Leftover Meatloaf Hash

Mondays are nearly always leftover days, and today I managed to empty no less than eight containers when cooking our lunch – not bad going eh? 

 

This is not a recipe as such, more of an idea of what to do with leftovers. Using the remains of the meatloaf as a base, I added nearly all the leftovers I had in the fridge. The list looks like this:

meatloaf

cooked Jersey Royal potatoes

cooked carrots

cooked baby sweetcorn

cooked tenderstem broccoli

cooked sugarsnap peas

grilled cherry tomatoes

I also had containers with Oriental coleslaw and Vietnamese pickled vegetables which I mixed together, and half a box of salad leaves which I served alongside the hash. 

 

I started off by crushing the potatoes between two palms, then tearing them roughly with my hands. In a large pan sprayed with some Fry Light, I sautéed the potatoes for a few minutes before adding everything else. I found it to be a little dry, so I added some water to make it a smoother consistency and some chilli flakes to zest it up a little. 

I do love leftovers, and the challenge of creating something that tastes good.

Pulled Pork Tortilla Pizza

Having read about pizzas made from tortillas, I was keen to try it for myself, and when I discovered that I could have the Bfree Wheat and Gluten Free Wholegrain Wraps as as a Healthy Extra B choice, the idea was sold. I had terrible trouble finding the said wraps though – they are apparently only available in Asda in this area, but the first Asda I tried was too small, so I ended up driving half way around the West Country to find them. When I finally did, I bought two packets to keep in the freezer.

I used the leftover BBQ pulled pork for my topping, but you could use anything you like, remembering to ensure that you get plenty of superfree foods. My BBQ sauce had onion, cherry tomatoes and passata in it, but even so I decided to serve it with a couple of salads to balance it all out.

Serves 2

Syn Free on Extra Easy*

* providing you use the cheese as your Healthy Extra A

and the tortilla as you Healthy Extra B

2 Bfree Wheat and Gluten Free Wholegrain Wraps

topping as required

60g grated Parmesan cheese

Salad or vegetables to serve

Place the wraps on a pizza cooking trays and spread the topping over the surface leaving a couple of centimetres around the edges. Scatter the grated cheese over the top and bake in the oven at 210°C for 10-15 minutes until the cheese is melted and everything is heated through. Keep an eye on them as the edge can burn easily.

Tropical Coleslaw

As I still had some mooli left (those buggers are huge!) I made a tropical coleslaw to go with the pizzas. I tried grating the apricots too, but it just became a soggy mush, so I resorted to chopping them very finely.

finely grated mooli

finely grated carrot

2 apricots, finely chopped

1 tub zero percent plain yogurt

1-2 tsp mint sauce

Sweetener to taste

Mix together all the ingredients for the coleslaw and serve with the pizza. I also served it with a sweet bistro style salad (bought ready packaged from the store. 

 

Mulligatawny Soup made from Leftover Chilli Con Carne

Nice and quick, nice and comforting, nice and easy, nice and warming, nice and healthy. What more can you want on a miserable day? 

 

Serves 2

Syn Free on Extra Easy

1 cup leftover chilli con carne (syn free of course)

½ cup red lentils

2 onions

2 stems celery

2 tsp bouillon powder

1 tsp ground cumin

1 tsp ground coriander

½ tsp ground turmeric

½ cup cooked carrots, chopped

a few drops food colouring

a small handful chopped coriander leaves

1 red chilli (optional), finely chopped

Finely chop the onion and celery and onions and sauté in Fry Light until soft. Add the lentils and bouillon powder and enough water to make it a soup consistency. Boil rapidly for ten minutes. Turn the heat down, add the leftover chilli con carne and spices and simmer for another 15-20 minutes until everything is cooked through and the lentils are soft and mushy. Add the carrots and fresh coriander and heat through. Add a few drops of food colouring if the soup looks a little insipid. Serve topped with some chopped coriander. 

 

Old Clothes Soup

This evening I turned the Ropa Vieja ('old clothes') into a very nice soup by adding some water and extra chilli flakes. I so enjoy leftovers!

Potato Cakes with Baked Beans

The half a syn in this recipe comes from the fresh breadcrumbs – I made one small slice into crumbs and used maybe only 1/5 of it. You can of course omit the breadcrumbs to make it syn free. I added some leftover stir fry vegetables to try and get some superfree in – any cooked vegetables would work in this recipe I reckon.

