Terre Pruitt's Blog

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Posts Tagged ‘leftovers’

Leftover Persimmon Chicken

Posted by terrepruitt on November 23, 2016

Dance Exercise, Nia, Nia in the City of San Jose, Nia classes in the South Bay, Nia Teacher, Nia Class, San Jose Nia, Nia San Jose, Nia workout, Nia, Gentle Yoga, Group Ex classes, YMCA, Zumba, Nia Technique, SJ City Fit, SJCityFitWith all that is going on I mentioned I might not be writing regularly, but I am going to try.  This might be considered a cheat because it is not an actual recipe.  But that is really how I cook anyway.  If you have read any of my blog posts that have recipes in them you probably know that I love leftovers.  Recently I made Persimmon Chicken.  We had it for a few days.  There was enough for us to have a piece of chicken for a couple of nights.  But the third night there was that odd piece left.  Whenever I have an odd piece of meat that is usually when I throw it in pasta, in a tortilla, or on a tortilla.  Well, I didn’t know how persimmon chicken would taste on a tortilla.  But then I thought, “Why wouldn’t it work?”  Well, I have to say, it worked and it was delicious!  The sweet of the persimmons with the saltiness of the cheese – very good!

You might remember that I went to a restaurant once and they served what I call Fancy Toast.  I was thinking of that when I put together our persimmon chicken tortillas.  Sweet and salty!

I had some leftover ricotta from the lasagna I recently made (that recipe is here).  I decided to use it.  I am always looking for ways to use what I have and not let things I used for one recipe go to waste. Here is what I did.

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Persimmon Chicken Tortilla

2 Flour Tortillas
1 cup of ricotta
1 cup of mozzarella
1 large piece of persimmon chicken
some of the persimmons that were cooked with the chicken
3 tablespoons of gorgonzola

Dance Exercise, Nia, Nia in the City of San Jose, Nia classes in the South Bay, Nia Teacher, Nia Class, San Jose Nia, Nia San Jose, Nia workout, Nia, Gentle Yoga, Group Ex classes, YMCA, Zumba, Nia Technique, SJ City Fit, SJCityFitPreheat oven to 350° F.  Cut up the chicken so you have little pieces.  Spread the ricotta on the tortillas, 1/2 cup each tortilla.  Then sprinkle 1/2 cup of the mozzarella on each tortilla.  Distribute the cut up chicken over each tortilla along with the persimmons.  Then top with the gorgonzola – about 1 1/2 tablespoon each.

Then bake it in the oven for about 20 minutes.  You are really only trying to melt the cheese, as the chicken is already cooked.  If you like your tortilla a little crisper, then bake it for longer.

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As happens more often than not, I was not planning on posting this on my blog.  And I didn’t take a picture of the preparation . . . but I think it is simple enough you can get the idea.  In the pictures I did take you can see the gorgonzola.

The salty blue cheese and the spiced fruit were a great combination.  The ricotta being somewhat flavorless just added great texture – a perfect creaminess.

It was really good.  Next time I make persimmon chicken I am going to make sure I have enough leftover to do this.  Plus I will make sure I have mozzarella, ricotta, and gorgonzola on hand.  Although a mild cheddar might due in place of the mozzarella.

What do you think?  Sound good to you?  What could we add to make it even better?

Posted in "Recipes", Food | Tagged: , , , , | Leave a Comment »

Our Version Of Taco Salad

Posted by terrepruitt on May 26, 2015

What do you put in your taco salad?  Do you eat taco salad?  Taco salad is one of my favorite meals.  It is probably one of my favorite meals for several reasons.  One reason is it is raw veggies and meat with tortilla chips, that is just a winning combination to me.  Another reason is when we have it, it usually translates into at least two meals — you know I love leftovers.  And another reason is, usually when we have it my husband has made it.  I had taco salad with my friends once and they laughed at me because the only thing “taco” about my taco salad is the tortilla chips and the “taco seasoning” in the meat.  Since I was the one that started making the taco salad in our relationship I have “infected” my husband with my idea of or the way I make taco salad.  We do it a little different.

