In the continuing evolution of my blog from religious/spiritual commentary to that plus political/social stuff to all that plus family stuff to, apparently, now being about whatever the hell random thing I feel like posting on any given day…well, I’m rolling out a new feature called “Leftovers with Deac.” It’s sort of a recipe post thing with a small dose of “There are children starving in the Appalachian Mountains right now so don’t you dare just toss out that food unless it’s gone bad.”
Yeah, I’m a gangster reduce/reuse/recycle and be-a-good-steward-of-the-Earth kinda guy that way.
First, some background.
Growing up, there is something I learned and took to heart from watching my dad and the way he approached food. First thing I embraced: The father/husband should eat the most burned/unattractive servings of food so that his family doesn’t have to. Second thing: Use your leftovers, even if you decide to mix them up in weird ways.
I’ve done this since I was a kid and a teen, and it extended into the years during college and for about 7 years thereafter when I was a lonely virginal geek freewheeling bachelor. I tended to use up my leftover food rather than keep cooking new stuff (or buying new stuff, if it was takeout or delivery or something).
So, leftover cheese pizza and leftover roast beef? Well, looks like roast beef pizza for dinner to shake things up.
In more recent years in my marriage, leftovers have gone to waste more often because Mrs. Blue isn’t as enamored of the “use it up” policy with food, and tends to be ruled more by what her tastebuds crave, whereas I’m happy to eat whatever as long as it tastes good, even if it was last night’s dinner. Lately, I’ve been able to slowly get back to my leftover-finishing days, and I’m going to share my periodic advice to you for new, simple dishes you can consider that I discovered through the fusion of various leftovers.
First on the list, in this blog post, is my spicy veggie sliders.
This recipe comes about courtesy of Son of Blue returning to college. Because he took up vegetarian eating (lacto-ovo-vegetarian) a year ago I guess now, we stock up on various fake meat products, particularly those from Morningstar Farms, which seems to be one of the best companies at making imitation meat taste good. When he heads back to college out of state, though, that stuff either needs to go in the trash or get eaten.
I choose to eat it, unless it tastes like crap.
So, among the things left behind this time were two of Morningstar’s spicy black bean veggie burgers. These bastards won’t fool your tastebuds into thinking they’re ground beef burgers, but they are damned tasty, whether put on the grill or cooked on the stovetop in an oiled or buttered skillet.
Also had three King’s Hawaiian brand Hawaiian sweet dinner rolls left over from a recent meal. Plus some deli-sliced American cheese.
Well, sliders it is then! It’s not as if I have a White Castle fast food place near me anyway.
I recommend you cook the patties up in a skillet with a little butter over medium heat until they get nice and browned.
While they’re cooking, get out your rolls and slice them in half, and get your cheese (if you’re not a milk-product-consuming vegetarian, get some soy cheese or something, or a vegetarian-friendly sandwich spread). If you are using cheese or an imitation version, tear the slices up so that you can set a piece down on the bottom part of each roll with just a little overlap on the edges.
When the patties are done, slice each one into thirds like pie chart. While the shape may not be all pretty and round at that point, it will fit the Hawaiian sweet roll nicely.
Myself, I put one nice hot piece on top of each bit of cheese, then put a bit of sliced cheese on top of that and the another third-of-a-patty on top of that to make a spicy double cheeseburger slider.
Enjoy!