So tonight I decided we needed to have a clean out the fridge night. Everyone ended up having leftover Chinese. I wanted soup. More specifically, I wanted a healthy veggie soup; well, I was in luck. I had 1/2 of an onion, 1/2 of a poblano pepper, 1/2 of a jalapeno, a container of mushrooms, 3 carrots, a bunch of spinach, and some leftover Chinese fried rice and broccoli in the fridge. In the pantry, I had a container of chicken stock (you can use veggie to make this vegetarian), a can of corn, and a can of chopped green chilies. I added salt, pepper, and a dash of red pepper flakes. I added a dash of hot sauce at the end for an added kick. I am glad I made enough for leftovers. You may not hear from me for a few meals. YUM!
Category: Vegetarian
Grilled Cheese with a Sunny Side Up Egg
This is a great easy comforting lunch on such a yucky day. The only thing better would have been a hot bowl of tomato soup with the egg on top- great for dipping your grilled cheese. Yum! But there is no way I am going on in all this yucky rain, so this is going to have to do for today. My girls love this, too!

Broccolini
I happened on this picture of sauteed broccollini on Pinterest. Becca siad, “Mommy, why is that broccoli so skinny?” Now those of you who don’t know…Broccolini is a green vegetable similar to broccoli but with smaller florets and longer, thin stalks. Although often misidentified as young broccoli, it is a hybrid of broccoli and kai-lan, a Chinese broccoli. I like to think of it as; “Model” broccoli. size “0” broccoli, or Skinny-assed broccoli. All joking aside, it is pretty tender and tasty. You can stir fry them or oven roast them in olive oil. I like to chop it up and put it in couscous and sliced almonds. Give them a try!
Baked Skillet Pasta
This dinner was a cinch to throw together. I defrosted some of my sausage and beef marinara that I made a couple of weeks ago. Here is my basic recipe, but this time I added sausage and ground beef that I made to use for baked ziti.
After I defrosted it, I added an extra can of tomato sauce and about a cup of red wine. Then I put the uncooked pasta-baby bow ties- directly in to the pot with the sauce. The pasta cooked in the sauce. I made sure to stir it every once in a while so it would not stick to the bottom of the pot. I cooked it until it still had a bite to it.
I had some leftover pasta that wouldn’t fit in the pan, so I froze it for another time. I always suggest making more of everything! It will be easy to pull it out one night for another quick dinner!
You could totally make this vegetarian, just leave out the meat!
Then I transferred the pasta in to a large skillet, topped it with shredded mozzarella, and popped it in a 350 oven about 25 minutes. I cut it like pieces of pizza. It was a big hit!
Veggie Noodle Bowl
Hey guys! Tonight was another girls’ might for me and my girls. E wanted cheese ravioli, R and K wanted spaghettios, and I wanted to try to clean out the fridge a bit and have something with lots of veggies. I decided to make a noodle soup with some leftover veggies and a pork chop left over from last night. This was pretty simple to throw together in one pot.
I started by chopping up my veggies and cooking them in a bit of olive oil for a few minutes. I used 4 cloves of garlic minced, a few sliced of ginger minced, 10 mushrooms sliced, 1/2 onion chopped, peppers chopped, and broccoli florets. Then I added a quart of beef broth (you could use chicken, veggie, or even water if you want.) Then I added my pasta. I had 1/4 of a container of fettichini noodles left over, so I threw them in the pot. Then I added about 1/2 bottle of white wine-enough to cover the rest of the noodles- a few shakes of sesame oil , teriyaki sauce, and soy sauce. Then I let it come to a boil and cook until the pasta is done. Near the end, I added a few bunches of some spring mix lettuce. Once the pasta was finished and the lettuce was wilted, I added my leftover pork which I sliced up and dropped in the hot broth to warm it through. It was so good! You could use any veggies you have leftover in the fridge, any leftover meat, or even shrimp would be fantastic in this. This is a great meal that you can throw together quickly on a busy weeknight.












