a generous sprinkle of onion powder (because I would have sauteed a fresh onion with the cauliflower and potatoes if I'd had one, but I didn't). Cooked it all until it was done, seasoned to taste with salt and pepper.

There ya go ~ dinner. Such as it was, anyway. It was hot, filling, nourishing and...well, it was there. So, it did its job, I suppose.

I had a lot of leftovers, so I decided that, tonight, I would dress them up a bit. I like to do that, if I am serving leftovers for another meal. You know, mix it up a little, keep things interesting.

I happened to have a package of Chicken-Less Strips from Trader Joe's, so I heated a tiny bit of oil in a skillet and tossed them in. They seemed a little bland, so I added some rubbed sage and a little bit of celery seed.

When the strips had browned a little, I added the leftover vegetable curry stuff, as well as the leftover brown rice. On a whim, I sprinkled in some Chinese five spice, a pinch of coriander, and a couple of dashes of cinnamon. Cooked it all until it was nice and hot. The eldest daughter and I agreed it would have been even better with a few nuts and maybe some golden raisins thrown in (it ended up like a sort of juicy rice pilaf, if you can imagine that).

Hopefully, I will be able to post some more interesting stuff soon.

I have to warn you, I don't always measure things, so I will often just sort of describe my process, as I did above. Maybe I will try to make myself measure things, if I remember. However, I have a terrible memory.