Use it up!

Ever have one of those days when you need to figure out something for dinner, but nothing is coming to mind and you have several leftover pieces of this or that in the fridge waiting to be used up?

I recently had a day like that.  I was at work, thinking about what to make for dinner, knowing I had the following that were in desperate need of being eaten:

• 1 cooked chicken breast (had an extra one when I made a casserole and instead of throwing a half-thawn out breast back into the freezer or in a baggie in the fridge to completely thaw and possibly stink soon, I tossed it in the skillet, cooked it, THEN put it in the baggie)
• 1/2 head of iceburg lettuce (used the other half for burritos earlier in the week)
• 3 whole wheat tortillas from previously mentioned burritos
• about 1/4 bag of frozen corn (have no idea what I used the rest of it for or how long it had been in the freezer)
• 1 big beautiful green pepper that was starting its decline into wrinkly mushy-ness

I fried up tortilla strips, boiled a couple eggs, opened a can of black beans, added some BBQ sauce to the chicken and viola!  Our very own Southwest Chicken Salad.

Doesn't that look yummy!?  We topped it off with some homemade honey mustard dressing that went like this (all measurements are approximate - adjust to your own taste):

• 1/4 cup Miracle Whip
• 1T honey
• 2 t yellow mustard

This was a really good salad and I was so happy to have used up all those bits and scraps that would have otherwise been tossed (or added to the compost heap).  Any day I can make dinner with what we have on hand and avoid a trip to the grocery store is a good day.


What delicious meal have you recently whipped up using what you had on hand?