Jeanette Hardison

Recipe by Amy, of Corvallis

MONEY SAVED: $20

“I looked in the fridge, and as usual, there was nothing in there except left over chicken. So, I looked around, and there was a partially used jar of tomato sauce. I wanted a whole meal, and something to fill me up.

This is a non dairy dish, but has meat. Definitely kid friendly, very filling and not very spicy.
This does require coconut milk, or cream, so that is the one item that you may need to buy.”

INGREDIENTS & DIRECTIONS:

• Take the left over chicken, and stir fry with onion and garlic.
• Add the left over tomato sauce, and add about 1/2 -1 cup water to the jar of sauce, to get out all the sauce, and add water mixture to the stir fry.
• While simmering, add some mild curry.
• If you have any left over potatoes, you can add those also.
• Add the coconut cream, about 2 tablespoons, or can just do by taste, until it tastes creamy.
• Simmer until all flavors have blended, about 15 mins.
• Put in a small bowl, and top with parsley, cilantro, green onion, or any other green you have on hand.

Recipe by Virginia, of Philomath:

MONEY SAVED: $10

“This is my own recipe, and is vegetarian. I despise food waste and like to clean out my fridge!”

INGREDIENTS AND DIRECTIONS:

• leftover roasted butternut squash
• 1 c. milk
• 5 different kinds of small hunks of miscellaneous cheese
• 1/2 carton of veggie stock
• crumbles of crackers
• macaroni noodles

I first puréed in a blender the leftover squash with the 1/2 carton of veggie stock, 1 cup of milk, then transferred to a sauce pans and tossed in grated miscellaneous cheese and cooked on low heat. Boil noodles then put in a casserole dish, then top with cheese sauce, and crumbles of crackers (breadcrumb substitute)

Bake at 350 F for 20 min or sides bubble. Top with pepper and fresh parsley.

Recipe by Marvel, of Corvallis:

MONEY SAVED: $10+

“A couple of nights ago we cooked up a ‘sheetpan’ dinner. (H/T New York Times — grab a bunch of stuff, in this case, chopped-up veggies, a couple of andouille sausages and a few cubes of feta, coat it in a little EVOO and spices then blast away at 400 for 20-some minutes.)

We ate the yummy stuff over egg noodles and enjoyed ourselves, u-bet. But even better: last night we chopped up the leftover sheetpan stuff then tossed ’em (plus some leftover egg noodles) into a pot of chicken broth and VOILA! A wonderful good-n-spicy soup! YUM!”

INGREDIENTS & DIRECTIONS:

Leftovers from sheetpan roast veggies & sausage described above…

• 2 andouille sausages, sliced
• 2 small crowns broccoli, broken into medium florettes
• 1/2 onion, chopped
• 6 small red potatoes, quartered
• 1 medium tomato, chopped
• 4 oz crumbled or cubed feta cheese
• 2 T extra virgin olive oil
• salt & pepper & red pepper flakes to taste

AND

• 8 oz egg noodles cooked according to package instructions

NEXT-DAY LEFTOVER SOUP:
Combine all of the roasted/cooked leftovers above with 4C chicken or vegetable broth and heat through.

ALSO NOTE: unless the potatoes are really young (fresh from the garden), they’ll need to be par-cooked (e.g., 5 minutes in the microwave) before heading to the oven.

Recipe by Amy B, of Corvallis:

MONEY SAVED: $20

“I came home, and was hungry. I looked in the fridge, and I all I had was some chicken. By itself, chicken isn’t a balanced meal. So, I thought I could add some things that I already had, and make a more complete meal. I looked in my cupboard, and I had some Amy’s Mac and Cheese mix. Then I took some broccoli that was in the veggie drawer, and mixed that in also!  The big break I had, was that I had some older cornbread that had been around for several days. I crumbled that on the top, and it made a wonderful topping!

Very kid friendly, more on the line of comfort food. This is not vegan – it has dairy and meat.”

INGREDIENTS & DIRECTIONS:

• Take a box of Amy’s Mac and Cheese, and prepare the noodles.
• When cooked, add in the cheese mix as per directions on box, and set aside.
• Cut up some leftover vegetables from the fridge, and steam, until lightly cooked.
• Cut up any leftover meat you may have in the fridge, chicken, beef or pork.
• You can also saute the veggies with onion and garlic for extra flavor.
• Mix veggies and meat with the macaroni, and put in a small casserole dish.
• Put in the oven, at 350 degrees for 20 -25 mins, when bubbling slightly, and topping is browned.

OPTIONS:

If you have some left over cornbread, crumble it, and spread a small layer of cornbread on the top of the casserole.

If you don’t have cornbread, you can use regular bread, or cornmeal. Just add some oil or butter to the bread or cornmeal crumbs, to make it crispy. The cornbread will crisp up on its own.

Recipe by Jeanette, Corvallis

MONEY SAVED: $3

“We already had tunafish sandwiches twice, and needed to use up the rest somehow. Seemed like anything savory on chips with cheese would be good. It was! After that, we just added salsa and it was de-lish!  Probably could add olives or capers for added flavor bursts.”

INGREDIENTS:

Leftover tunafish (canned dolphin-safe white tuna, organic mayo and relish)
Tortilla Chips (the last of the bag)
Shredded cheese
Salsa

Place chips on plate. Add tuna, add cheese, melt!  Top with salsa. Enjoy!