Serves 4

½ syn on Extra Easy (see note above)

450g potatoes, peeled and cut into large chunks

1 large onion, chopped

3 tbsp fromage frais

2 egg yolks

1 egg, beaten

1 slice wholemeal bread from a 400g loaf

tin baked beans

leftover cooked vegetables

2-4 tbsp passata

Cook the potatoes in salted water for 20 minutes until cooked through. Drain well and mash. Leave to cool a little. Meanwhile, sauté the onion in Fry Light until soft. Stir the onions into the mash with the fromage frais and a little water if necessary to get the consistency right. Mix in the egg yolks and season.

Shape into rounds, then flatten to make approximately 16 patties about 5-6 cm across. Place the patties on a greased baking sheet and brush with the beaten egg. Sprinkle some breadcrumbs over the top (see note above) and bake at 180°C for about 30 minutes until nicely browned.

Heat the baked beans with the added vegetables. Add the passata and a little water to dilute the sauce and serve with the potato cakes. 

 

Breakfast Slop

 

Husband was adamant he did not want slop for breakfast, stating that 'he'd get better food in prison'. Not that he meant it, or indeed knows what prison food is like. 

 

The dish was a combination of several leftovers – the Sloppy Toms turkey mix, the chilli sautéed tomatoes, some roasted vegetables and roasted potatoes, all topped with a fried egg. A great syn free start to the day! 

 

Spätzle with Spiced Chicken and Roasted Vegetables

Serves 2

Syn Free on Extra Easy

2 chicken breasts, cut into smaller pieces

150g spätzle

½ red pepper

½ green pepper

½ yellow pepper

½ red onion

1 small leek

1 tbsp fresh sage leaves

1 tbsp fresh rosemary leaves

2 tsp bouillon powder

1 tsp celery powder

1 tso dried sage

1 tsp dried oregano

½ tsp chilli flakes

1 tsp ground cumin

½ tsp ground cinnamon

1 tsp ground coriander

2 tsp paprika

Coriander leaves to serve (optional)

Cook the spätzle for 15 minutes or according to the packet instruction. Meanwhile, roast the vegetables. Chop the peppers, onion and leek in equal sized pieces, about 2cm². Place in an oven dish with the rosemary, sage and bouillon powder. Stir well to coat, then bake for 20-30 minutes according to how well you like your vegetables done.

Place all the spices in a spice grinder or food processor and grind to fine powder. Put the chicken in a large bowl and add the spice mix, stirring well to coat all over. Lay the chicken pieces in a single layer on a grill plate, and grill for ten minutes, turning once, until the chicken is cooked through and beginning to brown.

Mix the spätzle with the roasted vegetables and top with the chicken pieces. Serve with coriander leaves if using.

Stuffed Onions

This is an unusual way of using up leftover rice and vegetables – I used onions, celery, green beans and green pepper. It would work equally well with leftover couscous. Hollowing out the onion is nowhere near as difficult as it sounds, with a little help from a curved serrated grapefruit knife and a long handled teaspoon.

Serves 2

Syn Free on Extra Easy

2 cups cooked rice and vegetables

4 onions

4 tbsp passata

salt and pepper

2 tsp paprika

1 tsp chilli flakes

Cut the top and bottom off the onion and peel. Make sure the onion can stand comfortably without falling over. Start off using the grapefruit knife and cut out the centre core. Once you've got a reasonably sized hole, use the teaspoon to scoop out the flesh, leaving the outer three of four layers and a 1 cm layer at the bottom. Boil the onion skins for 5-7 minutes until they start to soften.

Mix the rice and vegetables with the passata, salt, pepper, paprika and chilli flakes. Stuff the onions and bake at 230°C for 10 minutes or so, keeping an eye on them to make sure they don't burn. Reheat any excess rice and vegetable mixture in the microwave or on the stove and place on two plates. Put the onions on top of the rice mix and serve. 

 

Mixed Bean Chilli

After having spent all morning cooking and baking for the weekend, I was glad to just reheat leftovers at lunchtime.

The rest of the sausage and bean casserole (minus the sausages which were already eaten) became a mixed bean chilli with the addition of chilli flakes, cumin powder and oregano. Served with the leftover gallo pinto mixed with the rest of the Fragrant Thai rice.

Maybe a little bean overload.........

Baked Spaghetti 

This is an excellent way of using up leftover meat and vegetables. You can of course use any kind of cooked meat – gammon goes particularly well.

Serves 4

Syn Free on Extra Easy*

* Providing you use the cheese as you Healthy Extra A

300g wholewheat pasta

400g cooked meat

2 onions, chopped

1 red pepper, chopped

1 green pepper, chopped

1 leek

4 eggs

100ml fat free fromage frais

2 tsp bouillon powder

180g mozzarella cheese, thinly sliced

Boil the spaghetti for 10 minutes, drain, and using scissors, cut into smaller lengths by sticking the scissors in the drainer randomly.

