Food Roll Overs

I have too many food pictures, so I need to do a quick post to display them all. Wyatt and I aren't big on left overs. I personally like to get my knives and frying pan out and Wyatt likes variety. There are many terms for reusing left overs in new ways, my favorite thus far is Rachel Ray's coined name Roll Overs.

Lately, I have seen many recipes calling for a store bought rotisserie chicken. Recently, I saw a show where Tyler Florence broiled a chicken beautifully by cutting out the back with scissors, so I decided to use that for a base of several roll over meals. Not to mention the whole organic fresh free roaming chicken was 79 cents a pound, so I got a 4 pound bird for a little over $3 (about half the price of rotisserie I think). Meal 1: Broil chicken in lemon, olive oil, and thyme with roast vidalia onions, garlic rice and bulgar, and garden tomato salad.

I took my traditional America meal and transformed it into a Southeast Asian staple, chicken tikka. Meal 2: Sliced broiled chicken with reused tomatoes, vidalia onions with tikka spices, a touch of cream and topped with coriander over rice. Note: The broiled chicken was so tender on the second day and absorbed the flavors of the spices perfectly.

If you still have some left over chicken, try this last combo. Meal 3: Puff pastry squares stuffed with a mixture of cream cheese, chopped vidalia onion, mushroom and shredded broiled chicken served with brown rice and seasoned tomatoes.

Veggies can be rolled over too. I prepared roasted acorn squash with cinnamon and sugar as side dish in Meal 1 with roast pork and onions. Meal 2: I added the left over squash to chicken stock and blended with a submersion blended and added a touch of cream for a rich soup.

Finally frozen shrimp are a great way to roll over meals, ok so this technically isn't a roll over, but a good tip. Shrimp are sold frozen in larger bags at the store, often at significant discount. We especially like the jumbo freshwater shrimp cooked with shell on to keep a nice texture. Meal 1: Angel hair pasta tossed with grilled shrimp, roasted cherry tomatoes, Alaskan jumbo king crab meat, parsley, lemon, and freshly grated Parmesan cheese. Meal 2: Spicy Cajun fried shrimp with lemon and green beans. Both meals are super easy and can be made from your pantry if you have the frozen shrimp on hand.

Believe it or not I have several other shots I wanted to blog about, but I will save them for later. I would love to hear about your roll overs and the largest number of meals you have made from stretching one option.

Thought for the Day: The only time to eat diet food is while you're waiting for the steak to cook. ~Julia Child