The Art of Eating Leftovers
The first thing I did this morning when I woke up was grab my phone and call the university hotline. New recording, same general message.
“The University of Colorado is operating under normal hours.” Wah-wah. It figures my school would be the only one in the area to NOT close down today due to the fact that the high was -2. No, not 2, -2.
I comforted myself with some leftover pancakes and in an effort to bulk up my usually not so filling pancakey breakfast, I added a mini GM to the mix.
Leftovers can be boring, yes but they don’t have to be. I’d like to think I’m pretty good at spicing sweetening up leftovers.
Gluten-free blueberry pancake #1 –>Blueberry-oozing-chocolate-hazelnut-butter-sauce-dripping gluten free pancake topped with grilled banana
Gluten-free blueberry pancake #2 —> Peanut-butter-sauce-doused gluten free blueberry pancake with grilled banana
1/2 white, 1/2 wheat pancake —> coconut buttery maple syrup pancake with grilled banana
My coconut butter still won’t melt and I even tried this!
C’est la vie, it still tasted good to me. I swear I didn’t mean to rhyme.
Looks like a filling breakfast, no?
It needs a little something green if you ask me.
And there you have it. This was filling and delicious, not to mention energizing.
5 miles in 49-ish minutes. Wa-hoo!
Then I jazzed up some more leftovers. Call me the Leftover Queen, or just call me lazy.
Joey and I went out for dinner this weekend at The Southern Sun and while the tempeh reuben is delicious I could only finish half.
I subbed out the greasy fries for…
Roasted veggies.
I’d like to pretend it was a solely health related switch but it was partly because microwaved fries just suck. I know this, yet I continue to bring them home with me.
The tempeh is beer baked then layered between two pieces of rye bread with sauerkraut, tomatoes and vegan 1000 island dressing. It’s to die for.
Oh, did I mention there’s melty Swiss cheese? Cheese is key.
I made it through the day with -2 degree temps, wind and a bunch of leftovers. I’d call that a success.
Just Call me Giada
De Laurentis, that is. Why? Because I am an official homemade ravioli maker.
Upon perusing the world of food blogs, I came across A Cozy Kitchen and pretty much squealed with delight when the I found a recipe for homemade sweet potato ravioli. I think we all know about my intense love for these.
At first I thought, I can’t make my own ravioli, it would just be wayyy too hard. I read through the Adrianna and Caroline’s instructions and the list of ingredients and added sweet potatoes to my grocery list and “Sweet Pot. Ravioli” to my list of meals for the week (can you tell I like making lists?) but was really only half serious about actually trying the recipe.
Come Sunday night, I handed Joey our meal list and he suggested we go for the ravioli. The only concern he had was with how long it would take, seeing as it was already 6 PM. I read the instructions again and was shocked at how easy and fast it sounded. Suddenly I was excited.
To the kitchen we went.
For a step-by-step guide, check out A Cozy Kitchen. It was dark when we made it so process pictures were a no go. Next time, my friends. I promise.
Aren’t they cute?
I’ll give you the gist of it.
- Mix flour and water to make dough — No, really that’s all you need and if you are in need of a dose of fiber go for the whole wheat flour instead of the white, although this definitely gives the raviolis a different taste. Heavier I would say.
- Cook 1 peeled sweet potato, mash and mix with what have you. The recipe calls for parmesan and breadcrumbs but we went with cinnamon and a tiny bit of maple syrup. Reminiscent of my sweet potato casserole, I’d say.
- Separate dough into two balls and roll both out, making one slightly larger than the other.
- Distribute sweet potato mixture in small spoonfuls across one piece of dough then cover with the other.
- Seal ends and use a cookie cutter, pasta cutter or hey, just a glass to cut the raviolis out — we used pilsner glasses and they were the perfect size.
- Bring raviolis and water to a boil in a pot then drain, allow to dry and serve with whatever you’d like on top.
I tried to make a sauce out of coconut butter and dried basil.
Notice I said tried.
Coconut butter hates me and refuses to melt. Might I suggest using the brown butter and sage sauce that the recipe calls for? Believe me, I would have made it if I hadn’t thrown my sage out earlier this week.
The inside is sweet, creamy and delicious. I could see us getting creative with what we stuff these with.
The recipe makes about 25 ravioli. Boy was it nice to wake up and have lunch already made. Especially since I had to leave early to get to class.
It has been snowing since last night and although it hasn’t accumulated much, it’s pretty slick and any snow makes public transportation a complete nightmare.
I know, I really know how to capture the beauty of nature, right? It figures the only picture I’d take of the snow would be as I was walking to the bus stop.
I don’t know how I fit in a work out this morning but I did 🙂 30 minutes on the stationary bike while reading isn’t so bad.
I have a bunch of leftover pancakes in my fridge but all I wanted when I got back inside was hot oats.
I restocked on dried cranberries. They are oh so plump and delicious. I swear I could eat them by the handful and by could I mean I do.
Does scraping the ice of your car for 15 minutes count as an arm workout? I say yes.
Have a good one!
Chickpea Flour Hummus
Another Sunday, another family breakfast.
This week featured more pancakes – gluten free with blueberries and a whole wheat and white mixture.
Plus eggs + salsa and strawberries on the side. Except the salsa and wheat/white pancake is missing.
Remember when I said pancakes don’t hold me over long? Well maybe it was the addition of eggs or the fact that I was busy cooking away all afternoon but I didn’t have to eat lunch until 4 hours after breakfast. I’ll take it!
So what was I busy doing all afternoon?
Making chickpea flour hummus, of course.
Chickpea Flour Hummus:
Originally from Bob’s Red Mill
- 2 1/2 cups water
- 3/4 cup chickpea flour
- 1 T garlic, minced (about 3 cloves)
- 1/4 cup tahini
- juice of 1 lemon (about 1/4 cup)
- 1 T water
- 2 T olive oil
- salt, pepper, cumin, hot sauce
- Bring water to a boil.
- Add chickpea flour and stir continuously for 2 minutes.
- Reduce heat and cook for 5 minutes. **I had to turn it to low because it bubbled and splattered quite a bit**
- Add garlic, chickpea flour, lemon juice and tahini in a food processor until smooth. If you’re adding hot sauce, do so at this point.
- Add the salt, pepper and cumin then stream in the water and olive oil.
- Pour into a bowl, cover and let sit for at least an hour then refrigerate.
As always, taste and adjust seasonings as necessary.
I checked the hummus after an hour and noticed it was pulling away from the sides of the bowl.
I could pretend I wondered if it would come out in a solid molded chunk but I did more than wonder.
I think it’s safe to say this hummus has a texture unlike any other.
I’m not 100% sold on the taste. I definitely has a flour taste to it. I’ll have to play around more with the seasonings but Joey liked it so that’s good enough for me.
I had some with lunch.
We went out with a couple of friends to PF Chang’s last night. Usually I don’t mind chains or Chang’s but I usually don’t have to wait an hour and a half for a table either!
I ordered the Mandarin Chicken because it came with a good portion of veggies. I love Chinese food but I don’t love ordering something that turns out to be a platter of just meat. Veggies good, spice/heat bad. My mouth was on fire!
I had the leftovers for lunch so my mouth was on fire again.
Watch out for my next post because oh yes I did make my own sweet potato ravioli!
Lauren Loves Good Food 