Sauté the onions and peppers in Fry Light until soft. Add the leeks and fry for a couple of minutes more. Mix in the spaghetti and stir well.

Whisk the eggs with half the fromage frais and 1 tsp of the bouillon powder. Stir into the spaghetti mixture and place in an oven proof dish. Mix the rest of the fromage frais with the remaining bouillon powder and enough water to give it a pouring consistency. Drizzle over the spaghetti and top with the mozzarella slices.

Bake at 200°C for 35-40 minutes, until the egg is set. Serve with a salad. 

 

Breakfast Hash with Beef

I find breakfast hash to be a great way of using up several leftovers, and it's such a nice way to start a leisurely Sunday morning.

Today's hash consisted of leftover roast potatoes and parsnips; a couple of beef kebabs with red onion, green pepper and onion; a couple of grilled tomatoes; and some roasted red onion. All of it chopped up finely and quickly fried in some Fry Light, just to heat it all up again. Top with a fried egg, and voilà: you have a tasty and filling brunch in no time!  

Salmon with Creamed Cabbage

As I was planning my meals for the week yesterday, I went through the fridge and made a note of the leftovers that needed using up and planning accordingly around what was available. Hence this salmon dish was born, and very nice it was too.

Serves 2

Syn Free on Extra Easy

¼ small white cabbage

2 onions

tub quark

stock cube or bouillon powder

a little sweetener to taste

1 or 2 cooked salmon fillets, flaked

soy sauce

sambal oelek or lazy chilli

sweetener

Thinly slice the cabbage and onion – I used a mandolin set to the thinnest slicer – and sauté in a little Fry Light until soft. Turn the heat right down and add the quark, bouillon powder, sweetener and a little water to get a nice creamy consistency. Do not let it boil.

Heat the soy sauce, sambal oelek and sweetener in a pan over a low heat and add the salmon, stirring gently to coat and heat but making sue it doesn't break up.

Place the cabbage on a plate and top with the salmon. 

Spätzle Bake

Wandering around Lidl yesterday, I came across a packet of dried spätzle on special offer. Although I have heard of spätzle, I have never tasted it and was unsure of what to do with it. Internet searches suggested it is mostly used as a side dish to meat dishes, but I wanted something a little more than that and I noticed a dish of spätzle baked with vegetables and cheese. As I had lots of leftover vegetables to use up, and a tub of Low Low cheese in the fridge, that seemed ideal.

Similar in texture to regular pasta, spätzle is a German speciality food which differs in that it is normally scraped off a board or pressed through a grater to create irregular shapes. It seems to fluff up more when boiled.

Serves 2

Syn Free on Extra Easy

a couple of handfuls of spätzle

leftover vegetables such as onions, shallots, Broccoli, red pepper and tomatoes

a few leaves of fresh basil

Low Low cheese

Cook the spätzle according to packet instructions – usually 15 minutes. Fry the onion and red pepper in a little Fry Light until slightly softened, then add the rest of the vegetables and cook for a few more minutes. Soften the cheese for 30 seconds in the microwave, then add to the mix with a little water from the spätzle if necessary. Place in a shallow ovenproof dish and bake on a high heat for 5-7 minutes until nicely browned. Serve with a side salad of your choice. 

Sweet Potato Bubble and Squeak

Again, this is not a recipe as such, just a suggestion of what you can do with some leftover vegetables for breakfast.

Bubble and squeak is so good in so many ways:

• uses up lots of leftover vegetables
• is syn free
• ensures you get plenty of superfree in with your breakfast
• gives you a filling breakfast without using your Healthy Extras
• tastes good
• can suit vegetarian or carnivore depending on what you serve with it
• is very healthy as no extra fat is added

I used sweet potatoes for this one, but most potatoes will do. In a large bowl I placed

sweet potato

sautéed leeks

steamed green beans, chopped

roasted red onion

spiced cauliflower

grated courgette

mashing it all up with a potato masher. Grease four cooking rings and place on a greased oven tray. Press the vegetable mash into the rings and smooth off the top. Spray with a little Fry Light and bake at 220°C for 10 minutes or so until nicely browned. Serve with grilled bacon and tomato, or some poached eggs if you like. 

Tuna and Bacon Frittata

This is one of those dishes that can be made with almost any leftovers, and the more vegetables the better. I wasn't sure if the cauliflower would work, but it went remarkably well. Mushrooms would be a good substitute and you can add potatoes for bulk too, but remember to ensure that you get your one third superfree in.