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Taco SaladDance Exercise, Nia, Nia in the City of San Jose, Nia at the San Jose Community Centers, Nia classes in the South Bay, Nia Teacher, Nia Class, San Jose Nia, Nia San Jose, Nia workout, Nia, Gentle Yoga, Group Ex City of San Jose, San Jose Group Ex classes, YMCA, Zumba, PiYo

1 lb Ground Turkey
1 package of taco seasoning
tortilla chips
lettuce
shredded cheese
olives
onions
pickles
bell peppers
cucumbers
broccoli
carrots
sour cream
salsa

Cook the meat with the seasoning.  You can use the directions on the package or not.  I don’t, I saute some onions then add the meat.  While the meat is cooking I put in the seasoning.  My hubby follows the directions on the package.  Whatever works for you.

Dance Exercise, Nia, Nia in the City of San Jose, Nia at the San Jose Community Centers, Nia classes in the South Bay, Nia Teacher, Nia Class, San Jose Nia, Nia San Jose, Nia workout, Nia, Gentle Yoga, Group Ex City of San Jose, San Jose Group Ex classes, YMCA, Zumba, PiYoThe lettuce is chopped or the kind from a bag.  The olives are chopped or sliced, either by you or that is the way you bought them.  The onions . . . I like red, but whatever color will do, even scallions.  Whatever they are they are chopped.

Pickles are chopped.  So are the bell peppers, cucumbers, broccoli, and carrots.

Then you just layer it in your individual bowl.  My husband and I do ours individually since we both like different things in our salads.  We also do our layers differently.  Then he adds salsa and sour cream.  I don’t add any of that.  We both crumble our tortilla chips on top.  One time I forgot them.  I remembered them after I was half way through eating my salad.

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As you can see there are no beans.  I don’t like beans, so I have never put beans in my “taco salad”.  And, like I said, since I have always made it like that my poor husband doesn’t get beans in his salad.  I don’t know if he would like them, but we don’t think to get them.  Also, I believe pickles are a weird ingredient for a taco salad.  I cannot tell you how that started.  It might sound odd, but it works really well . . . I think.  For me it is a MUST, the pickles are a source of moisture for my salad since I don’t add any dressing, salsa, or sour cream.

I believe we have had tomatoes in our taco salad before.  Basically any veggie that we would put in a salad we could add to our taco salad.  The first nine ingredients on the list are the “must-haves”.

Do you eat taco salad?  What do you put in your taco salad?

Posted in "Recipes", Food | Tagged: , , , , , | 2 Comments »

My First Tomato Sauce Lasagna

Posted by terrepruitt on October 19, 2013

So when I have classes to teach in the evening – Nia or Gentle Yoga, I like to have dinner planned.  Sometimes I just have the idea of what I am going to do.  Sometimes I have the ingredients and I might make something the day before that last a few days so we can just heat up leftovers.  Love them left overs.  And sometimes I prepare something that just needs to be baked.  This time I decided to make a lasagna.  I don’t think I have ever made red sauce lasagna.  I make a Chicken Divan lasagna that is super yummy, but not being a fan of tomato sauce, I don’t think I have ever bothered making lasagna with a tomato sauce. Another reason is, I really think that lasagna sauce as with spaghetti sauce is best from scratch, but since I don’t make either, it seems daunting to me.  So I have never made the effort with the lasagna because I don’t want to make the sauce.  Well, sometimes, in order to get things done, I have to take short cuts.  So I used a sauce in a jar.  It is a really easy lasagna recipe, however, I made it a bit different.

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Super Easy Tomato Sauce Lasagna

Ingredients:

1/4 of an onion
1 tbsp of olive oil
1 pound of mushrooms, cleaned and sliced
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp garlic powder
1 pound lean ground beef*
1 32 ounce jar of the tomato/pasta sauce of your choice
12  uncooked lasagna noodles  (as many as your dish requires)
1/4 of a 32 ounce container ricotta cheese
4 cups shredded mozzarella cheese

You might want to use the entire jar of sauce and or add the 1/4 cup water to the dish before baking (as instructed in the original recipe)

Preparation:

Heat onion in oil.  Cook the mushrooms until half way done.  Add salt and garlic powder.  Then add the beef.  Cook beef in a large skillet over medium heat, stirring until it crumbles and is no longer pink; drain, if necessary (our beef does not have anything to drain off).   Stir in 3 cups of the pasta sauce.

