More Leftovers for Breakfast

Of course, leftovers have to start with a previous meal, albeit from home or from a restaurant where too much food was served…or ordered!

So this posting about leftovers for breakfast started with a Fried Catfish Dinner at Z Fish House at 846 Mulberry Street in Loudon Tennessee.  The normal catfish dinner at Z Fish House includes 2 big filets along with French fries, coleslaw or beans with a big hush puppy on the side.  However, I talked her into adding another filet to the feast…in order to provide me with subsequent lunch or breakfast options.

It turned out that I didn’t really need to double up her order as Laurie couldn’t eat more than 1 filet.  I ended up with lots of leftovers!

So…I reheated the French fries and 1 filet in a frying pan with butter.  Then, once that everything was heated up, I placed the filet on top of the fries. 

Then of course, I topped the French fries and catfish filet with a couple of easy over eggs, adding Tabasco after I took the photo.  It was very good indeed!

This is what I did with the second leftover filet… I heated it in a frying pan in butter as before, but then I smothered it with shredded sharp cheddar cheese.  Much of the cheese crisped up in the fry pan and I scattered that crispy fried cheese over the melted cheese on top of the filet and then added the eggs and Tabasco.  This was an even better breakfast than the first one!  That crispy cheese added a flavor and texture level that made this breakfast pop!

My next leftover adaptation began with a Hawaiian food themed wine tasting party with some of our friends. 

I volunteered us to come up with a Hawaiian rice dish…something that we’d never made before.  It turned out very well and I was lucky to have some left over to enjoy later.  Here is the recipe that we used.

Hawaiian Rice

(Adapted from a recipe found at Cooks.com)

Serves about 12

Ingredients:

·       1 can of Spam (diced)

·       1 20 oz. can of diced pineapple (We drained the canned pineapple but if you wanted the dish to be sweeter, you could use some of the juice with the pineapple.  The original recipe called for crushed pineapple)

·       2 cups of long grain rice

·       4 cups of chicken stock

·       4 tbsp. of butter

·       1 medium onion (We used the equivalent in dried onion flakes)

·       2 cloves of garlic (We used the equivalent in pre-diced garlic from a jar)

·       A dash of salt

·       ½ tbsp. of crushed red pepper flakes (The recipe called for 1 tbsp. which would have made this dish too hot for some diners)

·       1 tbsp. of coarse ground black pepper

·       1 tsp. cumin

·       1 tsp. paprika

·       1 tsp. allspice

·       A small dash of cinnamon

Instructions:

·       Cook the rice in chicken stock with butter, salt, cumin, paprika, allspice and cinnamon.  Bring to a boil then reduce heat and simmer until the chicken stock is absorbed.

·       While the rice is simmering, brown the Spam, onions, garlic and pineapple in a large skillet with a lid on high heat.  Add the black pepper and the crushed red pepper flakes just before the mixture is done.

·       Combine the rice and Spam mixture.  Stir, reduce heat and cover.  Simmer for 5 more minutes.

·       Serve warm…

So, for breakfast I heated the Hawaiian rice mixture with butter in a frying pan.  Then I added a little leftover bacon…after all, it was breakfast time!

Then I dumped a ‘little’ sharp cheddar cheese on top of the mixture and let it melt in… I added a bit of spice to kick up the heat as well.

This is what it all looked like after everything had melded together…

Then of course, I just had to drop a couple of easy over eggs on top!  Tabasco was added after the photo was taken.  With the runny yokes, this made a nice creamy textured and satisfying way to start my day here in East Tennessee!

FYI…At least 98% of all leftovers in our house do not go to waste…

That’s all for now… Just click on any of the photos to enlarge them.

Thanks for stopping by for a light breakfast!

Take Care, Big Daddy Dave