the art of leftovers

So yesterday, I realized that we were out of cereal/oatmeal bowls.

No big, I had my peanut butter and banana oats in this adorable thing.

   

I think it’s actually supposed to be a ridiculously gigantic mug. It was a gift. From World Market. <3

I also had more perfect pineapple.

I have so enjoyed all the pineapple I’ve been eating this summer. It’s so much fun to chop up!

Anyway, I knew the bowl situation had to be dealt with. There were billions of random bowls sitting around in the fridge with like… two bites of salad. Two tablespoons of sauce. A single potato (? Why does a potato need its own bowl?)

So we had Serious Leftovers.

Other people are like “Oooh, check me out, I’m so proletariat, I’m eating leftovers, I made a SANDWICH FOR LUNCH with the TURKEY I ATE LAST NIGHT.”

We make big spreads of RANDOM! On leftover night we don’t stress things like making sure things go together ethnically, or making sure there isn’t too much brown on the table (this is kind of ugly, I know).

Some highlights were the homemade hummus I made with a mixture of the leftover blackeyed peas from the chilaquiles and the chickpeas from the chicken soup. With lotsa parsley! (There was also a random bowl of parsley?)

 

Accompanied with a big plate ‘o carbs

Crackers, soft wheat bread for my sister who likes her bread inexplicably mushy, homemade crusty bread.

Cabbage:

  

Ugly but tasty. I made this with the remains of the soy-apricot glaze I made for asparagus the other sweet. Sweet n sour. Not bad.

Hahaha, the last three shrimp from the tapas shrimp. Still AWESOME!

It would’ve been one each but my sister didn’t want any so I got one and a half. Sweet!

Finally, I was proudest of this creation.

Yet another reason I love tapas is that it is the reason that I, a mere mortal, have gotten to taste Jose Andres’ cooking. Jose Andres is… legit one of the greatest chefs in the world. He’s way famous. However, he has a number of tapas restaurants in the DC area, including the original, Jaleo, which I’ve been lucky enough to eat at a coupla times. Small plates like tapas can make fancy food prepared by amazing chefs affordable!

Anyway, he has this dish called “Papas Bravas”, which are potatoes in this crazy good spicy sauce with sour cream. So simple. SO GOOD! So I took the leftover poblano sauce from the chilaquiles, tossed it with some cooked tater, and added Greek yogurt on the side!

It was totally boss.

Finally, this morning’s breakfast was more yummy.

Plain yogurt with more yummy pineapple, and the return of cranberry pecan scones!

This batch was kind of crazy looking, but the flavor was even BETTER. Chopping up the cranberries so they were more evenly distributed did awesome things for the flava.