Leftovers require that you think creatively. Not only will you stretch your food dollar but you can add substantial variety to your diet. Some basic tenets include using the leftover materials with: new condiments, vegetables and any meats available. Make barbequed chicken salad, beef or lamb hash, or use a portion of carbohydrates to add a different taste or texture to the dish.
Things to have in your pantry include: canned chicken stock, Worcestershire sauce, A-1 steak sauce, onions, olive oil, catsup, mustard, mayonnaise, bottled barbeque sauce, small cans of tomatoes, eggs, cans of good tuna fish, Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese, cracker crumbs (or dry bread crumbs), a can of water chestnuts, and at least one head of garlic. Think about the dishes you have enjoyed at home when your Mom made leftovers and it seemed like a giant smorgasbord. All kinds of bits and bowls of things were brought out to clean out the refrigerator. You were able to eat what you wanted of what you liked. After that meal any leftover leftovers are going to be thrown out.
So to start: inventory your culinary resources (look in the refrigerator), know what you have in the pantry, assess the proteins, and sit and think for a few minutes. What is still edible? As far as I know, there is no known blue food. What goes together, and more importantly, what doesn't? Some foods just don't work together. Do you want or have to heat it or can it be eaten cold and its corollary - Is it better hot or cold? Who am I feeding? The kids (how picky are they?), hubby or significant other (probably even picky-er?), friends (you hopefully know their tastes?), or a major dinner party for twelve (probably not a great idea at first glance)?
You have a half of a roasted chicken. So why not make a barbequed chicken salad? This can be served on a roll or toasted bread as a sandwich, or on top of a salad with chopped up lettuce and some sliced tomatoes. Or just pull out some crackers, put a cup or so of the chicken salad on a plate and make some crackers and chicken. Its high in protein and you can effectively portion control it by simply assessing the "cracker " sandwiches you make.
Barbecued chicken salad
Ingredients
1-2 cups of roasted chicken, chopped into 1/2" pieces
1/2 Cup good quality barbeque sauce (southern style, Asian style, hot and spicy makes little difference)
1/2 Cup mayonnaise
1/2 Onion, chopped into small dice
1/2 Cup celery, chopped into small dice
Lemon juice ( squeeze or two to sharpen flavor)
Chopped parsley (to taste)
Salt and pepper to taste
Tabasco sauce (to taste)
Options: cooked and chopped crisp bacon
Mix all ingredients together in a medium sized bowl and allow to chill for a half hour before serving.
This same recipe, without the barbeque sauce, a cup of mayonaise, and some chopped apples, a handful of raisens and chopped walnuts makes a terrific basic chicken salad. This will make quite a bit of salad, so plan either on feeding some friends at a nice lunch or eating it yourself again tomorrow. I like the addition of the apple and bacon even with the barbeque sauce.
Next is what do you do with some cooked roast beef or lamb (or pork). Hash is one of my favorite dishes, particularly for breakfast. Classic hash is made with diced potatoes, onions, meat and seasonings. It can be spicy, or bland, in small bits or in larger mouthfuls. It is an infinitely variable dish. So let’s start with a basic hash and look at options later.
Basic hash
This is my version of this dish and it probably not remind you of that canned versions that was so popular back in the fifties and sixties. I actually loved using the canned corned beef or roast beef hash, cooked in a saute pan with eggs poached on top, but this is about making it yourself from leftovers. The leftovers you will use are a couple of cups of roast beef, or roast lamb chopped into small bite sized pieces, 2 to 3 potatoes chopped into ½” dice and an onion in ½” dice. The potatoes can be raw or cooked. If raw the cooking will be modified to include getting them done before adding the meat. I will assume we are going to start with raw potatoes. In a large saute pan, put about ¼ cup of corn or sunflower oil and heat on medium . Add the raw potatoes and stir to ensure each piece is coated with oil. Add the onions and saute for 4-6 minutes on a medium high heat to start to crisp the potatoes, then reduce the heat and add about ½ Cup of water. Cover the potatoes and continue to cook until they are tender. Stir to keep the potatoes from sticking. Add the cooked meat and stir in, and then cover and return to the heat. The remaining water will steam the meat and heat it through. In about 4-5 minutes the dish will be virtually done. So it is time to season it. Obviously salt and pepper are necessary but you can add some garlic and/or onion powder (don’t use garlic or onion salt), or some paprika. Add a bit of cayenne pepper or chili powder to bring up the heat a bit. Allow the hash to crisp a little in the saute pan and it is done.
If you want to make a great breakfast, make several wells in the hash, and break an egg into each well. Cover the pan and cook on low heat until the eggs are done to your liking. This dish provides a lot of protein to the WLS diet as well as some great flavors to wake up o. Its really good on a Sunday morning, with a nice cup of coffee. An English muffin is a good accompaniment, but the WLS patient may not be able to eat that many carbohydrates with the potatoes in the dish. Optional additions to the dish are a half cup or more of chopped green, red or yellow bell peppers added to the saute with the onions. Additional seasonings can include some Tabasco sauce, catsup, A-1 sauce or Worcestershire sauce. Use you imagination and use up that roast beef (or lamb or pork). It is an effective way to extend the meat and add a pleasant breakfast or lunch dish.
Surfer stew
This dish got its name back in the early 1960’s with the surfing community in Southern California. Most of those guys were so dedicated to the surfing lifestyle; they didn’t have real jobs and often lived hand to mouth in bachelor apartments in large groups to afford the rents. All they needed was a place to crash and someplace to store their boards. After a day at the beach they wanted some food. It didn’t have to taste all that great but it had to be filling. So the refrigerator was opened and the covered dishes investigated. What was there to eat? The food was identified. The food wasn’t blue and fuzzy was it? If it was, it got tossed out. Smelled OK? Time to eat!
So in practice, to make Surfer stew, you took what you found in the refrigerator and added a can of tuna to it and stuck it in a pan on the stove to heat. Some cooked beans, some chopped onions, maybe some leftover macaroni and cheese? The tuna upped the level of protein, was relatively inexpensive and could be stored easily in a bachelor apartment. It doesn’t sound all that great in hindsight, but it kept the guys fed and ready to go to the beach the next day. I don’t recommend it as a lifestyle but when assessing the refrigerator contents for possible leftovers, think about that can of tuna. It’s a quick fix and can add substantial amounts of protein to the WLS diet. Tuna casserole or tuna in a white sauce over toast or rice can be an easy addition to the diet.
When you look into the refrigerator, think about what you have in there and how it might be combined with fresh or raw ingredients in order to use it up. Do you have some mushrooms languishing in there in the vegetable compartment? Some leftover spinach or rice? These items can be used effectively when added to meats available to create new dishes. Don’t think of leftovers as eating the same flavors again. Change the dishes, add new ingredients and you will find that instead of just throwing things away and wasting food you are able to create a new and healthy dish. One that satisfies the needs of the WLS patients and the Eight Bites practitioners.
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