Reinvention Recipe: Cornbread

Also leftover from this weekend, about a half sheet tray (you know the REALLY big one's) of delicious cornbread from Willard's BBQ. There is no way two people could eat that much cornbread so I did some research and found two great recipes which I of course am making my own way: cornbread stuffing and cornbread pudding (the dessert kind, not corn pudding, which is a sweet/savory side dish).

(Side note: do you ever read a blog looking for a recipe and you have to scroll through a MILLION pictures? I'm just going to post the end result so you don't think the same thing I always do..."just get to it already!")

Today's Recipe Reinvention: Cornbread Stuffing

Ingredients:

• About an 8" x 8" square of already made cornbread, cubed
• Olive oil
• 1/2 an onion, diced
• 1 rib of celery, diced (I used celery seeds because I had no celery)
• 1 carrot, diced
• 1 cup of chicken broth
• 1 egg, beaten
• To taste: sage, thyme, rosemary, garlic powder, salt & pepper

Directions:

1. Place the cubed cornbread on a sheet tray and toast in the oven at about 300 degrees for 10 minutes (this probably could have been done longer). The goal is to dry out the bread so it soaks in the flavor.
2. On the stove in a medium sauce pot, sauté the onions, celery and carrots in olive oil until soft over medium heat.
3. Sprinkle in the herbs you like along with salt and pepper. Cook for a few minutes until you start to smell the herbs
4. Pour in the chicken broth and bring to a boil.
5. Crumble in your cubes of cornbread and take off the heat. Stir to combine.
6. Add in the beaten egg being sure to stir well and quickly so that you don't have scrambled eggs
7. Pour the mixture into an 8" x 8" pan (I greased mine just in case) and cook at 350 degrees for 30 minutes. I cooked 15 covered and 15 uncovered because I like my stuffing with crispy edges. If you like yours fluffier you should leave it covered.

And here's the end result!

Hope this inspires you to reinvent some leftovers so they don't go to waste.

Reinvention Recipe: BBQ Chicken

Over the weekend we had a lot of friends over and got DELICIOUS catering from Willard's BBQ. Somehow, even though I underestimated, we ended up with leftovers galore. I froze a small amount of beef brisket and pulled pork for once baby Chickpea arrives, and we had my in-law's for lunch Sunday, but there is still so much chicken I had to get a little creative.

Today at work I asked my colleagues what to do with the leftover BBQ chicken. Luckily it has BBQ dry rub seasonings but no sauce. One colleague mentioned enchiladas, so that's what we're doing! Except I'm going with crunchy taco shells because they sounded yummy.

Here's a picture of the ingredients:

Pictured above:

• Leftover BBQ Chicken (will get shredded)
• Enchilada sauce
• Taco Shells
• Lettuce
• Plain yogurt (instead of sour cream)
• Cilantro
• Refried beans
• Other options: salsa, tomatoes, shredded cheese

All I did was heat the shredded chicken in a skillet with some enchilada sauce and heat up the beans and taco shells. Voila...dinner!