Creativity with Leftovers: Tortillas, Greens, Ricotta, Yogurt and Fruits

Couldn't waste those leftover homemade tortillas, so here's a breakfast with an egg in the hole and leftover toppings from Saturday night.  Food Network Magazine has a fun issue on eggs this month.  In this one I cut a hole in the center of the tortilla.  Using an individual iron skillet, I heated the tortilla for 1-2 minutes on one side, flipped it, add the egg, cooked an additional 2 minutes, then put the entire skillet in a preheated 375F oven to finish cooking the egg.  I love these egg and iron skillet creations.

Still with more leftovers from our Beef Tortilla dish, I made my Chicken Tortilla Casserole , this one with the leftover beef in place of chicken.  I had to add a few corn tortillas along with the homemade tortillas.

From my colleague Sharon Maynard  (see the segment on St. Patrick's Day treats) , I learned this fun presentation tip on serving fruits.  This decorative muffin paper has various fresh fruits in my refrigerator:

This morning's smoothie is made with leftover yogurt topping from my carrot cake pancakes (I included the shaved carrots), leftover chopped almonds from last night's strawberry dessert and my own cranberry chutney. When fresh cranberries are available during the holidays, I buy a few extra bags and freeze them.  My Mom loves this chutney, and I made some for her for my visit this week.

Ricotta Cheese is tough for me to use the entire container-and the label says "use within 3 days of opening".  I needed ricotta for the turkey meatballs I made Tuesday.  So here's what I did with the ricotta:

Ricotta Stuffed Strawberries

 I hollowed out the strawberries (yes I save the centers) with a tomato destemmer, filled with ricotta (used a grapefruit spoon) and rolled in chopped almonds.

Ricotta Frittata

 This is a recipe from Rachael Raye .  See my earlier post.  This is also a great way to use up any green leaves and herbs.  I do have a hard time using up entire packages of spinach, arugula, etc.  This morning I actually sat on the couch, watching the news and removed the stems from the greens prior to cooking.  I had spinach, arugula and fresh parsley to use.  My husbands friends at OSI love this pie too, so we'll send them some for lunch or dinner. 

The graphic titled US Farming 101 , sent by the Academy Foundation earlier this week is a good one.  I feel good when I'm able to use all those nutrient dense foods in my refrigerator!