Spread a thin layer of the remaining sauce into the 9 X 13 casserole dish; layer with enough noodles to cover the bottom of the dish.  Then layer the ricotta cheese and mozzarella cheese over the noodles.  Then add 1/2 of the meat sauce.  Then add a little mozzarella.  Then a layer of noodles, a layer of ricotta cheese and mozzarella cheese. Then a layer of the remainder of the meat sauce. Then add the rest of the mozzarella.  (This is where you would pour 1/4 cup hot water around edge of dish.) Tightly cover baking dish with 2 layers of heavy-duty aluminum foil.

Bake at 375° for 45 minutes; uncover and bake 10 more minutes. Note: Check the lasagna to see if it is done to your liking.  Let stand 10 minutes before serving.

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Dance Exercise, Nia, Nia at the City of San Jose, Nia classes in the South Bay, Nia Teacher, Nia Class, San Jose Nia, Nia San Jose, Nia workout, Nia, Zumba, PiYo, Gentle YogaI covered mine with plastic wrap and foil and froze it.  The day I wanted to cook it I took it out to thaw for a few hours.  It was still frozen when I put it in the oven.  I removed the plastic wrap before I baked it at 375° for 90 minutes.  I left it in the oven after the 90 minutes.  I SHOULD have taken it out.  It was just the tiniest bit over done.  But otherwise it was great.

I had put it on time bake so I was not home to check it.  I arrived home JUST as the oven was turning off.  I had other things to do so I didn’t check the lasagna right away and I should have.

My husband loved it.  Since I have given myself permission to use jarred sauce, I might be making this more often.  Next time I want to add zucchini.  And, yes, we had enough left over for a couple of meals.  You know I love that!

Do you have a favorite lasagna recipe?  Would you share it?  

*I actually am not sure how much ground beef I used because ours is from a cow we bought a portion of.  It is wrapped in butcher paper with no weight.  I think it is about a pound.

The original Extra-Easy Lasagna.

Posted in "Recipes", Food | Tagged: , , , , , , , , , | 6 Comments »

Fennel Turkey

Posted by terrepruitt on March 5, 2013

I had received fennel before in my organic produce box.  I didn’t know what to do with it.  So I did what I always do with vegetables.  I roasted it.  It was really good.  I was surprised. I might have received it another time after the first, but I am not sure.  In my last produce box I received another fennel bulb. I was going to roast it to go with dinner.  I had taken some ground turkey out of the freezer to defrost.  When I went to cook the fennel I realized I didn’t have anything to cook with the turkey.  If I am cooking ground turkey to put in something, like a tortilla, I don’t mind it being just cooked meat.  If I don’t have something like that to put it on or in, I liked to add something to it.  So I decided to cook the fennel in a pan, then add the turkey to it.

I didn’t have any onions so I used those dehydrated kind.  Normally my flavor is onion, as in I use the onion to flavor the dish, but this time I wanted the fennel to do it so I didn’t use a lot of the onion.  Had I had a fresh onion I would have used about 1/4 in order to allow the fennel to be the main flavor.

You know I love to cook veggies and ground turkey.  It is one of my “staple” menu items.  This combination turned out really well.

I didn’t measure as I cooked so I am guesstimating as I type:

Dance Exercise, Nia, Nia at the City of San Jose, Nia classes in the South Bay, Nia Teacher, Nia Class, San Jose Nia, Nia San Jose, Nia workout, Nia, ZumbaFennel Turkey

2 tablespoons of olive oil
1 bulb fennel, chopped
1/4 onion, chopped
package of ground turkey
1/2 tsp garlic salt
1/2 tsp season salt
1/2 tsp thyme
3/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 bunch kale chopped
2 turns of pepper grinder

Pour olive oil in pan along with the chopped fennel and onion.  Cook until tender.  Add the ground turkey, the garlic salt, the season salt, and the thyme.  Stir the fennel and meat while cooking.  Add some salt (not all of it).  Cook until the turkey is almost done.  The idea is to just wilt the kale so make sure the turkey is done enough.  Then put the kale in the pan and add the rest of the salt.  Cook only until the kale is wilted.  Then add the pepper.

We had this for dinner this week.  We ate it will pasta.  I like linguine.  I put my fennel turkey on the side, whereas my husband piled his on top of his pasta.

