Making over flopped Amish Friendship Bread; Free garden seeds at TreeHugger

My Cranberry Walnut Bread Pudding with Vanilla Sauce is a riff on Charlie Trotter's Cinnamon-Raisin Bread Pudding with Vanilla Anglaise. Actually riffed on his Cinnamon-Cranberry Bread Pudding recipe but couldn't find the recipe online, and you know I am too LAZY to type it up myself! I used 3/4 cup of dried cranberries and 3/4 cup of chopped walnuts with the last of the Amish Friendship Bread that was in the freezer. I'd screwed up one batch of the Amish bread by forgetting to add oil, but the bread pudding recipe made DRY AS TOAST friendship bread into something moist and yummy! (My vanilla sauce recipe is much simpler than Charlie's: Put 1/2 cup melted butter, 1/2 cup canola oil, 1 cup milk, 1 tsp. vanilla extract into a small pan, add 1 cup sugar with 3 tablespoons flour whisked into it. Cook and stir 'til the sauce thickens and coats the spoon.)

Hey, check this out over at TreeHugger's site: "5 Ways to Get Free Seeds for Your Garden." Okay, time for me to get off the computer and do some seriously mindless activity for awhile. Such a BUSY day...my brain could use a rest! *wink* What mindless activity is in store for you tonight?

Make Over: Pimiento Cheese to Cheesy Baked Onions

Did Hubby REALLY put all that roasted garlic on his hotdog? Oh, yes, he did. Ugh!

Hubby finds my fondness for Cincinnati chili just as gross!

Just to prove hotdogs aren't all we eat--this pork loin came off the grill tonight. We'll eat it mañana, and of course, the leftovers from that meal will likely go into another three or so minimal-meat meals.

Made Blackberry Farms Pimiento Cheese recipe again. First time I used vinegar 'cause I didn't have any pickle juice on hand and we LOVED the stuff. Well, guess what? I don't like the pickle juice version as well. So, using the pimiento cheese and a bit of olive oil, I made Cheesy Baked Onions for Hubby, who is more of a pickle lover than I am.

Cheesy Baked Onions

Any leftovers being transformed over at your place?

You're either getting better--or you're not

"I challenge everyone to

consider the direction and the value of your days–

because like it or not, those days are going by and

either you're getting better at something, 

getting stronger and more experienced…

or you're not."

Steve Richert, Living Vertical

Trying to improve upon the original Cherry Swirl Coffee Cake (which we like but always room for improvement, eh?), I subbed blueberry pie filling for the cherry filling and added grated orange rind for my Blueberry Swirl Coffee Cake. Less sweet than a regular "cake," this is perfect for breakfast. Mighty fine for after dinner dessert too!

Roasted a chicken yesterday...
will get at least four meals out of this bad boy.

On surfing the top ten adventure blogs (link shared yesterday), I came across the quote above and absolutely fell in love with it. I figure "you're either getting better or you're not" applies to just about everything, including recipes. Never had a problem motivating myself to tinker with recipes. Wish I could say the same when it comes to motivating myself to exercise!
   Any tinkering going on over at your place lately?

Had planned to make chicken pot pie using some of the chicken leftover from the roasted chicken, but since we had Grandbaby today, I didn't have time to make a pie crust. So, we had Chicken Pot Pasta instead. ;)

Maybe we'll all eat more veggies than meat in 2050

Had this Cashew Chicken Stir Fry right where I wanted it...until I remembered some leftover restaurant Chicken Pad Thai in the fridge. *sigh*

Last time I bought cashews in bulk, we ate them all toot sweet and none were left for stir fries when needed. So, this time I packed some up for the freezer in snack-sized plastic bags I'd bought years ago...before Hubby retired and I stopped working outside the home. Before I started watching money more closely. Before I started watching how much plastic we used. These will be washed and reused ad infinitum--then NOT replaced. (Also in pic: my baby mung bean sprouts--too young for this stir fry!)

Oh, yes, I did wait until 2012 to buy a calendar so I'd get one 50% off!

