STUFF ON HAND

Sometimes you buy to much fresh produce or forget what you have on hand-or just get stumped on what to make.
I occasionally start with a recipe and substitute with what I have in the veggie bin.
Often it is just ok but every once and awhile you have a winner.

Tonight I made Quinoa Stir fry with Vegetables and Chicken I got the recipe from Self Magazine which has come up with quite a few winners in the past.

http://www.self.com/fooddiet/recipes/2010/02/quinoa-stir-fry-with-vegetables-and-chicken

I had the quinoa, carrots, bell pepper, ginger and garlic in the house. I left out the chili pepper and no snow peas but I had some green beans (half green half purple)from the farmers market that needed to be eaten and I also had chicken from a bbq the night before-I grow cilantro and always have soy sauce in house. I don't like raw onions so instead of the scallions I had a shallot that I stir fried with the garlic and ginger.
I will certainly make this again I think I will add more cilantro maybe the chili pepper the next time. Lars likes a bit more kick so he added sweet chili sauce.

I am not the only person who uses what they have on hand- here are two examples from MBJ in Baltimore.

Two super lazy recipes today. The first is barely a recipe really, I like to steam frozen mixed vegetables in the microwave when I realize that I haven't had any veggies for a day or more. Today I added some black eye peas for a little more substance, and then spontaneously decided to put in some sour cream and hot chunky salsa. That's it, so it's not really a recipe, but it was so surprisingly tasty.

Second is for pizza Bianca with potatoes. Again very simple, though you need to either boil potatoes or have some already. You could make your own dough, but in my case I just used whole wheat flour tortillas. Put slices of potato and mozzarella on top, grate Parmesan and add salt (not too much, Parmesan is salty), pepper, fresh basil and rosemary (dried is fine too). Put in oven about 10 minutes at 400 degrees Fahrenheit, until it's golden. I use one good sized potato and around 50g of mozzarella per pizza. Again, not much of a recipe, but tasty. You can obviously use the same tactic for regular "instant pizzas", just adding tomato paste, mozzarella and toppings.

Sometimes the best tasting things come out of creative ways to use what ya got on hand.