Life on the road

The Art of Repurposing Leftovers

In our house there aren’t really any leftovers. What we do have is food that has not yet been eaten. It may be cooked already, but I don’t call it leftovers. You see, Fabgrandpa does not LIKE leftovers. So, I found out a long time ago that in order to make good use of the food we have, I have to do something different with it from time to time.

Tonight I made stuffed peppers with garlic toast and tossed salad. I started out with something entirely new, two green bell peppers. I cut them in half, took out the seeds and membranes, and put them in a 8 X 8 casserole dish.

I had some rice that was leftover, I mean stored in the fridge, from last week. I put that together with 1/3 pound ground meat (I use a mixture of 1 lb ground turkey, 1 lb ground pork, and o1 pound ground beef. I mush it all together and freeze in 1/3 pound portions). A half an onion, one zucchini, some garlic, basil, Italian seasoning, 1/2 cup mozzarella cheese, and a 16 oz can of tomatoes finish up the dish.

Cook the meat with the onion, garlic, and zucchini until the meat is just browned. Add the seasonings, rice, cheese, and can of tomatoes to the pan. Mix together well. Fill each of the pepper halves with a generous portion of the filling. There will be about half of the filling left when you are finished stuffing the peppers. You can put that part in a ziplock freezer bag and put it in the freezer for another day. Pour about 1/2 cup water in the bottom of the baking dish, place the baking dish on a cookie sheet, and place in the oven. Bake at 375 degrees for 45 minutes.

While the peppers were baking, I made a tossed salad. I think lettuce is quite pretty, don’t you? Anyway, the salad was a simple one of romaine lettuce, cherry tomatoes, and green onions. I had some of that fresh mozzarella pesto tomato salad from the other day. It wasn’t enough for one person, but I added a little olive oil and some wine vinegar, mixed it up, and used as a dressing for tonight’s salad. When the peppers were done, I put some slices of that bread I made the other day under the broiler with some garlic butter. That rounded out the meal:

Do you use up all your leftovers, or just toss them out? What do you do to make them “new”?

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Steamed Brussels Sprouts

Karen · 7 Comments

While I like to cook, and try new things a lot, there are some things that FabGrandpa and I keep coming back to–old favorites that we just love. Brussels sprouts is one of those things. Whenever I find them in the produce section at a reasonable price, I get enough of them for us to have for a couple of meals.

They taste so good just simply steamed with some butter and salt. I cut off the bottom end, and peel off a couple of the outside leaves, and put them in a microwave safe bowl.

Add about 1/4 cup of water. It doesn’t take much water to steam these to perfection.

Put about three tablespoons of butter, cut in thin slices, over the top of the brussels sprouts. Add a shake or two of salt, and they are ready to go.

Cover the bowl tightly with Glad wrap, and place in the microwave. I push the buttons on mine to set for 9 minutes. Your microwave may be more powerful or less than mine, so you will have to experiment with how much time it takes for yours.

Tonight we had the brussels sprouts with another standby meal, ground meat with mushroom gravy over rice. Talk about yum! And all naturally gluten free, naturally.

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What They Do In Idaho…

Karen · 5 Comments

This van drove through the RV park today. He said the donkey and the bull rode all the way from Idaho in there with him. All I can say, is, Idaho must be really weird.

hmmmmm…….

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I Make A "Stab" At Gucamole

Karen · 3 Comments

I accidently stabbed myself in the hand while I was trying to get the pit out of an avocado today. The good folks over at Avocado.org say:

“Remove the seed by sliding the tip of a spoon gently underneath and lifting out. The other common seed-extraction method – striking the seed with a knife and twisting – requires some skill and is not recommended.” Guess I should have read that first, huh?

Fabgrandpa was outside washing the awning. He heard me scream and came running inside to see what happened. Don’t worry, it isn’t as bad as it sounds, just a tiny wound in between my middle and ring finger on my left hand. It didn’t require stitches or anything. It DID hurt like hell, though

The remedy? An application of New Skin and Patron.

That New Skin stuff is great. As soon as you dab it on, it burns for a second, then the pain is gone. It is a sticky liquid that dries quickly to make a skin-like bandaid on a cut. I love this stuff.

I got that little bottle of Patron about two years ago. It has been living in my “office drawer” since then, waiting for just the right occasion. It was just right and just enough for today.

Dinner tonight was leftover blackeyed peas, cornbread, and fried spam. Not very exotic, but filling and good. And I didn’t have to cook.

