Friday: Focaccia Breakfast Sandwiches, Refrigerator Chili & a Creami Experiment

Got up this morning and pulled out the leftover focaccia from last night’s dinner.

Because focaccia is delicious fresh out of the oven for dinner.

But you know what else is delicious?

Leftover focaccia turned into breakfast sandwiches.

I also had some bacon left from yesterday, so this was a pretty easy decision.

Focaccia Breakfast Sandwiches

I had stored the leftover focaccia in a plastic bag on the counter overnight.

This morning, I wrapped it in foil and popped it into the oven to warm it up.

Here’s why I like using foil.

I don’t necessarily want to toast the focaccia again. It already has that beautiful crust from baking, and if I put it back into the oven uncovered, the outside can get too crispy.

I just want to warm it through and soften everything up a little bit.

Wrapping it in foil does exactly that.

Then I sliced it up and let everybody make breakfast sandwiches.

Some of the kids wanted bacon and cheese.

Some wanted a little mayonnaise, almost like a BLT-inspired sandwich.

One kid wanted an egg.

Everybody got something a little different.

And they were delicious.

I love when leftover bread turns into something completely different the next morning.

Focaccia gone. Bacon gone. Breakfast handled.

Then we got to work on school.

Brat Bites and Pasta for Lunch

I completely forgot to take pictures of lunch today.

But I promise we ate.

I pulled out the rest of the brat bites I made earlier this week and reheated them.

I also had some cooked pasta in the refrigerator, so I warmed that up too.

Then I added fruit and vegetables.

And that was lunch.

Brat bites, pasta, fruit and veggies.

Nothing fancy.

No new recipes.

Just using what was already cooked.

I love having these little bits of food available at the end of the week because it makes lunch so easy.

And by lunchtime, we’d officially finished off the brat bites and the leftover pasta.

We had a productive afternoon just getting things done around the house. I managed to distract the 3 youngest with some fresh popcorn while I was cleaning bathrooms.

Finally, Real Chili Weather

This afternoon was absolutely perfect.

Cool.

Crisp.

Cloudy.

The kind of fall day that makes you want to put on a sweater and make a big pot of something warm.

So naturally, I made chili.

And here’s the thing about my chili.

I don’t think I’ve ever made the exact same pot twice.

I have a general method that I follow, but the actual ingredients change depending on what I have in my refrigerator.

Sometimes I have zucchini.

Sometimes I have bell peppers.

Sometimes I have sausage.

Sometimes I have a little leftover pasta sauce.

And today I had a combination of things that I thought would make a really good pot of chili.

Today’s Refrigerator Chili

I started with diced peppers and onions.

I like to sauté those first and let them soften before adding the tomatoes.

Somewhere along the way, I heard that adding acidic ingredients like tomatoes too early can keep vegetables from softening as quickly.

And there’s actually some truth to that.

Acidity can slow the softening of certain vegetables during cooking.

So I just follow that rule now.

I let my onions and peppers cook first.

Then I added the meat.

Today I used some pork sausage and some of the cooked ground beef I had in the freezer.

And then I started adding everything else.

What Went Into Today’s Chili

• peppers
• Onion
• Pork sausage
• Cooked ground beef
• About half a jar of Rao’s pasta sauce
• 1 can diced tomatoes
• Chili powder
• Garlic
• Salt and pepper
• a single burger patty that was leftover from earlier this week
• Beans, added toward the end

That’s it.

I had that half jar of Rao’s sitting in the refrigerator, and I wasn’t going to let it go to waste.

Tomato sauce is tomato sauce, and Rao’s already has plenty of flavor.

So into the chili it went.

I let everything simmer together while I worked around the house.

I was cleaning bathrooms and doing some other chores, and the chili was just bubbling away on the stove.

This is one of the things I love about making chili.

You can get it started, turn the heat down and let it do its thing while you get other work done.

Why I Add My Beans at the End

One thing I do a little differently is wait until near the end to add my beans.

I don’t like beans that have completely fallen apart.

I want them to still have a little bite.

Not crunchy, obviously, but I don’t want them turning into mush either.

So I let the meat, vegetables, tomatoes and seasonings simmer together first.

Then I add the drained beans toward the end and let them heat through for about 20 minutes.

That way they absorb some of the chili flavor without getting overly soft.

And then, of course, I taste everything.

Does it need more salt?

More chili powder?

More garlic?

Sometimes I adjust it several times before I’m happy with it.

That’s the beauty of chili.

You really can make it your own.

Chili, Pasta & Plain Ground Beef

I made another batch of pasta to go with dinner because we’d finished the leftover pasta at lunch.

Some of my family likes chili over pasta.

Others don’t.

And I also have a couple of kids who don’t particularly like chili at all.

Which is fine.

Before I mixed all the ground beef into the chili, I set some plain beef aside for them.

So they had ground beef and pasta.

The rest of us had chili.

And I like mine with avocado and those little scoop-shaped corn chips from Trader Joe’s.

They’re basically Trader Joe’s version of Fritos.

Except I think they’re so much better.

I love scooping up the chili with the chips instead of using a spoon for every bite.

Add some avocado on top, and it’s such a good combination.

It was exactly the dinner I wanted on a cool fall evening.

And now I have leftover chili, which might be even better tomorrow.

A Little Ninja Creami Experiment

I also squeezed in a little kitchen experiment today.

I saw a banana filling recipe from Hollingsworth on Instagram that she uses in an oat bar.

And the filling itself looked so delicious that I started thinking about using it for something completely different.

My Ninja Creami.

The filling has just a handful of ingredients:

• 2 large ripe Bananas
• 4 tablespoons Coconut oil
• 4 tablespoons Cocoa powder
• 6 tablespoons Maple syrup
• 4 tablespoons natural Peanut butter

I mixed everything together, poured it into my Creami container and put it into the freezer.

And now I’m crossing my fingers.

Because I think this could make a really delicious chocolate-peanut-butter-banana frozen dessert.

I’m hoping it freezes well enough to process tonight, although I know the Creami usually works best when the mixture has had plenty of time to freeze completely.

So we’ll see.

It might be fantastic.

It might need another round of experimenting.

But that’s half the fun.

And if it works, I’ll definitely be making it again.