Cleaning Out the Refrigerator

Today was grocery day, which meant it was also time to do the weekly refrigerator clean-out. This particular chore is always a challenge because of two conflicting dislikes. Number one, I don't like wasting food. Number two, I don't like to serve leftovers. (Never mind that hubby says whatever is good once is good again. ... I just can't stand to put exact repeats of past meals on the dinner table.) So, in this house, cleaning out the refrigerator entails find new and creative uses for any leftovers as well as any near-death produce.

Today's challenge produced leftover brown rice, leftover sloppy joe "meat" (seasoned TVP), leftover spaghetti sauce, two bell peppers that were beginning to wilt, half a pound of mushrooms that had seen better days, and a bunch of kale that needed to be used or tossed. The result?

Stuffed Bell Peppers

• 2 large bell peppers, halved vertically, stemmed, and deseeded
• 8 oz. minced mushrooms
• 2/3 c. shredded carrot
• 1/2 c. minced onion
• 1/4 c. minced red bell pepper
• 2 cloves minced garlic
• 1 tsp. basil olive oil
• 1 tsp. grapeseed oil
• 1 c. cooked brown rice
• 1/3 c. oat flour (oatmeal run through the food processor)
• 1/2 c. seasoned bread crumbs (whenever bread starts to go stale, I toast it, crumble it, mix w/ garlic powder and various herbs, and throw in the freezer for future use)
• 1 c. TVP, rehydrated and seasoned OR 1 c. precooked lentils
• 1 c. Italian Herb spaghetti sauce
• 2 tsp. Ener-G egg replacer (one egg's worth, blended w/ 2 Tbsp. water)

Preheat skillet. Add 1 tsp. olive oil + 1 tsp. grapeseed oil. Mince two cloves of garlic into hot oil. Add onions, mushrooms, carrot, and bell pepper, and saute until tender.

Dump precooked vegetables into a bowl. Add brown rice, bread crumbs, oat flour, TVP or lentils, spaghetti sauce, and egg replacer. Mix all ingredients well and stuff into bell pepper halves. Bake at 350 degrees for approximately 40 minutes, or until peppers are soft and stuffing is heated through.

To round this meal out, I steamed the kale for about ten minutes and tossed w/ olive oil, garlic, and sea salt. I also fixed a side of oven-roasted potato wedges.

Oven-Roasted Potato Wedges

• 3-4 large potatoes (one potato per serving)
• Safflower oil
• Seasoned bread crumbs
• Garlic powder
• Onion powder
• Rosemary
• Creole seasoning

Scrub potatoes well. Peel if desired. Halve potatos, then slice into 1/4-inch thick strips (like thick-cut fries). Roll potatoes in 1 Tbsp. safflower oil

Mix 1 c. bread crumbs, 1/2 tsp. garlic powder, 1/2 tsp. onion powder, 1/2 tsp. rosemary, and 1/2 tsp. creole seasoning in food processor or blender, processing until crumbs are as small as you can get them. Roll potato wedges in crumb mixture, spread out on baking sheet, and bake at 475 degrees for about 20 minutes. For best results, turn potato wedges midway through the baking process.

*If you keep a stash of bread crumbs in the freezer, any leftover crumbs may be returned to the bag and refrozen.