This is how my stir fry ended up once the leftover Pad Thai was added. Knew Hubby was sick of the Pad Thai, as he'd already eaten it TWICE; yet, there was still about a cup and a half left.  Believe it or not, I ordered and ate some at the restaurant--that's how much freakin' food they gave me! Though I liked my stir fry better before incorporating the leftovers and adjusting the seasonings to boot, it felt good to know nothing would go to waste.

   Stumbled across "What We’ll Be Eating in 2050" over on Gourmet.com and learned a thing or two. Did you know that "Around the year 2000, the world’s population surpassed 6 billion, and then added a billion more over the next 12 years." I knew we were at 7 billion, just didn't know how quickly we managed to add a billion. The article is at once hopeful and scary, but I agree with the one guy that "we’ll be eating lots more veggies than meat in our meals of the future."
   What do you think we'll be eating in 2050? More veggies? More meat? Soylent Green? ;)

Meatless Monday: Firecracker Corn, Southern Cafe Stewed Apples

Ken Hom's Firecracker Corn, only I added green pepper

Almost forgot it was "Meatless Monday"! So, I went with deviled eggs, canned pork-n-beans, Firecracker Corn and Southern Café Stewed Apples. This is my favorite cooked apple recipe. It's best with Granny Smith's, but these are galas.
   I accidentally bought some non-organic apples, and since apples top the list of foods--the Dirty Dozen--with the highest pesticide residue, I decided to peel and cook these instead of eating them raw as we usually would. Usually when I cook apples, I'll leave the peel on, but that was out this time.
   Anyway, the corn and beans from lunch found their way into my soup, which turned out might fine! Hubby ate leftover spaghetti with Italian sausage tonight. Clearly, I am going to have to work harder on preparing something much more spectacular for our meatless main meal, so Hubby will be less likely to resort to eating meat for his dinner.
   Ah, well, there's always next time!!

Southern Café Stewed Apples, from Two for the Road by Jane and Michael Stern

Leftover veggies from lunch made their way into my supper! (Btw, this is not my soup bowl...Love my tiny Crockpot!

   For curiosity's sake, care to tell me what you'd have done with leftover corn and baked beans?

On My Mind: Hubby cooks in self defense

Hubby cooked for us last night: lightly fried wild turkey breast, leftover sweet potatoes, raw carrots and sliced tomatoes. He'd made a sweet potato casserole for us to take to a family get-together the night before but cooked too many sweet potatoes to fit in the pot. (Dunno why he boiled the sweet potatoes before baking the casserole.) I made a lazy crab dip--layers of cream cheese, crab meat and cocktail sauce--and some margaritas to take.

I'm sort of a feast and famine sort of cook, but I don't always starve when going through my "lazy days." (Y'know, the kinda days when you don't feel like doing a bloomin' thing!) I cook like crazy for a few weeks and then go for at least a week not knowing what to cook...so I don't.
   That's where Hubby comes in. When I don't feel like cooking, he pinch hits very well. Gotta love that!

Tonight I ate a Clif bar and an apple for dinner. So, Hubby made himself a sandwich and these potato cakes, using some leftover parsley potatoes I'd made the other day. He always comes up with something better than I do on the nights we just scrounge! BTW, this is our new non-stick skillet with a porcelain finish. Maybe I've finally found an alternative to those scary non-stick skillets that are usually made with iffy chemicals. I'll let you know if this kind holds up!

   Well, that's what's on my mind today. What's on yours? Hope you'll share your link here or on down-to-earth!

On My Mind, conceived by Rhonda at down-to-earth

Repurposing leftovers: Étouffée-ish Lentil Chicken Veggie Mish Mash

Only risk with winging it in the kitchen is that you must be willing to eat the results! Latest experiment in cooking turned out just fine, and another minimal meat meal has come and gone: this time an Étouffée-ish Lentil Chicken Veggie Medley.

Creole Trinity: onions, peppers and celery.

