We live in a small town, but I decided to get to the polls a bit early just in case there was a line. Nope! I think I was in and out of there in about two minutes! Happy to say that Pat Quinn is out on his ass. Hopefully he’ll just retire quietly. Bruce Rauner is our new governor – I appreciate the fact that a businessman who has a net worth of a billion dollars wants to go into public office. We’ll see!
I love using leftovers to repurpose them into something just as delicious and not just as a way to not be wasteful. Tony ate about 1/3 of the inside of a baked potato for dinner the other night. I had some of my leftover steak, and decided to just make a breakfast baked potato. First off, my store had Idaho potatoes 4/$1 last week. If you see that price, weigh out the potatoes – some were as light as 5 ounces, some were as big as 12 ounces! This one was 8 ounces. I scooped out the remaining potato, scrambled that with 3/4 cup liquid egg whites, cup of chopped baby spinach and at the very end tossed in the 1.5 ounces of leftover steak. I put the scramble inside the baked potato and put it in a container. Once at work, I put 1 ounce of cheddar cheese over the top, and put it under the broiler for about 6 minutes – to heat up the potato and get the cheese all nice and melty.
I love that tiny casserole dish – I got it at T.J. Maxx for five dollars a few years ago. Now that is two servings above – each serving is 251 calories, 6.2 fat, 20 carbs, 2 fiber and a whopping 26 grams of protein. Best part? The price! I calculated each serving to be $1.47. What’s also great about this is that it can be made ahead of time for a brunch crowd. Then just before everyone sits down you can pop them in a 450 oven for 10 minutes to warm them up and melt the cheese.
My blood sugar was a perfect 220 before working out. It was legs and then I did a walk/sprint – this time walk 4 minutes, sprint 1 minute for 2.25 miles. My last sprint yesterday? An 8 minute mile pace!
Yup, more leftover buffalo chicken chili! I took the last of it. Hey, if it’s not broke, why fix it?! I was watching The Chew at lunch, and Tyler Florence was the guest. He has a new cookbook coming out, that he said he took all the pictures with his iPad and used Photo Toaster as the editing app. I downloaded it – It’s $2.99 (still using iTunes gift cards for my apps!) and I thought this picture from my iPhone 4 wasn’t too bad! (although I can’t wait for my phone upgrade in February!)
Um, guess who else likes my chili? Sunny Anderson! Seriously, we will be bffs one day! Ha!
Tony asked for plain pasta for dinner. Something that I love that Tony can’t stand? Macaroni and cheese. I know, I know. What’s not to love about mac n cheese? I made macaroni and cheese with broccoli and leftover ham. The ham actually came from a salad brought to our office last Friday. The pasta with the salad was looking pretty sad, so I picked out all the ham and brought it home and threw the rest out.
I used half of this block of cheese – so good! Of course you know I love my Cabot cheese.
And here’s a crappy dinner picture – it tasted much better than it looks!
After dinner I decided to do a bit of recipe developing. I am bringing dinner rolls to the dinner party I am catering for my boss. I wanted to see if I could make quick dinner rolls without using butter, but vegetable oil. These were good, but not great. I think I put in too much sugar, not enough salt. But considering these were done from beginning to end in 45 minutes was pretty good – they are light and fluffy! You know what they remind me of? Hawaiian rolls! If you are looking for a Hawaiian roll recipe, let me know and I’ll share it.
And I got all my steps and then some!
I am having the other half of my breakfast baked potato for breakfast, and leftover beef stew for lunch. Love leftovers! Just throw everything in my lunch bag and go. It’s a chilly 37 degrees this morning, although there are blue skies, so I’ll take it. I am leaving work early to take Tony to some doctor appointments this afternoon. Your good thoughts sent our way would be appreciated!
And thanks for your votes for the Fisher Nut recipe contest. I think winners will be announced before Thanksgiving, and I’ll let you know when I do if I made the first cut. Make it a great day!
I love how you re-purpose leftovers. I’m still learning how to do that, but I’m getting better. I love the idea of potatoes for breakfast!
Congrats on getting rid of your idiot governor. I can’t say the same for Nebraska (they just went from one idiot to another).
Potatoes and cheese are such a winning combo. I have some potatoes from a local farm that I need to use up before they go bad. Since I did that paleo challenge I wasn’t really using them. I am still trying to work through our pantry and buy only the fresh ingredients we need. For 3 people I’ve only spent about $15/week the past few weeks (and on average $9 or $10 of that was for apples) – M&B eat them constantly.
I only make mac n cheese with ham, just cheese is a bit too boring for me.
The breakfast potato looks delicious!
I love it that you don’t waste food. I need to do that so much more. I always buy once a week what I need for my planned meals but sometimes I don’t make it and end up throwing food away at the end of the week. At the moment food waste is a hot item in my country. Turns out 12 million euro (that’s about the same in dollards if you recalculate) is thrown away every week in Holland by people, restaurants and grocery stores. What a waste right?
