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?

Pumpkin and Chilpotle Turkey Calzone

It has been five days since I last blogged but it feels like it has been forever.  I was sick most of last week with a nasty cold and just when I thought I was getting better, I got hit with a nasty flu bug.  I've spent most of the past five days sleeping and on a liquid diet of Gatorade and chicken broth.  But I'm slowly on the mend and I'm ready to get back into blogging.

Last week, I felt like I was in a cooking rut.  I rummaged through my freezer and I found a tin of Pumpkin Chilpotle Pesto that I purchased from Pestos with Panache at the Boston Food Truck Festival this past summer.  I also found a package of lean ground turkey in the freezer.  Using these two ingredients as a base, I decided to make a pumpkin and chilpotle turkey calzone.  I de-thawed the ground turkey and the tin of pesto in the fridge.  I then gathered up my ingredients - a jalapeno pepper, a log of goat cheese, one medium-sized onion and pizza dough.

I had a leftover jalapeno pepper from my beef and bean chili.  I de-seeded the pepper and chopped it up.

I warmed up a skillet on the stove at medium-high heat with a few tablespoons of vegetable oil.  The ground turkey was really lean so I kept a close eye on it to prevent it from over-cooking and becoming too dry. 

As the turkey began to brown, I added the chopped jalapeno to the pan.

While the turkey and jalapeno pepper was cooking, I quickly sliced up the onion thinly.

I added half the tin of the pumpkin and chilpotle pesto to the turkey and pepper mixture and gave it a stir.

I put the turkey mixture aside to cool.

I added some more vegetable oil to the pan and caramelized the onions.

When they were done, I also put the onions aside in a bowl to cool.

I then rolled out the pizza dough.  In hindsight I should have made two calzones but I was lazy and made one jumbo calzone.  I layered it with the caramelized onions and chunks of goat cheese, about 3/4 of the turkey mixture, and more onions and goat cheese.

I closed up the calzone, vented it and gave it a quick egg wash.

I baked the calzone on a parchment-lined baking sheet in the oven at 400 degrees for twenty minutes.  When the calzone was done it looked gorgeous  - crusty and golden brown.

The dough (although store-bought) was nice and chewy.  The turkey had a subtle pumpkin flavor and a nice mild level of heat.  The goat cheese was tangy and the caramelized onions added sweetness. 

I had a slice of the calzone with some simple Olivia's Organics 50/50 Blend tossed with a homemade olive oil and white champagne balsamic vinaigrette.

This was the last meal I had before the flu hit and Bret got to enjoy the rest of the leftovers while I lay sick in bed.  Since I've been out of touch, tell me - what's the best thing you cooked or ate this week?  Also, have you voted for Boston's Best Local Blogger yet?  I'm still in the running and would really appreciate your vote here!

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!

Boston's First Annual Food Truck Festival

On Sunday, Boston had its first annual food truck festival at SOWA Open Market.  This event was organized by Citysearch Boston and I was incredibly excited to check it out.  There is a huge movement for food trucks throughout the country and Boston seems to slowly be catching on.  I think this event is a great way for existing food trucks to demonstrate their presence in our city.

Bret and I knew that there were going to be some huge crowds so we were one of the first to arrive at about 9:45 AM.

Some of the food trucks had not yet arrived and others were still setting up.

We were both starving for breakfast so we decided to have the breakfast of champions - Speed's Hot Dogs. 

Bret and I have both been wanting to try Speed's for quite some time so we decided to split one of their hot dogs.  We got one of their enormous all beef hot dogs covered with barbecue sauce, mustard, onions, and house relish on a toasted bun.  These things were huge and half of one hot dog was the size of your average grocery store hot dog!

Wow, Speed's lives up to its reputation and we were glad to have tried it before the lines got ridiculous later in the day.

After such a crazy breakfast, we decided to browse around.  I got to meet Cyndi of the Best Damn Granola. 

We tried a few different varieties but ended up purchasing the "Mac Daddy", which contains organic apples, cranberries, walnuts and 100% pure maple syrup spiced with crystallized ginger.  I love that BDG uses local ingredients and I can't wait to have some of this granola for breakfast with my cottage cheese!

We wandered around the SOWA Open Market and Bret purchased a really cool refurbished cigar box.

Then we headed back to the food trucks so that Bret could indulge in some ribs from Big Moe's M&M Ribs.  

After Bret purchased his ribs, we heard my name being called and were happy to find that it was Lara (of Good Cook Doris) and her hubby!  They had purchased a sandwich from Big Moe's and we all sat together to eat and chat.  I actually didn't taste any of the ribs as I was still pretty stuffed from my Speed's Dog.  Bret chowed down and his verdict was that the ribs were good but not great.  It was slathered in sauce but didn't have that nice barbecue crispy texture on the outside.

After eating, Lara and I headed over to Food Truck Nation, where we spoke to Todd, one of its proprietors.  Neither Lara nor I had heard about Food Truck Nation and we were both very curious.  I found that this is a fantastic business that is working to not only open up their own food trucks but to also assist restaurants to operate their own.  It is an interesting concept and I think they will be a huge part of the food truck movement in the city!  Rachel Klein of the Boston Seaport Hotel was still setting up when we chatted with Todd but during the meantime, Food Truck Nation was giving out free cones of caramel and chili popcorn.  These were seriously addictive!

Afterwards, Lara and I parted ways to wander around on our own.  I finally got to meet the bubbly Lauren from Pestos with Panache and her wonderful parents! I sampled quite a few of the interesting pesto combinations and ended up purchasing two kinds - Fabulous Fig and Gorgonzola and the Pumpkin Chipotle.  You guys know me - I can't resist anything pumpkin!  I failed to get a picture of her booth but I did get a great photo of my favorite pickles - Grillo's Pickle Cart!

Bret and I walked around with them a bit as we browsed the vintage market at SOWA but with the heat, Lauren's parents graciously let us store the pesto in their coolers until we were leaving.  This was especially a good idea since we ended up in a very long line for Fillbelly's, which arrived late to the festival. 

The line was brutal but I really wanted to try them out since I had heard such great things about them.  Luckily, I got to pass the time with Rob and Laura of the Two Palaverers who were right behind me in line!  Eventually Rob and Laura gave up on the line but Bret and I soldiered on.  When Cupcakory showed up, Bret went to their line and brought back two complimentary mini cupcakes - one was a coconut mix and the other was a raspberry pistachio.  These tasty little treats were welcome relief in the hour-long line.

Finally we put in our order and one for my friend Justin and his wife Leah.  Once the order was in, our food was prepared quickly.  Bret and I decided to split the fried chicken (they ran out of waffles), a chicken bosilito (home-style empanada) and their mac and soul casserole (mac and cheese with shredded sweet potato and collard greens. 

Was it worth the wait?  I'd have to say no.  Don't get me wrong - the food was good but in my mind, very few things are worth an hour plus long wait.  The chicken was crispy on the outside and moist on the inside but lacked a lot of seasoning, especially salt.  The  bosilito was absolutely delightful and I would definitely order it again.  I liked the mac and soul casserole but it was a bit on the cold side. 

I'm sure a lot of people will complain about the lines at the Food Truck Festival but I'd call it a success for the inaugural event.  There were over a thousand people there and less than a dozen food trucks.  Hopefully next year we'll have more trucks that are better prepared, which will definitely help the situation.  For me, I was happy to get my street food fill and couldn't think of a better way to spend a Sunday.

Did you go to Boston's first annual Food Truck Festival?  If so, what did you think?