The recipe for the day:

Banana Pancakes

1 cup Bob’s Red Mill Baking Mix or your favorite gluten free pancake mix
1 cup milk
1 egg
1 teaspoon olive oil
1 teaspoon sugar
2 bananas

Mix all ingredients except bananas. Heat a couple tablespoons of olive oil in a skillet. When the skillet is hot, pour pancake batter in. While the pancakes are cooking on the first side, put slices of banana on top. When the pancakes are browned on the bottom, flip over and cook on the banana side until browned. Serve with butter and syrup. The taste of cooked bananas is soooo good!

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As Promised

Karen · 4 Comments

But first, I wanted to talk about making a monthly menu. One of my bloggy friends, Terri, of Terri Terri Quite Contrary, wrote this:

“I wish I were so organized with my shopping. Sadly, for lack of more time and energy, I end up grabbing a few coupons and just tossing whatever looks good in the cart. Nothing lasts long with teenagers in the house anyway.”

Now, I will confess that it does take some time, but not as much as you might think. You see, last winter when I was yet again in the off season, living off our savings until spring came and we went back to work, I made up four monthly menus, and saved them in my “Budget” folder. So now, when I need to make a menu for a month, I might use one of those as is, or I might use it as a starting point to make a new one. Another thing I did when I was sitting around doing nothing last winter, was make a complete shopping list for each of those four monthly menus. So, now that I have the menu and the shopping list ready and sitting on my hard drive, all I have to do is print it off, shop my pantry first, and go to the store.

I also admit that not everyone has the need or the desire to shop for an entire month at a time. I didn’t used to do it. When I lived in a regular house and acted like a normal woman, I went to the store every week, and didn’t even make a list. If I forgot something, there was a Publix Grocery Store less than half a mile from my house.

But now, I have this new life, you see. I live in a travel trailer, where the whole house has about 300 square feet, and the refrigerator/freezer is a whopping 8 cubic feet combined. And I share this space with another person. And both of us like to eat. We like to eat a lot. And one of us has to eat a special diet, that is free of gluten. Right now, we are living in a remote area, where the closest decent grocery store is at least 50 miles away. Wal-Mart is an 80 mile drive. Shopping for groceries is an all day affair. A love affair it is not. Hence the once a month shopping. Oh, and did I mention that all of the refrigerated and frozen things I buy have to fit in two coolers in the back of the truck for the ride home? I have to be organized to make it all work. What is the point of buying it if I can’t put it in it’s proper place when we get it home, I ask you.

However, if you would like to save both time and money, making a menu and a shopping list is very useful. It could also save you some time if you are the primary grocery buyer and meal cooker. If you post the monthly menu where everyone in the house can see it, someone might just make a meal for you one day. Without you asking them to.

Another thing is, just beause you have a monthly menu doesn’t mean you have to eat the meals in the order they are on the plan. I just print out the plan for the month, and mark off each meal as we eat them, so I know what I have still on hand. Adn I only plan the dinners, because breakfast is just breakfast. It will either be eggs, pancakes, or leftover eggplant parmesean. It has worked for me. Your mileage may vary.

And, to address the part about nothing lasting in a house with teens. Honey, you ain’t seen how much FabGrandpa can eat! I solved the problem of him eating things I had planned to cook by giving him his very own cupboard. Yes, the FabGrandpa cabinet has nothing in it except for his snacky and lunchy things that he can eat any time he so desires. It makes him happy, it makes me happy, and so life is happy here. No more of him eating my special olives for that thing I wanted to make.

Ok, I think that about covers it. If anyone wants one of my monthly menus with a shopping plan atached, let me know. I’ll think about it.

On to the recipe I promised. This morning (ok, this afternoon) we had scrambled eggs with zuchinni and onions. I chopped up a zuchinni and half an onion, sauteed them in some butter in a skillet, added three eggs, and scrambled them up. Yummy.

Dinner was Eggplant Parmesean with a side of this:

I made the bread using up some flours I had on hand, because my online order from hell has not arrived YET. Here is the recipe I used:

1 cup white rice flour
1/2 cup tapioca flour
1/4 cup potato flour
1/4 cup corn starch
3/4 cup milk
1/3 cup water
1 pkg yeast
1 tablespoon brown sugar
1 pkg unflavored gelatin
1 teaspoon xanthan gum
2 eggs
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 cup olive oil

Heat the milk to lukewarm in the microwave, about 45 seconds. Add the brown sugar and yeast, set aside. Mix all the dry ingredients together well. Add the eggs, oil, water and milk. Beat well with electric mixer. Scrape all the dough into the center of the bowl, spray with olive oil. Cover with plastic wrap and let rise for 30 minutes.

