Leftover Pasta

Ben doesn't really like eating leftovers. I tend to cook a lot at one time because I like having leftovers. But if I am the only one eating the leftovers, I get tired of it very quickly. Pasta is one of the biggest leftover problems. We usually run out of sauce before pasta, and then the pasta just sits in the fridge until I throw it away, and then Ben gets mad about wasting food. What a puzzle.

A month or so ago we had a ton of leftover pasta and no sauce. I googled what to do with leftover pasta. I found two great ideas: Pad thai and chow mein. I made both that week. Between the two dishes we used up all the pasta. Ben loved both of the meals. I did too. This week I made the chow mein again (with more leftover pasta). He still likes it and suggested we have it more often. Maybe some leftover-non-eaters at your house would like it too. Or you could make it for real without using leftovers.

The chow mein recipe I adapted came from http://chinesefood.about.com/od/chowmein/r/chowmein.htm.

The pad thai recipe I adapted came from Rachael Ray's website.

I looked through my kitchen to see what I had that I could use. Then I looked to see what I had that I could substitute. Then I made the dishes.

Here is my basic recipe for each: noodles, meat, vegetables, spices, and water.

Chow Mein

• noodles (leftover pasta, or real asian noodles...whatever)
• meat (once I used pork, and another time I used chicken)
• vegetables (dried onion, once I used carrots and broccoli, the other time carrots and celery)
• spices (garlic, ginger, soy sauce, sugar, chicken bouillon cubes, salt, pepper, I don't have oyster sauce, so I didn't use it. But the second time I made it I used Worcestershire sauce instead of oyster sauce)
• and water to replace chicken stock, I already put chicken bouillon in the spice mixture.

1. I mixed the spices in a bowl and set it aside. I actually measured the spices based on the recipe from that webpage.
2. I chopped the vegetables, put them in another bowl, and put them aside. I didn't measure the vegetables.
3. I cut up the meat, and cooked it in a large skillet. I didn't measure the meat.
4. When the meat was cooked, I added the onions, and cooked that for a few minutes.
5. Then I added the vegetables, water, and the spice mixture, put the lid on, and let it cook until the vegetables were done. At some point I took the lid off so that most of the liquid would cook off.
6. Then I took the pan off the heat and added the pasta, stirred it up, and served it for dinner. You do have to be careful to have a good balance between meat, vegetables, and pasta.

Ben complained about the broccoli, but ate it anyway. The sauce soaked into the broccoli tops so they tasted like sauce and not like broccoli.


Pad Thai

• meat (chicken)
• vegetables (carrots, celery, water chestnuts)
• spices (peanut butter--I used chunky pb, chili powder, soy sauce, garlic, ginger, brown sugar, cider vinegar)
• water

I followed the same procedure as before. Ben complained about the celery, but ate it anyway. Broccoli, celery, and green beans are three things that Ben really hates. But I buy and cook them anyway.

Anyway, these are two good and easy dinners to make. The end.