Pizza Leftovers

When Clark and I have leftovers we make a pizza out of them. It's a great way to get creative.

Sprouted Tortillas
left over meat, shredded (we usually use chicken)
left over vegetable (we've even used broccoli before, very good)
garlic
onions
seasonings
cheese (we love it with comte or cantal)

Basically throw whatever on a tortilla and broil the cheese. Fresh oregano is key!

For example, this what our pizza had on it tonight.

Sprouted tortilla with a thin layer of homemade mayonnaise (Clark had homemade salad dressing instead), sliced garlic, sliced onions, shredded chicken, chopped fresh oregano, thyme, cooked spinach. We covered with tons of kerrygold cheddar and broiled it.

Duck with Duck Sauce

I found this recipe on cooks.com and didn't have anything and was in a huge hurry so I improvised.  I'll put the original recipe, I'm sure it tastes awesome if you have the right ingredients, and I'll put my substitutions in ()s.

Ingredients:

• 2 ducklings, quartered (I just had a bunch of wild duck breasts, enough to cover the bottom of 9x13 baking dish)
  
• salt (Celtic Sea Salt, of course)
  
• pepper (I didn't use any pepper)
  
• garlic powder (I did use powder but I'm sure minced garlic would be great)
  
• 2 cans chicken consomme (I had to look that up, basically it's a really strong and clarified meat broth.  I just used 2 1/2 cups chicken broth and let it boil down a little)
• 6 TBS sherry wine (I had no wine.  I had no grape juice.  I had some non-raw red wine vinegar so I threw in a dash, like a TBS, I didn't want it to be too vinegary)
• 4 c. strong orange juice or 6 oz of oj concentrate plus 12 oz of water (OJ concentrate is a BIG no-no, look here and scroll down to Orange Juice . . . but that's all I had. And I didn't add the water, it's already pretty watery)
• 4 TBS lemon juice (I only had about 2)
• 4 TBS current jelly (I used an all-natural mixed berry jelly that is sweetened with grape juice.)

Place duck quarters on rack in roasting pan (I used a 9x13 baking dish).  Season with salt, pepper and garlic powder.  Roast, uncovered, in a 350 degree oven for 1 1/2 to 2 hours until all the fat has melted off and duck is brown (breasts have little fat and cook quickly so I put it in the oven for about 20 minutes, a little fat had melted off). Pour off greases (I didn't).  

Combine in a saucepan all the other ingredients and cook 10 minutes.  Pour sauce over duck and cover with foil (I dumped it all in the dish and covered with foil) Roast 1 hour at 350, basting frequently (no need to baste when it's swimming in sauce).  Uncover at the end to brown (I took off the foil about 1/2 way through).  Serve with a vegetable.  

Roasted Chicken

When I don't know what to make for dinner I always seem to fall back on this one.  It's easy, you can improvise with whatever you have in your fridge and I save the carcass for chicken stock.  

1 whole chicken

vegetables

a carb (i.e. potatoes, rice, bread)

any seasonings you prefer

Cut the backbone out of the chicken (I freeze the backbone along with the heart, liver, etc. and I also save the bones and the carcass so I can pull them out of the freezer when I'm ready to make chicken stock).  I place the chicken skin side up in a pyrex baking dish, push it down to flatten it (push hard, break bones) and tuck the wings behind the "neck" so they don't burn.  Then I generously sprinkle sea salt over the bird and anything else you might want.  Yesterday I squeezed lemon juice over it and threw in some chopped onion and a couple little pieces of butter.  I have drizzled molasses and soy sauce over the chicken or just sprinkled some oregano.  It tastes great with just plain salt as well.  

Then I place a piece of parchment over the chicken, and some tin foil over that (so the foil doesn't touch the chicken).  Place in a 350 degree oven for a couple of hours depending on how big the chicken is (1 hour for every pound??).  When there is 30-45 minutes left remove the foil and parchment to let the chicken brown.  

Cook up a vegetable, our recent favorite is sauteed zucchini as found in Nourishing Traditions pg. 410.  If you read the paragraph right under the ZUCCHINI heading, that's what we do.  If you want your zucchini even dryer you can salt it and let it stand but we never do (lazy).  Just add lemon juice and salt after it's cooked.  yum!  

To finish off the meal have some kind of a carb, I prefer unsoaked basic rice(NT, 466) but if I'm in a hurry mashed potatoes are my fall back.  Just boil some potatoes until soft (with or without skin), drain most of the water and add a lot of butter (like a cube).  Mash.  Add raw milk or cream to desired consistency.  If you like it smooth use beaters.  I add a little cream cheese or sour cream (it gives it a nice tang, I've never tried yogurt but I bet that would be good too), dried onion, minced garlic and dried parsley.  Enjoy!