Monday, February 23, 2009

Delightful Leftovers

It must be something in my genes that makes me cook gargantuan amounts of food. There's just the two of us (and our four cats, and they prefer Friskees -- go figure!), but you'd think by the amount of food we prepare that we were contemplating feeding an army.

I've got a couple of really good crockpot recipes that I got from my friends Leann Sweeney and Jeanne Munn Bracken. Mr. L makes a mean chili, and a fantastic sausage/pasta/cheese/broccoli rabe concoction that is out of this world. The problem is, these dishes also make tons of leftovers. Now I happen to like leftovers. I like them for lunch, dinner -- and a time or two, I've even eaten them for breakfast. Hubby will eat leftovers once, then it's up to me to finish them off. Hey, I'm brave and strong. I can handle that.

Last week I had a hankering for lasagna. This time, I made it in two separate pans so that I could give a third of it to my parents (so they wouldn't have to cook), and we had two dinners ourselves. And we froze two more. Ahhh, nothing like homemade lasagna.

I love it when we have roasted rotisserie chicken, because you can make so many second and third meals out of it. There's just plain cold chicken; chicken pot pie; tika masala, and my favorite, chicken salad on a bed of lettuce for lunch. We have had chicken tacos, but not often enough. (Note to self ...)
And of course, my favorite leftover of all is turkey.
 
Since my family members aren't big turkey fans, every Thanksgiving I can count on getting the carcass. I can make all the same food I can with leftover chicken, plus the added bonus of turkey soup. (And have you ever had turkey Waldorf salad? Yum!)

You won't find me ever trying a recipe for just one or two people. Nope, bring on the chuck wagon, folks -- I'm making enough for everybody.