Some people think leftovers are the thing to avoid. They just can't do leftovers. I've never been that person, but I do get it. I grew up with meager means, to say the least so my personal panic button is thinking about wasting food. With the boat we're in now, in order to make sure it doesn't sink, I have to find a way to make leftovers appealing and not like leftovers at all.
So there are the chicken teriyaki skewers I made the other night. They were DELICIOUS and easy and super inexpensive. I just took chicken tenderloins and marinated them in soy sauce, hoisin, and a little bit of sesame oil. (Now these are all things I have on hand minus the chicken pieces so that was all I had to buy. To me, if you've got a little Asian salad dressing in the fridge, just use that!) I then soaked my skewers while the chicken marinated. So I sprinkle a little Kosher salt and some pepper on both sides and pop them in a 350 degree oven for around 20 -25 minutes. A simple salad on the side and you've got an inexpensive, healthy meal!
Now...on to the leftover part. I've got enough chicken skewers left to send with Adrian (AND Cameron) for lunch and then some. So he's had them for supper. He's had them for lunch. LAST thing he wants is to have them for supper again!
What to do??
I took some flour (unbleached organic for us for health purposes, but any kind of all-purpose will do), yeast, olive oil, honey, warm water and a little salt (all lying around the house dying to be used!) I made pizza crust from scratch (SO easy, recipe to follow), and poured some barbecue sauce we had in the cabinet (organic, thanks for the gift, Karen Merritt!) over it, and sprinkled the leftover chicken on top. I sprinkled a little shredded cheddar we had lying around on top and popped it in a 400 degree oven for 20 minutes. VOILA! Barbecued chicken pizza! (Adrian and Cameron both took the pizza for lunch the next day!)
Let's talk this through: Two packages of the chicken came to about $8 and I used pantry items and staples for the rest. I made dinner and lunch and dinner and lunch again, two different ways. I fed three people. So four meals and three people comes to roughly (and for all my math OCDs out there, I do mean ROUGHLY) a dollar per meal per person!
Every morning I get to wake up, I remember I'm leftover from the day before. I try to remember that when it comes to my food and fuel, and the respect it deserves for the role it plays in mine and my family's life.
(Getting past the serious stuff and moral of the story...here's the quick and easy pizza crust recipe!)
2 cups flour
1 pkg (or 1 tbsp dry active yeast)
3/4(ish) tsp salt
1 cup WARM water
1 tbsp olive oil
1 tsp honey
Pour flour into a large mixing bowl. Add yeast and salt. mix well. Add water, oil, and honey and mix well. Cover and place in a warm spot for 10 - 15 minutes to rise.
Punch down and press into a greased 14-inch pizza pan (or 10-inch for thicker crust) Bake at 400 degrees for 20 minutes or until crust is golden brown and cheese is melted.
YUM.
Races, Hammers, & Snowballs
When you're running a race and you get to that place - you know that place, the one where you get a sharp pain in your neck and your side as though someone is shankin' ya - and you wonder should you stop, slow down, or just plow through it? But at the very same moment it goes away, and you decide to push harder - all because you felt that breakthrough.
You have a hammer and you're pounding a nail into the wall, determined to hang that picture, and you hit a beam - or stud, if you will - and it feels like you can't go any further or the nail will just bend or break. You wonder, "Should I just keep hitting the nail harder or try to take the nail out and hang this somewhere else?" Just as you're wondering this, the hammer hits the nail in a little further so you decide to hit harder - because you felt that breakthrough.
You probably think this is going to be all cheese and lollipops about persevering and to keep going until you hit that breakthrough. Well Folks, it isn't. (Well, it KIND of is) I am comparing it to constant trials in our lives. Being whacked over and over with the devil's proverbial snowballs. He keeps pounding and pounding while you try to stand firm until he finds himself wondering if he should slow down or even stop. Just as he is wondering if you're too strong for him, he feels a little crack in your igloo armor (staying with the snowball analogy here) and decides to plow through and hit harder. I know this for a fact. Today felt a little like I was abdicating my igloo. But now that I've come to the realization that the enemy looks for that breakthrough moment I've decided I won't give him his shining moment - not today, anyway.