Podding leftovers

     There is nothing more fun, for me than going out to dinner with friends who enjoy a variety of foods, like yourself. The unfortunate part is that restaurant meals are so big the average person cannot finish their meal; let alone share tastings with their friends. That is where podding is a great resource.
     My meal of choice was linguine and white clam sauce. There were six people in our party and each ordered something different.  So after sampling the mussels for an appetizer, calamari, and chicken Vesuvio entrees, I barely made a dent in my linguine with white clam sauce. I returned home with my meal and immediately podded three four-ounce portions carefully adding equal clams to each. I still had another serving to make for my dinner the following evening.
    The next day I purchased a pound of fresh shrimp and podded and froze three servings, setting aside the rest for my dinner. I always have homemade garlic butter in my freezer and white or red mini bottles of wine for cooking. I lightly sauteed the shrimp in garlic butter adding some wine for flavor then added my leftover linguine with white clam sauce.  Not having any crusty warm Italian bread for dipping in the sauce was a problem. I solved it with some leftover pesto pizza bread. Creating another delicious entree and podding, in the company of food.
 

Pod crazy in the company of food

     

     How many times have you gone out to dinner and bought home leftovers only to throw them out a week later because they spoiled in the refrigerator? You're not alone! But podding is an excellent solution. Next time you go out to dinner and bring home a to go container consider podding and freezing the food, especially if it is something you really enjoyed. 
     This is Shrimp Al Fredo and it podded into three containers. I have some great ideas for them as another meal paired with different vegetables or a nice fresh tossed salad.

     If I am really lazy one day I can just take out all the pods and have dinner. However, podding is also great for portion control. Imagine, I left the restaurant full. I bought home leftovers which filled three 4oz. pods. My plan, I will take out one pod and add some bigger shrimp and a bit of rue to moisten. This will be plenty of food for a meal with fewer calories than the original entree. 
      One of the things my children mentioned with all my podding of food is the environmental impact of all those pods.
Not to worry. I do not recycle I reuse. Sure I could just throw the plastic in my recycling bin and forget about them. 

But I can't even throw away the to go containers in which my leftovers came home. All my pods and lids, that I did not have to label for recognition, are thrown into a plastic wash tub and washed for reuse when it gets full. 

     I know podding is not for everyone. I too am just learning all the benefits. I am sharing my journey in podding in the company of food as I tweak and experiment.  
     
     
     
     

Polenta pods

     Polenta is one of my favorite side dishes but I do not eat it often enough because of the prep time

and the mess it makes of my pan. To have a frozen pod of polenta available has changed all that and I want to share with you some of the wonderful meal variety this affords. My first creation was super simple because I also have frozen pods of ratatouille. I love making ratatouille with an ever-changing variety of in-season vegetables. In the past, I would eventually get bored eating ratatouille because making a small amount is not an option. But since I started podding my culinary creations, all that has changed.  I make a reasonable batch of ratatouille, have it for dinner and pod the leftovers for another day. Now my dinner is so simple to prepare. I take a pod of ratatouille and a pod of polenta out of the freezer.

I can either remember to take them out early and let them defrost in the refrigerator or take off the lids and zap them in the microwave, just to defrost. Then I take the pod of polenta and break it onto my serving dish.
     For me, presentation is as important a part of making a meal delicious, as the food itself. So for this meal, I chose one of my bright blue shallow bowls.
     I place a pod of ratatouille on top and microwave the meal for two minutes. To finish I sprinkle a generous amount of parmesan cheese, and dinner is ready.

   

Pod meal with pork

     Today pork tenderloin was on sale. So much meat but such a treat. So, of course, I brought the pork and divided it, wrapped and froze the portions.

My first pork meal was breaded pork cutlet. I took one of my pork portions out and tenderized it, breading it with flour, egg wash, and breadcrumbs. I threw that in an oven @350 and baked it for twenty minutes. While I was cooking the pork I checked out the freezer for my pod sides. I picked out sweet potatoes and asparagus taking them out of the freezer when I put the pork in the oven. 

Honey might be a good dipping sauce, right? 

       I defrosted my sweet potato, in the pod, for 30sec in the microwave and just put the asparagus on the plate. When the pork was ready I microwaved the entree plate for one minute, added the pork cutlet, and dinner was ready. The honey dip was a great choice. 

     Sometimes even this size portion of meat is too much. In those cases, I eat around the outside and save the center section for a mini sandwich, for another day.

   This minimalist eating is not only convenient

but is great for calorie counting if you are on a diet, and who isn't? Unfortunately, I like variety in my food selections. Sometimes that variety can be as simple as how I cook my protein. Sweet potatoes seem to compliment pork and the vegetable is whichever one I grab first. 

     This time I merely pan fried my pork cutlet with seasonings in one of my cast iron skillets. I paired it with honey bbq sauce and it was delicious. 

I also have a marsala sauce in a pod that would be a nice topping for a cutlet. I might go with mashed potato, rice or pasta pod with this protein choice. So you get the picture. I am having fun podding in the company of food and will have some more fun ideas for you in the post to follow. Pod On!

 

Pod meal with chicken

     Tonight for dinner I enjoyed Chicken Marsala with minimal cooking time. 

It was delicious.