I really enjoyed the flavor of the fennel.  So much so that when I was in the grocery store the next day I almost bought some more.  Then I remembered I am going to get more in my produce box this week.  Yay!  I am happy that I have received a few things I would not have just gone out and purchased.  And I am happy that I have learned I do like these things enough to now go out and buy them.  Fennel is really good!

Tonight we had the leftovers in a tortilla with cheese.  You know me and leftovers!  Awesome.  Leftovers really help when I have a late Nia class.  Currently my evening Nia classes are late, so being able to have dinner on the table within 15 minutes of getting home is necessary.  I grilled my tortilla.  It was really good.  Fennel has a nice flavor.

Have you tried fennel, the vegetable?  If you cook it, how do you cook it?

Posted in "Recipes", Food | Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , | 4 Comments »

Lemon Leftovers

Posted by terrepruitt on July 17, 2010

While I was doing Nia today, I was thinking of that yummy mango-cucumber salad (have you tried it yet?).  I had a thought about the lemon leftovers.  If you have seen a few of my posts you might have noticed that I really try not to be wasteful.  I think that as a society we are pretty wasteful so I know I do my share, but when I can come up with ways that allow me to re-use something I like it.  Guess what, you can do a few of things with the lemons that have been used for the salad.

You can zest the lemons.  The outside colored part of the lemons can be used for many things.  (Hmm, I think I see another blog post at of just that.)  I would think it would be easier to zest before you squeeze all the juice out of the lemon, but that is just me.

You can use what is left of the lemon to try to “bleach” stuff.  For me I use it to lighten any darkness that might be on my kitchen grout.  It doesn’t always work on a dark-dark stain, but on anything light it usually does.  Often times I leave it for a few hours, but remember it is an acid so it might eat through some of the grout . . . so like most things you are trying for the first time test it in a small unseen area to make certain you can live with the results.

Or just take the lemon portion that has been squeeze and run it over your counters or your sink—-provided the surfaces can tolerate something like that.  Then wipe it down with a damp towel you might have the fresh sent of lemon in the kitchen.  I have tile on which I do that, but I do not do it on my granite.

Then when you are all done using as much as you can out of that little lemon put it in your garbage disposal.  As long as your garbage disposal works well at grinding rinds that helps clean it and leaves a fresh sent in the kitchen.  Especially if you run the disposal at the same time you run some warm/hot water–it fills the kitchen with lemony scent.

What else can we do with the lemon “leftovers”?

Posted in Helpful Hints | Tagged: , , , , | 4 Comments »

Cooking For Days

Posted by terrepruitt on July 10, 2010

I like to cook.  I like to go into the kitchen, have some ingredients, put them together and have something to eat.  I like that.  I think it is cool.  But cooking is not like Nia in the sense that: Nia I like to do every day, cooking I do not.  When I cook, I like to cook in a way that leaves us with leftovers.  I know a lot of people that won’t eat leftovers and I kinda don’t understand that, but . . . to each their own.  I LOVE leftovers.  Some, like pasta, are even better the next day.

My husband doesn’t mind leftovers.  That makes him really easy to cook for.  But at the same time I don’t want him to have to eat the EXACT same thing a few nights in a row.  So one thing I do to allow me to cook once but not leave us eating the EXACT same thing for a few days is I cook chicken in foil packets.  Yup, just like those aluminum foil ladies on TV showed us.

This also enables me to get one more servings out our a “two serving” bag of chicken.  (From Costco the boneless, skinless Foster Farm Chicken Breasts are packaged in twos—-hmmmmm . . . . ? . . . )  I separate the chicken onto foil pieces then I just put whatever seasonings, spices, fruit, sauces, veggies I want in each package.  I have to label them because my husband is not a fan of teriyaki and I am.  Plus he likes spicy hot and I don’t.

So then I cook them up and we have chicken for a few days.  Even though it is chicken it is not that same flavor chicken every night.  Then each night I can cook up different veggies, and either rice or pasta.  Or we might throw the chicken in or on a tortilla, or maybe even on some bread.  Either way it makes making dinner that night much easier and faster.  I love it.

Come join me for a Nia class in San Jose and see why I like to do it every day.  And here, share with me your thoughts on cooking every day or leftovers.  Do you like leftovers?  Do you cook every day?

Posted in Food | Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 12 Comments »