Pesto Lasagna Rolls

When leftovers and extras begin to take over your refrigerator its time to get creative with dinner. I doubt any of us like throwing out half-full cartons of milk or uneaten vegetables that are about to go bad, but what can you do about it?

When ChezVCK opened her fridge and found an assortment of items that needed to be used up she got creative and invented lasagna rolls. Finding only 5 lasagna noodles, a half-used carton of ricotta cheese, pesto, marinara, and cheese she knew she didn’t have enough to make an entire lasagna, so she simply tweaked this classic dish to make her ingredients work. She gives step-by-step pictorial instructions on her blog, and even gives us an extra recipe for a tasty salad she prepared as a side dish!

If you need to clean a few things out of the fridge to make room for your Thanksgiving feast, here is your perfect opportunity! Try out these creative lasagna rolls or let us know what inventive dishes you came up with!

Corn Flake Chicken

A crispy and golden coating along with the moist meaty center is what makes fried chicken finger lickin’ good. Though what’s on the inside counts, it’s hard to ignore the fried exterior, which makes the chicken addicting but also quite unhealthy. With the holidays approaching, we know we’re going to get our fair share of yummy and not so lean foods and treats.

What if you’re trying to follow through with last New Year’s resolution by eating healthier? You can still have your crispy golden chicken and eat it too. In fact, if you’re using Sara’s Cornflake Chicken recipe, don’t just have one piece, have two! She coats chicken pieces with crushed corn flakes then bakes them in the oven; there isn’t any frying involved here!

Sara uses chicken breasts to prepare this dish, making it lean and tasty. If you’re worried about the chicken breasts drying out in the oven, there’s no need to worry. On her blog Noodletown, Sara says that her chicken came out “juicy and perfectly cooked”! So you can still get the crunchy and moist texture that frying offers, but you don’t have to worry about dabbing off the grease before you take a big bite of Sara’s Cornflake Chicken.

Portuguese Custard Tarts

A perfectly golden crust holds together the deliciously creamy and lightly toasted custard in Sarah’s Portuguese Custard Tarts. Imagine how nice these would look on your holiday party dessert table! They’re just the right size for an individual serving, so you don’t have to worry about being fair and giving everyone the same sized piece .

In her blog Lemon.Zest, Sarah explains her secret for making the tastiest crust for her tarts. Use the best butter you can get your hands on! She even took the extra step and used completely local ingredients for her dessert.

To make the tarts even more delicious, Sarah finished them off with a few sprinkles of cinnamon; it’s what gives them that creme brulee look without all the fuss! You can prepare these impressive Portuguese Custard Tarts in under half an hour!

Chicken Salad

Lately I’ve been so consumed with experimenting in the kitchen that I have completely neglected some of my classic favorites. While experimenting with new flavors and techniques are fun, there comes a time when you just want a dish you can rely on. Chicken salad is one of the classic recipes I always turn to when I just want a simple and light lunch that will last a few days and can be prepared in a variety of ways.

Nihal, from Turkish Food Passion, wanted to take this classic American dish and put her own Mediterranean twist on it by adding celery, yellow onion, sunflower seeds, marjoram, and paprika. Nihal loves to enjoy this salad between bread with lettuce and tomato, and preferably in picnic setting. She says, “When the weather is nice, I like to take a simple lunch such as this with a few other foods to a closeby park with my hubby. I think it is one of the most romantic ways to spend time with your spouse/partner. For some reason, eating outdoors makes dining much more enjoyable.”