Well, I certainly misgauged how much pasta salad to make on Sunday! I figured, with about 15 kids and 6 adults, all mostly over 6' tall, that they would eat a ton. Besides the traditional ham and a turkey breast, I made meatballs, bought bagels, and made this huge pasta salad (2 lbs of pasta!), thinking all these kids must have hollow legs....
Well, everything pretty much got eaten, except for my pasta salad! I don't know....maybe they just weren't in the mood for it? Let's face it. It's only April, and folks usually have a hankerin' for pasta salad in the summer, so.....maybe that's why. Anyway, I have a ton of leftover cooked pasta that I need to use somehow! So, here you go...
So I get home from work at around 7:30 and have to figure out dinner.... quick! I decide to "regift" the cooked pasta into a dinner. I cook some Vidalia onion, red pepper, garlic, s&p, basil and some parm cheese. I thaw some cooked shrimp and cut up. Throw in some black olives and a partial can of tomato and basil bisque soup I had open in the fridge. Now I add the leftover pasta salad, which consists of pasta, tomatoes, fresh basil, artichoke hearts and fresh mozerella. I know it sounds wierd, but when you see the end result, you'll understand!
Pretty tricky..... They'll never know they are somehow eating leftovers!
I love that you recreated one dish into another. I try to do this often and feel I learned from my Mom who is frugal and as a result creative with leftovers..generally intentionally. Buy a roast on sale. Cut off a steak or two for one meal, make the Roast for another meal and then use the leftover of the roast for yet another meal....One roast, 3 meals!
ReplyDeleteI added this comment yesterday but don't know what happened???
ReplyDeleteYou create much in the same manner that I often do.... start with an ingredient on hand, generally a protein or perhaps some veggies. Google for recipes. And then take the ingredients, spices, techniques that interest me and go from there....rarely a disappointing result ;)