the night of a thousand leftovers

Last night was all about using up stuff. First, I cut up some corn cheddar jalapeño mini-muffins I had made over the weekend, and baked them in a 275-degree oven until they were crunchy. These flavorful croutons will likely become a cornbread stuffing this weekend.


For dinner I had popcorn. Don’t laugh! Popcorn is one of my favorite things to eat for dinner, and I often have it when Jack is not home. Over the summer I got a Whirley-Pop popcorn popper from Goodwill (brand new!) and it has improved my popcorn greatly. I highly recommend one to anyone who loves popcorn. Now, even though the Whirley-Pop comes with a recipe booklet, I always shunned flavored popcorn. I’m a purist. I love it with butter and salt, period. However, we had some garlic Parmesan butter in the fridge that Jack had whipped up so my mom and I could have garlic bread the other night. I decided to try that instead of regular butter. It was scrumptious, and felt more like a dinner.





Thirdly, I used the rest of the bananas we got on Bananas Foster night to make good ol’ banana bread. I started with this recipe from Dr. Weil (it was the first one I found without eggs…I only had one egg at home), and added some things (My notes in italics.)

Ingredients

3 very ripe bananas (I used 4-2 big and 2 small)
½ cup honey (I also added about ¼ cup of maple syrup)
3 tablespoons expeller-pressed canola oil, plus a little more for oiling the loaf pan (I used a little less oil and added some full fat plain Greek yogurt I had in the fridge…about ½ cup, and I used butter to grease the pan)
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1 ½ cups whole-wheat pastry flour (I just had regular AP flour. I added about 1/3 cup more to make up for the extra banana, yogurt and maple syrup liquid-ness)
1 ½ teaspoons baking soda (I used almost 2)
¼ teaspoon salt
¾ cup chopped walnuts or pecans
(I also added about 1/3 cup of dark rum…)

Instructions
1. Heat the oven to 350° F. Lightly oil a loaf pan. 2. Mash the bananas and mix with the honey, canola oil and vanilla extract.

3. Stir together the whole-wheat pastry flour, baking soda and salt. Add the nuts.

4. Blend the two mixtures and spoon into a lightly oiled loaf pan. Bake for 40 minutes, or until center is set.

I made one loaf and 2 little individual muffins. It turned out moist and I love the flavor the maple syrup imparted. I baked the loaf a little too long, and its bottom is a bit dark…my coworkers don’t seem to mind.

Scallops with leftover corn soup & cottage cheese ice cream

Welp, Jack was right! That corn soup made a fan-tabulous sauce for some seared scallops. He also seared some shark, because it looked good. The scallops were the stars, though. Creamy, sweet leftover corn soup, salty, crispy bacon and the scallops made for some serious good eats. Yay for re-working leftovers!!



For dessert, I made some cottage cheese ice cream. I saw the idea on Su Good Eats' blog, via Slashfood. I thought it was brilliant! I had a recipe for ricotta ice cream somewhere, but cottage cheese is so much cheaper and healthier, so I rushed right out and got some.


I used 2% low fat cottage cheese, and didn't bother searching for a no-salt variety. I only added about a teaspoon of oil, rather than Su's tablespoon and a half, because she was using 1% cottage cheese. I also happened to have Absolut Vanill vodka, so I used that as my vodka addition. The result was very very rich and creamy! I put some fresh pears on mine. I think it would have been almost too rich without some kind of fruit. Amazing for something low fat! This will make a perfect base for the strawberry & balsamic vinegar ice cream I've been wanting to make.