The only thing I had to cook for this wonderful meal was the fresh, frozen chicken tenders. The potatoes, fresh broccoli, and marsala sauce were in frozen Pods. 
      Pods are my newest cooking companion for a balanced meal. Like many people I found myself throwing food away because I cooked too much. How can anyone make marsala sauce for one? I am one person and it has been a journey to learn how to cook to eat healthy, without waste. Pods are my solution.
     I love fresh vegetables. But even buying fresh frozen they sit in my freezer for too long. My solution, buy fresh,

blanch and freeze in four-ounce pods to use as a side dish, in soups or other recipes, like a frittata.  
     Pretty soon I was podding all sorts of things for an awesome dinner choice variety. I made ratatouille. I cooked linguine. I made smoothies. I podded sweet potatoes and barley. I went pod crazy!  So much so that they were falling all over my freezer. Then I tried putting them in one of my office organizers. Brillant! I can fit twenty-five pods in each. 
     When it is time for dinner I just decide what I want for my main entree, fish, chicken, pork or pasta and take out appropriate pods to create my meal.  The pods are easy to defrost and I just need to cook my protein.  Or if the meal consists of two pods like pasta ratatouille, I only need to defrost the pods and enjoy a delicious meal.

My favorite part of the whole process is no leftovers. I get to enjoy a full, balanced dinner.  Pod cooking allows me to cook a pot of soup from scratch and never throw any away. I just pod it up for another day.

Cast Iron Quicky

      

   Today I made a couple of quick meals in my favorite cast iron skillets using leftovers and a four-ounce frozen experiment. They both turned out awesome. 
At breakfast Sunday after church I took home from the restaurant two slices of bacon and all my hash browned potatoes. Not because there was anything wrong, I was full.

A frittata was the perfect dish to enhance those leftovers.  I had some other fresh vegetables in the fridge, anything could work. I used fresh mushrooms and spinach for this dish. I combined the chopped spinach, hashbrowns, and some grated cheddar cheese with four eggs in a bowl seasoning with fresh ground pepper and a pinch of salt. I sauteed the bacon and sliced mushroom in some melted butter in the skillet and when the mushrooms were tender I mixed in the egg mixture. Into the oven for twenty minutes @350 degrees. A frittata is so flexible a meal. I enjoy a slice for breakfast or lunch with a side of fruit and even for dinner with a nice side salad. Leftovers in the company of food. 

   At the same time, the oven was on after all, so I made a pizza. 

 I purchase a sleeve of pizza dough and made a pizza with some of the dough.

I portioned and froze 4 oz. portions of the leftover dough in lidded souflee cups, as an experiment. I took one of the cups out and it defrosted in five minutes and was ready to roll.  Perfect. Once again, I raid my fridge for any vegetables or toppings that sound good. This time I found some frozen slices of pepperoni. A little sauce, spices, cheese, and pepperoni topped the dough in the cast iron skillet. I had turned the oven up to 450@ and it cooked in a mere twenty minutes. 

   Now the only problem was which one do I eat for dinner? Delicious choices in the company of food. 

   

An apple a day

   You know the old saying, "An apple a day keeps the doctor away!", right? But how many of us reach for an apple snack instead of a cookie or bag of chips.
                            Guilty!
In an effort to consume more of these healthy treats I had to get creative. First and foremost,  I never did like sinking my teeth into a whole, hard apple. It almost seemed barbaric. In addition, if you do not eat the whole apple in one seating the rest turns an unappetizing brown color.
                            Wasteful!

   My first idea came about purely by accident.  My granddaughter, who loved eating fresh cut up apples, lost too many of her front teeth to bite into the skin of an apple. I thickly cut the skins off her apple and gave her thin slices of the apple meat. On a lark, I cut the apple skins into bite-size chunks and threw them in the freezer. Much to my surprise, they were a delicious, refreshing treat that I always have in the freezer now for a healthy snack. 

   My favorite apples are Honey Crisp. They are a bit more expensive so using all the apple tickles my frugal bones.
    The frozen apple skins have just enough meat on them to taste delicious and do not have to be treated with any lemon or lime juice to retain their color. 

   Many times an apple will be my dessert for lunch and I always freeze the skins and then cut slices off the bare apple. The other day, my apple was so big, I was too full to finish the meat closest to the core. What to do?

What to do? Make a mini apple crisp appetizer, was the answer.  I cut all the meat off as close to the core as possible and cut the pieces into thick squares. Then I spread them with peanut butter and dipped the peanut butter side into honey nut granola. Lastly, I sprinkled them with honey. They were a delicious dessert served cold and even better when warmed in the microwave. 

   Now I can get the benefits of eating an apple a day without boredom. I think my favorite is the frozen apple chips, however. All the nutrients and a refreshing treat on a hot summer day. This is how to enjoy apples in the company of food. 

Nibble meals

       I enjoy eating a variety of foods throughout the day instead of stuffing myself with one meal so I decided to investigate mini portions. Mini portions came about as much by desire as by necessity, cooking for one. Some prep work is required to accomplish my variety mini meals but I find it worth the effort and delectably delightful. 

Each time I think of one creation invariably it leads to another discovery. It is helpful that I work as a chef and have certain things available to me you would not necessarily find in a grocery store. For example, the four-ounce souffle cups and lids for mini parfaits. 
Mini parfaits are one of my new favorite breakfast items. They can be prepped ahead of time and chilled. Simply layer your favorite granola on the bottom, cover with a layer of yogurt. Next top the yogurt with fresh berries and then one more layer of yogurt. This is the perfect treat for breakfast and very nutritious. 
This breakfast was paired with a slice of lemon cream bread, fresh ground honey roasted peanut butter and sliced apples.

Leading to my next discovery frozen apple skin chips. You heard me right!
I can not eat a whole Honey Crisp Apple, my favorite, in one nibble meal. Many times I cut one in half and refrigerate the second half for another meal. This time I decided to peel the apple skins off with a bit of pulp and freeze the chips. That gave me just enough apple left for my breakfast. 
When dinner time came I had a taste for a bit of something sweet after my meal and decided to test the frozen apple chips. Delightful!