   Finally found a source for antibiotic-free, humanely raised chickens, so I'll be adding chicken back to our meal offerings, while keeping to my plan of preparing more minimal meat meals (saves money and also lightens our carbon footprint). Cooking more and more vegetarian meals, but as I'm not only cooking to my tastes here, minimal meat seems a good compromise.
   I didn't really follow any recipe for my lentil chicken mish-mash, but used the seasonings for étouffée found in Chef Paul Prudhomme's Louisiana Kitchen as my jumping off point. After I took the above picture, I ended up adding a bit of leftover lentil soup (cooked out the liquids), along with some prepared mustard and a bit of Sweet Thai Chili Sauce too. And stole the onions out of a leftover cucumber and onion salad, so they tasted vinegary going in. Couldn't really taste any vinegar once the onions were cooked!

The seasonings used, as in Chef Paul Prudhomme's Louisiana Kitchen.

   Posting this is my way of showing what goes on around here most days: repurposing leftovers and using less animal protein. Any leftovers making their way to your table today? 

Eating more "slow carbs" like lentils, as suggested by The 4-Hour Body book.

Leftover Roasted Chicken, with garlic and potatoes. (Aren't chickens gross when cold?)

Only added one chicken thigh but end result enough to feed two.

Make over: Leftover spaghetti magic

Feeling a little proud of myself! I transformed leftover vegetarian spaghetti into vegetable soup for lunch and then a veggie lasagna for dinner. VEGETABLE SOUP: For the soup, I cooked some diced onion and potato, then added leftovers from a restaurant veggie plate: butternut squash and spinach, plus roasted long green beans, and finally, added some of my leftover spaghetti. Seasoned the whole by adding red pepper, white pepper, basil, cumin, sherry vinegar, chicken base seasoning & freshly ground pepper. VEGGIE LASAGNA: Inspired by a vegetarian lasagna recipe found on http://www.saveur.com/, I mixed an egg into the remaining 3 cups or so of my leftover marina spaghetti, then layered this with a bechamel (white) sauce chunky with cooked diced onion and green pepper, about 6 sundried tomatoes (oil packed) and a little bit of cottage cheese. Placed some fresh mozzerella on top and baked it 'til bubbly. We both really liked it, but I wished I had left the sundried tomatoes a little bigger, as they were the most interesting surprise ingredient.

Make over: Sausage apple strata

Okay, it doesn't get any better than finding and adapting a recipe to fit your foods on hand. For tonight, I made a strata, which was layered into a 1 1/2 quart baking dish as follows:

• 2 large pieces of stale country bread, cubed
• 1 cooked smoked sausage patty, cut into small pieces, scattered evenly over the bread cubes
• 1/2 peeled, cored apple, cut into cubes, scattered evenly over sausage and bread
• several cubes of cheese leftover from a party (had on hand cubes of havarti with dill & gruyere), scatter evenly over above ingredients
• 3 eggs, beaten, 1/2 cup cream, 1/4 cup milk, big pinch of dried sage, salt to taste...once mixed, poured over the above items, then sprinkle with freshly ground pepper

bake at 350 degrees for about 50 minutes or until set.

Quick & easy supper ideas

1. From Sunday's appetizer to another night's meal, I filled leftover baked potato skins with bacon/cream cheese/horseradish dip for a great new dish that we both loved. 
2. Also discovered recently that we are very keen on summer squash pizza: sliced yellow squash sauteed in a little olive oil and then put atop a pizza crust (either homemade from a quick mix or a french bread loaf) with ranch dip as the sauce & a little mozzerella or assorted italian cheeses on top. Made the last squash pizza on Panera foccacia bread (which we slice in half), and used ranch dip with salsa (1 pkg. ranch dressing mix, 16oz sour cream, 1/2 cup salsa -- won't need whole recipe for a pizza).

Another good reason to buy less

Less consumption - less waste. Better for my wallet BUT ALSO better for our planet. For yet another reason to buy less, read "Spending More, Enjoying Less" by George Loewenstein: http://www.aarp.org/bulletin/yourmoney/money_for_life_sb4.html

My plan for spending less today is to go home and "reinvent" some of the leftovers in the fridge. Leftover turkey will become mock chicken salad for dinner. Chop cooked turkey, add one part Marzetti's Coleslaw Dressing to one part mayo or salad dressing; stir in toasted pecans. yum!