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Easy Meal

Loving Leftovers: Pasta Frittata

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One of the things that I’m trying to focus on lately is throwing out less leftovers. Often I find that I just can’t handle eating the same meal that I may have already had for supper and lunch again for the following supper. So I’m trying to find ways of mixing it up to make something that feels fresh but doesn’t involve a lot of additional work.

One of my favourites is making a leftover pasta frittata. It works with any type of pasta and with or without meat. It’s best if you have a sauce with a bit of substance, but if all you have is plain pasta or a weak sauce like olive oil and parmesan you can still make it work. If this is the case, I’d recommend starting the frittata by sautéing an onion and some garlic to bump up the flavour or just add a few additional fresh items like fresh herbs (basil is nice), more tomatoes, or peppers and it’ll be great.
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Loving Leftovers: Pasta Frittata
Recipe type: Easy Meal
 
Ingredients
  • About 1 cup of leftover pasta plus sauce
  • 7-8 eggs
  • ¾ cup grape tomatoes halved
  • 1 cup shredded cheese
  • salt and pepper
  • 2 Tbsp extra virgin olive oil
Instructions
  1. Preheat the oven to 350F.
  2. Beat the eggs and mix in the tomatoes, cheese, salt and pepper.
  3. In a large oven proof skillet, heat the olive oil over medium heat. Add the pasta and sauce and heat for 1 minute.
  4. Evenly distribute the pasta in the pan. 5. Pour the eggs over the pasta and coat as well as you can. 6. Sprinkle the eggs with salt and pepper. 7. Cook over medium heat for 4-6 minutes. The frittata should be mostly set but the top will still be runny. 8. Place the pan in the oven for 4-6 minutes until the eggs are set.
  5. If you don't have an oven proof skillet, you can use a lid to set the top of the eggs or you can slide the frittata onto a plate and then flip back into the pan to cook the other side but you’ll have to cook it longer on the first side.

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I seem to always have more than a cup of leftover pasta and have trouble resisting adding the extra. This will still work, but it won’t be as ‘eggy’ and it may alter the cooking time.

7-11 Lasagna – Mexican Lasagne Recipe

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This recipe was inspired by a joke cookbook that my husband and I got for our wedding called Mini Mart a la Carte. The cookbook’s premise is recipes that you can make while shopping only at a convenience store. In general, the recipes are things that I (or most anyone else) would not even dream of making, but the one for “Lowrider Lasagna” actually looked pretty good. I tweaked it a little and the result is below. It’s a big hit at my house and it’s something I can whip up even if I don’t have a lot of time to cook or badly need groceries.

7-11 Lasagna - Mexican Lasagne Recipe

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7-11 Lasagna – Mexican Lasagna Recipe
Recipe type: Easy Meal
 
Ingredients
  • 1 can refried beans (I like the ones with green chiles you could also use pinto beans)
  • 1 large can diced tomatoes drained
  • 1 cup frozen corn (or a can of corn)
  • 1 cup shredded cheese
  • 6 whole wheat tortillas
Instructions
  1. Preheat the oven to 350F.
  2. Rip half the tortillas into pieces so they cover the bottom of the baking dish. Any size is fine. I usually do 2 whole tortillas and then rip a third into a few pieces to fill the gaps. Spread half of the refried beans on half of the tortillas and arrange half in a lightly greased 9x13 inch baking dish to cover the bottom. Top evenly with half each of the corn, tomatoes and cheese.
  3. Cover the rest of the tortillas with the remaining refried beans and layer on top and cover with the rest of the corn, tomatoes and cheese
  4. Cover with aluminum foil and bake for 30 minutes. Remove the foil and continue to bake until the cheese begins to brown, about 15 minutes longer.

7-11 Lasagna - Mexican Lasagne Recipe

Tomato and Ground Beef Slumgullion

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Slumgullion is a name for a cheap stew made by boiling. In this recipe, only the pasta is boiled, but cheap (and easy!) it is. I’m almost embarrassed to call this a recipe because it’s so simple. But it is one of my go to dishes when I need something fast and healthy that everyone will enjoy. I’d be lost without it, so I thought I’d pass it along. My mom made almost this exact dish while I was growing up so it’s a comfort food for me too. One of the best things about it, is that if you cook and freeze some ground beef (I like grabbing a giant pack of lean ground beef from Costco) you can have all the ingredients on hand. Then, when you don’t really have time to cook, or haven’t managed to get to the grocery store, you don’t have to get take out. And it’s a lot less messy than spaghetti!

Tomato and Ground Beef Slumgullion

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Tomato and Ground Beef Slumgullion
Recipe type: Easy Meal
 
Ingredients
  • 200g lean ground beef cooked (more or less is fine)
  • 1 package whole wheat macaroni (I’ve tried other pasta, macaroni is best)
  • 1 large can of diced tomatoes
  • salt and pepper
Instructions
  1. Cook the macaroni according to the package directions.
  2. It's best if the ground beef is warm when you add it to the pot so, cook, defrost or warm the ground beef as necessary.
  3. Drain the macaroni in a strainer and put it back in the pot. Add the warm ground beef and the can of tomatoes (with the juice).
  4. Mix well and sprinkle with salt and pepper. You can also just add the salt and pepper to the individual servings instead.

 

This recipe makes about 6 servings, so you could halve the recipe if you don’t need that much. We usually keep the leftovers for lunches. I prefer it fresh, but Gordie and my special needs brother are quite happy to have it the day after. I often fill up some ziplock containers and stick them in the freezer so Geoff has lunches ready for the whole week.