Angela Barton at My Year Without Spending posted her food waste picture last Friday. She had to toss lettuce and when I was replying to her post with suggestions for using up the salad in the future I realized that it had been along time since I posted a Miracle Leftover Dinner. Miracle Leftover Dinners are served a day or two before shopping day. I try to use up as many foods that are near expiration as possible in one meal. Some weeks the foods are so diverse in their flavors that I create a smorgasbord, other times I may only have one or two things that can simply be reheated as side dishes with the main meal, but the dinners that I take the most pleasure in are the ones where I can blend several items and create a new dish.
This week I had several salad items that needed to be used up: baby lettuce, 2 stalks of celery, 3 small tomatoes, a partial bag of shredded carrots, and 3 radishes. I also had a mango that was a day or two away from the compost bin, leftover teriyaki chicken, and leftover wanton from a trip to the local Chinese Restaurant. I cut up the vegetables, mango, and chicken and tossed with Asian Sesame Dressing. (This dressing is from Walmart. It is inexpensive, does not contain HFCS, and has only 15 calories per Tablespoon). Then I topped it with the leftover wanton. My kids were alarmed when they saw me chopping up a mango for the salad, but when they tasted the salad they said the mango did not seem out of place.
If I had not made Chinese chicken salad last night most of the items in the above picture would have gone in to a food waste picture on Friday.
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