Who Can Resist Pie?

Here’s another LevelUp for you… Keep frozen dough on hand! I love to cook but sometimes DireMole and I can’t eat all the left overs before they spoil. Or sometimes the meal was decent, but it could have been better… and what makes any meal taste better? Wrapping it in crispy, buttery, doughy and flaky crust!!

I keep whole wheat pie crusts on hand to make breakfast Quiche with leftover ingredients or leftover dinner.

1. Pre-heat oven to 375 degrees
2. Bake frozen crust for 15 mins until bubbly and almost golden
3. Dump leftovers in a bowl
4. Add 4-6 eggs (depending on the size of your pie pan)
5. Add cheese (whatever you got on hand) to please!
6. Mix that mess up
7. Dump the egg and leftover mixture into pie crust and top with more cheese
8. Bake at 375 degrees for approx 45mins, until the pie looks like an egg bubble

Typical Leftovers for Quiche:

• Leftover fixings from fajita/taco – night
• Leftover chili because it’s so good but you are sick of eating sludge
• Leftover  veggies that don’t look like they can make it another day without being used…(onions, tomatoes, garlic, peas, herbs, cauliflower, asparagus, broccoli, spinach, squash, potatoes, etc…)
• BACON! Not sure why you would have this leftover, but if you do…chuck it in! (Cooked)

Besides pie crusts, sometimes I have flaky pastry dough or phyllo (filo) dough leftover from another recipe. Instead of letting the dough freeze to death crystals, I make snacks or food-on-the-go for DireMole and myself. For example, the other night I made a healthy Indian curry. But I had 3-4 servings leftover and frankly, dinner tasted “just ok”. So I used flaky pastry dough leftovers to make handheld chicken curry pies (or baked empanadas). Maybe I can trick DireMole into thinking he isn’t eating leftovers disguised in pie-form??

Baked Food Pockets from Leftovers

1. Defrost frozen pastry or phyllo dough according to package
2. Pre-heat oven to 400 degrees
3. Take leftovers and mix in a bowl. You may need to cut leftover meat and veggies into smaller bites.
4. Sprinkle flour on a dry surface
5. Roll out dough
6. Use a small bowl or cookie cutter to make pie crusts
7. Place dough cut outs on baking sheet – make sure you have an even amount!
8. Spoon leftover filling on top of half of the dough cut-outs
9. Place a dough cut-out on top of filling
10. Crimp edges and make lil’ food pockets of yummyness!
11. Bake at 400 degrees for 10 mins. for each side of the food pockets (= 20 mins. total)

Typical Leftovers for Food Pockets:

• Leftover fixings from fajita/taco – night
• Leftover Thanksgiving! Turkey… cranberry sauce…gravy…stuffing and potato casseroles (sweet or regular) You name it- chuck it in!
• Leftover chili for your own empanada creation
• Leftover curry to make your own samosas
• Cheese
• Make sure you add only cooked ingredients
• You may need a little sauce so they don’t dry out!

If those ideas don’t tempt you… just make a leftover-inspired pizza. You can pick up pre-made pizza dough at a bakery, Whole Foods, or your local grocer. I usually go for the whole wheat option. Just add sauce, cheese, leftovers, and about-to-parish produce. I usually cut a few herbs from the garden to jazz it up!

1. Pre-heat oven to 400 degrees
2. Rummage around the kitchen for random leftovers and cut them up!
3. Sprinkle flour on a dry surface
4. Roll-out dough
5. Place dough on pizza stone or cookie sheet
6. Use a spoon to press dough and form pizza crust
7. Bake for 5 mins.
8. Remove dough from oven
9. Splash dough with sauce
10. Add cheese
11. Add toppings while being creative to make designs with your food. (It’s like when you were a kid and your parents didn’t want you to play with your food. Now, YOU CAN!)
12. Place back into oven for 15-20 mins. Or until it looks amazing and you are drooling at the sight of it.

 

LevelUp: +1 Point for Culinary Masterpieces, +1 Point for Re-purposing Leftovers, +1 Point for learning to Keep Dough Stocked in Freezer