Recycling leftovers

I remember growing up that my mom always has this rule that we need to finish dishes and any leftover food will be served until it is done.  I some how share her value of not wasting food so when become a homemaker myself I make it sure that we don't throw away food.  But sometimes I don't want to eat the same food in a row so i need to be creative to not waste leftover but not also eating the same food over and over again.  What I thought was to recycle leftovers and my husband was really impressed how I do it.  It's not really that complicated, i just think how the food is cooked and most of the time recipes call for the same ingredients and same basic cooking procedure.  Like for example sauted ground beef can go a long way,  it can start as Picadillo, then you can make the leftover as a filling for empanada or turnover, you can also add some tomato based pasta sauce and serve over pasta, or add some veggies and make it into pot pie or shepherd's pie. I experiment a lot and sometimes it'll turn out good sometimes really bad. :-)

 
Here is another easy way I recycled our left over chicken curry.  So we cooked a big batch of chicken curry a few months back and freeze the left over.  Last week took if from the freezer and though it's still good and the veggies were over cooked from reheating and it's not appealing to serve as it is. So what I did was get the chicken chucks and the potatoes and carrots and lightly mashed it together with a fork, then I got  puff pastry and filled it with curry. Then baked it over 425 degree.  When it was done, it looked so nice and tasted something like samosa or turnover.

This is good for appetizer or served with soup.

This batch looks fancy, I just put a spoonful of the curry and place it in a middle of 3"x3" puff pastry and  fold  all corners towards the middle.

I made several batch, then wrapped them individually with wax paper so they wont stick to each other then freeze it.  Then I just get a few and bake it, a very quick meal.  Here I serve it together with Butternut squash and curry soup.

My sweet Valentine

Every Valentine's day Joshua always manages to surprise me.  Last year he took me out for dinner and surprised me with a huge teddy bear and some lovely flowers.  He also bought me a new wedding ring, well since the old one won't fit me anymore.

me and my teddy bear, we named it Valentino

my new ring, it's white gold band, with wheat design engraved, and studded with diamonds.

This year's Valentine's day we decided to make it simple, we won't go out for dinner and Josh won't give me flowers but even though we have talked about  it even the night before he told me not to expect anything, I still know that Joshua will be planning something. And guess what? I'm right! I got a text late in the afternoon telling me to go out and when I did go out  I found gifts under the staircase.  A singing bear in the middle of herb plants and chocolates.  And ofcourse a sweet note from my sweetest Valentine.

 Of course I planned a little for Josh too, it is always kinda hard to think what to give a guy on Valentine's day so I thought of a silly idea using some of the stuff I have in the kitchen. And made a presentation...

Our valentine's day loot. I made a simple Valentine presentation for Josh.

It starts with "My Darling, your the apple of my eye and I go banana in love with you. Your my butterfinger and  nobody's gonna lay a finger on my butterfinger (he loves Butterfinger and I just made refernce of their comercial slogan). 

"You're the sweetest Valentine and I'm happy you're mine. (there's supposed to be a heart candy tart with "happy" written on it)

"Happy Cheesy Valentine's Day"  I used laughing cow cheese.

and lastly "Orange you glad the cheesiness is over.." ha ha we had a good laugh.

And my valentine card with an adorable fuzzy monkey. (he likes monkey)

Then Joshua cooked me dinner and light some candles.

Celebrating love doesn't need to be fancy and elaborate, what makes it special is that you celebrate it with the person you love. 

our simple meal of steak, sweet potato, sauted vegetables and ramen noodle salad.