Happy Thanksgiving…and to many days of Leftovers!

Every year, we always have a surplus of food for our Thanksgiving meal.  I suppose our families lives by the saying, “We would rather have plenty than NOT enough food for everyone.”  For my Thanksgiving Day festivity (Part I), the Mo and I hosted 25 people, 90% being his side.

We usually do it buffet style but this year, the Mo created a seating arrangement out of mismatched chairs and white folding tables using whatever candles and fall decor we had.  Although it wasn’t something that would be featured in Martha’s Stewart’s Living magazine, I thought it was quite lovely and the guests appreciated having a seat and eating their meal without the dogs jumping on them.

We had 2 turkeys, a large pork shoulder and 11 different side dishes not including dessert.  Of course, we had plenty of leftovers, EVEN after the teenagers went for round 2 a few hours later.

I knew we would be eating the leftovers on Friday, but I didn’t want to eat the usual Turkey sandwiches or turkey salad, so I did a few different things today.

Leftover Turkey Meat

For breakfast, I made the Mo a turkey, bacon and cheddar melt omelette with mushroom using the leftover turkey.

Fried Bacon

Chopped up Mushrooms

Turkey and Bacon Cheddar Omelette with Mushroom

For myself, I made a spinach and onion omelette using the remainder of the creamed spinach from yesterday’s side dish.

Leftover Creamed Spinach

Creamed Spinach Omelette

His and Her’s Post Turkey Day Breakfast

After breakfast, I added all the ingredients for Weightwatcher’s Turkey Chili Verde recipe to my slow cooker.  In addition to using the lean ground turkey, I also added 2 cups of shredded leftover turkey breast to the chili.  Instead of cooking it on the stop top as the recipe suggests, I set my slow cooker on High for 4 hours and went black Friday shopping. The original recipe is 6 points per a serving, but since I added additional meal, I’m giving it 8 points per serving. (It’s probably even less) then another point for cheese.

Shredded Turkey Breast

Slow Cooker set on High for 4 Hrs

Bowl of Weightwatcher’s Turkey chili with a tablespoon of cheese

For dinner, I made the Mo turkey and roasted pepper quesadilla using the same leftover turkey meat and leftover corn from last night.

Turkey, Peppers, Jalapeno and Onions

Must Have seasoning, Lawry’s

Turkey Quesadilla with Corn and fresh baked honey corn bread

For tomorrow’s Thanksgiving Dinner part II in CT, I signed up to make a simple Spanish rice among other things.  Although, I usually use chicken breast, I substituted the chicken with leftover turkey breast and the rice still came out delicious! (I only had a taste, not a plate) I kept the rice basic since it would be served as a side dish.  If it was going to be a main entree, I would have added olives, pigeon peas, bell peppers, ham and onions.

Goya Rice

Bottomline, Thanksgiving leftovers doesn’t have to be boring. Be creative and try something new.

Irene Won’t Stop Me from Cooking!

Cooking without Electricity

I woke up this morning with expectations of not having power due to the much anticipated Hurricane Irene that was making her way up from New York to New England. To my surprise, I woke up to only rain and some wind and luckily we still had power. I turned on Fox News and sat on the couch and watched the local coverage of Hurricane Irene and saw massive power outages and fallen trees.

The Mo suggested to me that I should make breakfast before our power goes out. I thought sarcastically, “Yeah, Ok” , Nat was probably right, the “spoiled brat” is just hungry. I probably should have just fed him cereal and beer as his sister, Tia, suggested.

Since it was getting closer to lunch anyway, I decided to make “Huevos Ranchero” for brunch. I took out all the ingredients and started to prep and sure enough, 10 minutes later, the power went off. As the Mo started to gather out “Black Out” supplies, the power came back on. I was relived and started chopping away some more when the power went off again. This time, it went off for good.

Luckily for us, we are avid campers and have all the necessary supplies to manage meals during power outages. We used the Coleman propane lantern as a source of light.

We also brought up the Coleman Dual Burner Camping Stove to cook. As a safety precaution, we also brought out our fire extinguisher, just in case we needed it on hand.

Hueveo Rancheros is a classic Mexican breakfast dish consisting of eggs, salsa, beans, cheese and anything else you want. There are many different ways and preferences to make Huevos Ranchero

Here is my recipe.

Sauce

· 2 Hot Sausages, cubed or sliced to preference
(I prefer Johnston but Market Basket Brand is fine)

· ½ cup of Chopped tomatoes

( I prefer grape tomatoes due to its sweetness)

· ½ cup of Chopped Red Onions

· ½ cup of Chopped Bell Peppers, any color

( I prefer yellow or orange due to its sweetness)

· ½ cup of Chopped Fresh Cilantro

· ¼ Cup of Sliced Fresh Scallions

· 2 Tablespoons of finely chopped garlic

· 1Packet of Goya Sazon Seasoning
3 Tablespoons of Goya Frozen Sofrito

· 1 Cup of Sweet canned corn, drained and rinsed

· 1 Cup of canned Black Beans, drained and rinsed

· 1 Tablespoon of chicken broth powder or 1 chicken bouillon cube

· Pinch of black pepper, sea salt, chili powder

· 1 Teaspoon of olive oil

· 1 Cup of Water

Sauce

In a large saucepan, add the olive oil and brown the sausages until its slightly crispy. Add in all the chopped vegetables, sofrito, sazon, chicken powder and other spices to the mixture and stir occasionally for about 10-12 minutes. Add 1 cup of water and increase temperature to bring to a boil. While boiling, add the corn and beans and let it continue to boil for 1 minutes. Make sure to stir the mixture as the beans can get stuck to the bottom of the pan and burn. After 1 minute, reduce the heat and let the mixture simmer for 10 minutes. Again, be sure to continue to lightly stir the mixture.

Other Ingredients

· Tortilla Wrap ( I prefer whole wheat tortillas)

· Shredded Cheese, Cheddar or “Mexican Blend” is preferred

· Eggs, qty based on servings

Directions

On a separate burner, warm a tortilla on a small skillet on medium temperature. Do not add any oil or grease to the skillet. The tortilla should be warm and crispy after 1 minute on each side. Remove the tortilla and set aside on a dish. Return the skillet to the burner.

Increase the temperature to high and add some cooking spray or a little bit of oil using a brush. Crack 2 whole eggs (or I prefer to use 1 whole eggs and 2 egg whites). You should hear the eggs sizzle on the high heat so the bottom of the eggs are crispy. After about 45 seconds, reduce the heat and cover the eggs with a lid.

This step is optional. The lid helps steam the eggs so the yolk isn’t too runny and the egg whites gets cooked. After 2 minutes, remove the lid and transfer the eggs with a large spatcheler onto the tortilla.

Add ½ to 1 cup of sauce onto the egg and tortilla. Sprinkle with shredded cheese (as much or as little as you prefer).

Usually, I like to pop this into the microwave for 20 seconds to melt the cheese, but since the power went off, I had to skip this step.

Garnish with some cilantro and jalapenos and serve with your favorite hot sauces.

Mami Eggroll’s style Huevos Ranchero

For this dish, I recommend, Goya’s Salsita Hot Sauces.

Goya Salsita Hot Sauces

I always seem to have about 1 ½ cups of extra sauce left over. This works out perfectly because I can always use the sauce over blackened chicken breasts and serve it with a side of rice and vegetables for dinner.