So I have given myself the nickname of the "Leftover Queen". And the Leftover Queen strikes again! All too often I wait until about 6:30pm, when I am starving, to try and decide what to make for dinner. Going to the store sounds like a giant feat. But I am hungry. And don't want take out. What do I do?!?!
Answer: Use whatever you have in your fridge and pantry and come up with something magical! I'd say my "experiments" have about a 80% success rate. This one was a success.
Last week we made some chicken one night for dinner. I don't know where you all buy your chicken from, but riddle me this: why are there 3 chicken breasts to a package??? How many people do you know that cook for 3 adults? I know approximately ZERO. Most people I know, without children or with children under the age of 10, cook for 2 adults. Maybe 4 adults if having people over for dinner. So then you either have a leftover chicken breast, OR you have to buy another package, and then you have 2 leftover chicken breasts. So what do I do? Cook all three chicken breasts, eat 2, and leave one in the fridge for whatever random creation I can come up with for it.
And don't even get me started on ground turkey. 1.25lbs??? What the h-ll and I supposed to do with the leftover 0.25lbs (since most recipes call for 1 lb)??? Someone failed business school as far as I am concerned. Or the business people and the cooks are not communicating very well. 0.25lbs? C'mon. That's one burger. Stupid. At least make your packages 1.5 lbs if you are going over the industry standard of 1 lb!
So, anyway, last week, I happen to have a leftover chicken breast and 0.25lbs ground turkey, both in my fridge about to expire the next day. Interesting situation when trying to come up with dinner plans. So I improvised, and came up with a pasta that turned out to be delicious! It just so happened that my pantry had pasta noodles, canned tomatoes and tomato sauce, and some random ingredients in fridge, which all led to a surprisingly good pasta.
Seriously, don't worry about your "experiments" not turning out. They won't all the time. And when they don't, you will end up laughing about it. But you have to try. What's the worst thing that could happen? You fail and you get take-out. Big deal. You were probably contemplating take-out anyway if you are resorting to "experimentation" in the kitchen.
Cheesy Factor (1 no cheese, 10 all cheese): 5
Time Factor (1 shortest, 10 longest): 4
Dummy Factor (1 easiest, 10 hardest): 4
Creamy Chicken and Turkey Pasta for Two
1 chicken breast, cooked and shredded
0.25lbs ground turkey, cooked (or ground beef)
Spaghetti noodles, cooked (or whatever pasta you have will work)
1 can diced, stewed, or crushed tomatoes
1 small can tomato sauce
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 slices yellow or sweet onion, chopped
1 TBL honey, (or sugar or crush pineapple)
1-2 tsp dried oregano
1-2 tsp dried basil
3 TBL cream cheese
Salt/Pepper
Crushed red pepper flakes (optional)
Cook enough pasta for 2 people in boiling water. In small saute pan, warm up (or cook) shredded chicken and ground turkey. In large saute/frying pan, saute garlic and onion in olive oil until soft. Add drained can of tomatoes and can of tomato sauce, honey, salt/pepper to taste, oregano, and basil. Stir and taste often, adjust seasonings to taste. After sauce has simmered for 15-20 min, add cream cheese one tablespoon at a time, stirring in to make creamy. Continue until have creaminess desired. Stir in shredded chicken and ground meat to sauce. Serve over pasta and top with a little sprinkled crushed red pepper.
Optional veggies to add to sauce (do so at time of sauteing garlic and onion): chopped green peppers, sliced mushrooms, sliced zucchini, whatever you have in fridge.
This is not fancy. But it was pretty dang good. AND you feel good about yourself at the end of the day because you didn't let the one random chicken breast go to waste. If you are making chicken earlier that week, just cook all 3 breasts at once, eat your 2, then the 3rd could be for this and then it's already cooked, cutting down on your cooking time.
* Although I never condone buying jarred spaghetti sauce instead of making your own, if you happen to have some Prego, you can skip making the sauce and simply warm it up in a pot, add the chicken and cream cheese and call it a night. Bingo. Bango. Cream Sauce.
Not gonna lie: not my strongest of cooking efforts on this one. But I hate wasting food. Especially uncooked food. So don't be surprised if you see more "leftover" recipes.
