Reworking Leftovers with Pita Pizza!

Because I only cook for two people, I often find myself with a lot of leftovers.  I actually love leftovers because I'd rather bring leftovers in for lunch than buy an over-priced or unhealthy lunch at work.  On Tuesday night, I had a decent amount of leftover roasted cauliflower and pesto-marinated chicken from Monday night's dinner.  Bret brought some into work for lunch on Tuesday so I wanted to find a way to re-work these leftovers in a creative way.

My immediate thought was to make a pizza with these ingredients but I didn't have enough leftovers to make a whole pizza.  So I decided to make individual-sized pita pizzas that were super easy and really flavorful.

To start, I placed two flax, oat bran and whole wheat pitas right on the rack in the oven at 350 degrees.  While the pitas were crisping up, I sliced both the roasted cauliflower and the pesto-marinated chicken into bite size pizzas.  By the time I was done chopping, I was ready to put my pizzas together.

I took the pitas out of the oven and spread some leftover pizza sauce on them.  I then added dollops of mascarpone cheese, which I thought would go well with the fig and gorgonzola pesto.  I then topped it with the leftover roasted cauliflower and pesto-marinated chicken slices.  I finished the pizza off with one more dollop of mascarpone cheese in the middle.

I placed the pizzas on an aluminum foil-lined tray in the oven for about eight minutes and the pita pizzas were done.  I absolutely loved this slightly sweet pizza and it turned our leftover ingredients into a fun little meal!

You'll have to forgive the photos.  I was even too lazy to use anything more than my point and shoot!

Tell me, what are some dishes you've made to turn leftovers into a whole new meal?

Roasted Cauliflower and Pesto-Marinated Chicken

Last month, I absolutely fell in love with a simple preparation for roasted broccoli.  In fact, Bret did too and I've never seen him so excited about a side vegetable dish!  After Bret's enthusiasm for my roasted broccoli, I decided to give roasted cauliflower a try last night.  I decided to do a very similar preparation that was super easy and flavorful.

First, I pre-heated the oven to 425 degrees.  Before I got to the cauliflower, I first got to work on my protein.  I sliced up two boneless chicken breasts into chicken finger size and marinated it with half a tin of Pestos with Panache's Fabulous Fig and Gorgonzola pesto and a few tablespoons of olive oil.

While the chicken was marinating, I washed a head of cauliflower and chopped the florets off.

I tossed the florets in a large bowl with a few tablespoons of butter-infused olive oil, salt, pepper, and garlic powder - the same seasonings I used for the roasted broccoli.  This time, however, I also added a few tablespoons of grated Parmesan cheese that I had leftover from my blogger inspired turkey en croute.

I lined a baking tray with aluminum foil and gave it a quick spray of cooking spray.  I put the cauliflower on the tray in a single layer.

I put the cauliflower on the middle rack for fifteen minutes and allowed the cauliflower to roast.  While the cauliflower was roasting, I put the chicken fingers in a shallow baking pan and also put that on the middle rack with the tray of cauliflower.

After fifteen minutes, I took the tray of cauliflower out and turned all of the florets over so that both sides would get a nice roasted color and texture.  I put the tray back in the oven for another fifteen minutes on the bottom rack.

Like the roasted broccoli, the roasted cauliflower was a big hit.  Again, it had that nice rich buttery flavor and the Parmesan cheese definitely added to the dish!  The texture of the roasted cauliflower was nice - crispy and not mushy.

The chicken was so flavorful from the sweet fig and tangy gorgonzola pesto.  The chicken was so moist and it was the perfect simple dinner for a Monday night.

Tell me, what is your favorite vegetable to roast?

Clean Out the Fridge: Fig & Gorgonzola Pesto Quinoa

Last Sunday night, I was eager to finally break open one of the tins of pesto that I purchased at the SOWA Food Truck Festival.  I first read about Pestos with Panache on Lara's blog - Good Cook Doris.  After meeting Lauren at the SOWA Food Truck Festival, the person behind all of these interesting pesto flavor combinations, I knew I had to buy some!  I've had these tins of pesto in my freezer for awhile and I finally opened up the Fabulous Fig & Gorgonzola pesto on Sunday night.

My original plan was to toss the pesto with some quinoa and black beans but with some fabulous leftover ingredients in my fridge, this pesto quinoa dish took a life of its own. 

I first got started on my quinoa.  I learned from my previous experience with quinoa and made only one cup in my rice cooker this time!

While the quinoa was cooking, I got to work on the rest of my ingredients.  I had chopped up an entire sweet potato on Friday night for my chicken tikka masala and I still had half of the chopped sweet potato in the fridge.

I also had half a large sweet onion leftover from the same dish and I sliced it up.

During the day, I made a panini with goat cheese, proscuitto and Stonewall Kitchen maple pumpkin butter.  I had a few slices of proscuitto leftover.

I roughly chopped the proscuitto up.

I warmed up a deep skillet pan on the stove top with some cooking spray and a small pat of butter.  I threw the chopped proscuitto in the pan.  While the proscuitto was crisping up, I drained and rinsed a can of black beans.

When the proscuitto was done, I removed it from the pan onto some paper towels to soak up some of the grease and then put it aside in a bowl. 

I put the onions in the pan with the proscuitto renderings.

After the onions browned a little, I added the sweet potatoes.

I seasoned the vegetables with salt and pepper.  I wanted to let the sweet potatoes cook through so I added some rose to deglaze the pan and a few sprigs of thyme.  I had some thyme left over from my cherry tomato and goat cheese tart.  I put a lid on the skillet and let the wine cook down.

When all of the rose cooked down, I removed the thyme and added the cooked quinoa.  I added about half of the pesto tin along with a drizzle of olive oil.  I took a photo of the pesto before I mixed all of the ingredients together but the photo came out a little dark.  I'm really hating how the end of summer means limited natural light for my photos.

The aroma was intoxicating and I was happy when I could finally dig in.

The quinoa had a nice sweetness from the fig pesto.  The onions and sweet potatoes definitely added to the sweetness. The gorgonzola flavor was definitely subtle but it went well with the crispy smoky proscuitto.  The use of quinoa and black beans made this a really hearty meal.

I added a simple side of Olivia's Organic's 50/50 Blend and this made for a really filling "clean out the fridge" dinner.

Do you like pesto?  Tell me about your most creative pesto dish!