Line a baking sheet with aluminum foil. Spray the foil with olive oil. Spread the bread dough on the pan into a rectangle about an inch and a half thick. Bake in a 350 degree oven for 45 minutes. Remove from oven and let cool. Cut the rectangle in half. Cut one half into six bread sticks.

I served the bread with home made pesto, fresh mozzarella cheese, cherry tomatoes, and garlic stuffed olives.

The main course for dinner was Gluten Free Eggplant Parmesean

1 large eggplant, peeled and sliced into 1/2 inch thick slices
1 cup milk
1 cup gluten free flour (you can use whatever your favorite flour is. Tonight I used half white rice flour because I was using up the rest of the box, and half buckwheat flour. but any flour is ok, as long as you like it)
salt and pepper to taste
olive oil
8 oz gluten free spaghetti noodles. (I used Deboles corn angel hair pasta, but you can use any gluten free pasta you like)
1 16 oz jar gluten free spaghetti Sauce. (I used Classico Traditional Sweet Basil. Again, you can use any brand you like, even make your own, just make sure if you buy prepared that it is gluten free)
2 cups Italian Blend shredded cheese or 2 cups mozzarella cheese.

Cook the spaghetti according to directions on the box, drain, rinse, set aside. Meanwhile, sprinkle the eggplant with salt, and let it weep. Rinse. Sprinkle with salt and pepper.

Dredge each slice of eggplant in flour, dip in milk, then back in flour. Fry in olive oil over medium heat until browned on each side. Drain on paper towels.

Spread about 1/2 cup of the spaghetti sauce in the bottom of an 11 X 13 casserole dish. Put the spaghetti in the casserole dish on top of the spaghetti sauce, and spread around evenly in the dish.

Place the eggplant slices in a layer over the spaghetti. Pour the remaining spaghetti sauce over the eggplant layer. Spread evenly over the eggplant layer.

Sprinkle the cheese evenly over the top of the casserole. Bake in a 400 degree oven for 35 minutes. Remove from oven and let rest for 15 minutes before serving.

This casserole freezes well, and reheats well. Serve with a tossed salad or with bread and pesto.

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Wenden Elementary School Folklorico Dancers

Karen · 1 Comment

I grew up in the south, in Georgia to be exact, and lived there until I was 50 years old. Whenever there was a carnival, or craft fair, or other community gathering, the little girls dance groups were usually cloggers. Or maybe tap or square dancing.

Today when we went to the Salome Chile Cook-Off, the little dancing girls were performing Mexican Folklorico dances. They were too cute!

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Nothing To Do

Karen · 3 Comments

Since I have nothing to do, I have little or nothing to write about. We did go to Wickenburg and eat lunch with some friends last week on Friday.

yes, that is me on the left in the pink sweatshirt. My hair is getting longer. I want it long enough to wear it in a ponytail. Next to me is a new friend, Berta, Gaelyn, the Geogypsy. On the other side of the table is FabGrandpa, Jim and Bev of YmeIsay fame. Food was delish as usual and company was most fun!

We drove over to the gas station to get some propane, and passed by a dairy farm. The dairies here in the desert look a little different from the ones we saw in Pennsylvania, though. They have fans for the cows.

I know they must get a lot of rain here sometimes, because we see these signs everywhere:

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Can You Type?

Karen · 12 Comments

I applied for a job that asked the question on the application, “How many words per minute do you type?” I thought I could type about 30 words per minute, which is the minimum required for being qualified for that job.

So, after I sent in my application, I started having doubts about my actual typing ability. I mean, I had jobs in the past where I was required to type a certain number of words per minute, but not in recent years. And for all the writing I do now, for blog posts, emails, freelance articles, etc., I just type and don’t worry about errors because of good old spellcheck. Get it typed, run spellcheck, all is good. Right? Unless you have typed “ass” instead of “add”. Spellcheck won’t find the error and you’ll look like an add. hahahah.

Just to ease my mind that I had not fibbed on my application, I googled for an online typing test, And guess what? I did 50 words per minute! Yay!

So, tell me how well you did.

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