That potato breakfast thing is brilliant! I like potatoes because they are so filling, even though they are a bit dense on calories and carbs.
Husband likes mac n cheese so much but I rarely make it because of calories. I’ve never used cabot cheese, but it looked like it made a great product!
It’s a once in a while treat for me too – I am having the leftovers for lunch today and then it will probably be another six months before I make it.
I think I have a Cabot cheese coupon – let me check and I can mail you one for some free cheese! I puffy heart Cabot cheese!
Please share your roll recipe! If I could make dinner rolls that looked that good in 45 minutes I would be thrilled.
I think Steven is frustrated with me, because although I love all foods, there is so much I won’t/can’t eat [it comes back up – it’s MY cooking! giggle and he worries about my weight] but I think I would go bananas when cooking for the family if there was a list of things they didn’t like. Right now we are limited to 2 things – not making potato soup when the kids are around and raisins in anything Steven eats. Otherwise I have free reign. Which helps. I made my cooking was blander when the kids were younger [they have stronger tastes buds than us, because they are so new] but increased herbs, spices and richness over a period of time and I ended up with a bunch of non picky eaters. And I thank goodness everyday. We did have the “I hate pea fiasco” of 2006, where they all rebelled, but they got over that. giggle
Now email and tell me WHY you asked me an hour ago if I was sitting down? I need good news today. PLEASE.
My sisters kids are really picky – one is a vegetarian, none of them like red beef all that much unless they are really cooked to death burgers, so she relies on chicken and pasta for most of her meals – I don’t think she’s had a steak in 5 years!
Love easy dinners like that. Shells and cheese. I’m in.
Good luck Tony!
Yep, nothing more comforting than cheesy pasta!
I love leftovers too!!! And yay that Sunny (first name basis) likes your photo! Sending good wishes your way for you and Tony!!!! Hug
Thanks Sweetie!
Sending good thoughts your way for Tony.
I’m glad Quinn’s out too!!
Yep – like Louise commented above, he’s not in it for the money so hopefully he doesn’t get corrupt like the rest of them.
Well at least you know that your new Gov. is not in it for the money. No corruption there, right??
Prayers for Tony….those are the best thoughts one could have. He has not been eating a lot lately hope there is nothing wrong.
Love the way you can put something together from nothing and make it look very tantalizing to the eyes and tummy….yummy! Those dinner rolls look good too. I made some the other day using 7-up, sour cream and bisquit mix. Butter was used to coat the pan….Man were they ever great!
Have a great day and stay warm.
Thanks for your virtual prayers Louise – we appreciate it!
Now I am going to have to try that dinner roll mix – I think I have everything at home to make them – thanks for the tip!
You look great in your post-workout pic! I need to get up off my @$$ and start moving again! I use my early mornings as an excuse (baby likes to get up at 4:30 since the time change – ugh!) But enough is enough! On a different note, I love the way you repurpose leftovers. You could make a whole show about just that. I’d watch. 😉
Ha, my sister and I comment on that all the time – we could make a book on just using leftovers – and I could write a cookbook “Champagne Taste on a Beer Budget” using less expensive cuts of meat that are still tasty. Someday!
Hope everything goes OK this afternoon with Tony’s appointments.
I love seeing all of your food -now I’m craving a potato or some mac & cheese – basically I need carbs!!!
Great job on your sprint pace!!!
Thanks Kim! I wore my special tank underneath my shirt – I actually bought it new at Goodwill for $4 with the tags on – which is good because the retail price is about $40! Anyway, it’s made by Puma, and it’s a medium so it fits tight, so my muffin top doesn’t jiggle as much when I run!
Ooh, I love King’s Hawaiian rolls, but I’d never make them, so don’t bother sending me the recipe – just slip those rolls in the mail. 😉
Good thoughts for Tony’s doctor appointment today!!!
I actually think these would make good slider rolls but with something spicy, like a jalapeno burger or spicy pulled pork 😀
Good thoughts are always being sent your way. Everyday when I check in on life in “Bizzyland” I send happy and positive energy your way. Hope all goes well at Tony’s appointments and the doctors are running on time. I made homemade mac and cheese this weekend. It was pretty good but I still need to tinker with different cheese flavors or brands. I’m missing something. Do you put dry mustard in your mac and cheese?
I do put dry mustard and I tend to use a sharper cheddar cheese, which is why I like the Cabot brand. And I love lots of cracked pepper in mine too. 😀
I love mac and cheese with ham! In fact, I pretty much love all forms of mac and cheese lol!
I have a really good refrigerator roll recipe I’d be willing to share with you – I think mine calls for melted butter, but I made it many times with oil when I lived overseas and couldn’t get butter. Let me know and I’ll email it to you.
I would love that recipe Helen! I’ll email you. 😀