Frittata

Serves 4

Syn Free on Extra Easy

2 onions

1 green pepper

1 tin tuna, drained

4 slices bacon, all visible fat removed

8 eggs

a handful of leftover cooked cauliflower

4-6 tomatoes, thinly sliced

1 tsp dried sage

1 tsp dried marjoram

salt and pepper

Grill the bacon and dice finely. Chop the onions and pepper and fry in a little Fry Light until soft. Add the flaked tuna, cooked vegetables, herbs and season to taste. Make sure the filling is spread out evenly in the pan. Whisk up the eggs and pour gently over the vegetables. Top with the sliced tomatoes.

If you wish, you can add some grated parmesan cheese from your Healthy Extra A allowance.

Cook on a gently heat for 5-7 minutes until the egg has set. You may wish to finish it off under the grill, making sure your frying pan handle doesn't burn. Serve with a salad of your choice. I had forgotten to buy a salad, so had to route around the fridge to see what I could find to serve with it. This is what I came up with:

Oriental Slaw

Serves 2

Syn Free on Extra Easy

¼ red cabbage, finely shredded

1 carrot, grated

½ onion, thinly sliced

Dressing made from:

Soy sauce

Sambal Oelek (or you can use a finely chopped chilli)

Rice wine vinegar

Sweetener

Mix all the ingredients for the dressing in a screw top jar and shake well. Stir into the carrots, onions and cabbage. 

Chilli Cheese Stuffed Peppers

This is a great way of using up leftovers, which is exactly what I did, taking the rice from Saturday night and mixing it with the vegetables from last night. This is not really a recipe as such, more of an idea of something you can do for a filling lunch.

Serves 2

Syn Free on Extra Easy providing you use the cheese as your Healthy Extra A

• 1 green pepper
• 1 red pepper
• a couple of handfuls of cooked rice – mine was brown rice
• about the same amount of leftover vegetables – I used sweetcorn, Savoy cabbage and carrots, but most vegetables would work
• a few stems of fresh herbs, finely chopped – I has some sage left
• a small onion to add a bit of a crunchy texture
• tub of Low Low mature cheese with red pepper and chilli

Cut the peppers in half lengthways. Mix together the rice, vegetables and herbs. Blitz the cheese in a microwave for 20 seconds or so to soften it. Stir the cheese in to the rice and vegetable mix and fill the peppers with it. Bake at 220°C for 10-15 minutes until nicely brown on top.

Serve with a salad and potatoes of your choice. I cut up the leftover jacket wedges from yesterday and fried them at a fairly high heat in a little Fry Light to crisp them up. 

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Noodle-Soup Frittata

Even wondered what to do with leftover soup other than serving it as soup again? Well, I did too, and put my thinking cap on. Having eaten all the meatballs out of yesterday's soup, all that was left over was noodles and vegetables. Thinking back to my mum's baked spaghetti some 40 years ago, I had an idea. Draining the water off, I was left with a nice filling for a frittata. I also raided the fridge for other orphaned bits and pieces, finding the crushed soya beans and some Parmesan and mozzarella cheeses.

Serves 2

Syn Free on Extra Easy providing you use the cheese as your Healthy Extra A

I fried up a couple of sliced onions in a little Fry Light and while that was cooking, mixed four eggs with the grated cheeses and crushed soya beans. Once the onion was soft, I chucked the noodle mix in the pan and stirred to heat it up, then shook the pan to level it all out. I carefully poured the egg-bean-cheese mixture evenly over the noodles and spread it right out to the edges. Turning down the heat a little, I covered the pan with a lid while I grilled some tomatoes and placed a handful of salad on a couple of plates. As soon as the frittata had firmed up, I served it with the salad and tomatoes, and some Extra Light Mayonnaise on the side (½ syn per tablespoon).

It worked surprisingly well, even Husband was impressed; and it gives me great pleasure to have created a new dish out of leftovers. 

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Pork and Pasta Bake

Yet another dish where I am not going to offer a recipe – gosh I feel lazy today! To the leftover pasta with pork and mushrooms from Sunday night, I added a small carton of passata and some chilli, cinnamon and cumin powder; then topped the whole thing with a little grated reduced fat Cheddar cheese and baked it in the oven until it was nicely browned. Love it when dinner is that easy. I did however, spend quite some time making a picnic for tomorrow's day out, so hopefully I am forgiven for my lack of culinary activity today. 

We did treat ourselves to small but syn free dessert this evening though: jelly with blueberries, topped with fat free yogurt.

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