 It's Monday and none of this is left I thought I would not be cooking much this week when I looked over the fully stocked fridge on Black Friday. Silly me. The teenagers were in the house all weekend. It's more like Mother Hubbard Monday in the fridge now. A half-bowl of cranberry sauce, a bit of turkey and mostly skin, roasted vegetables, three mouthfuls of stuffing and a bit of CoolWhip and apple pie are all that's left. Monday and Tuesday should finish off the rest of the leftovers, and off to the grocery store I go tomorrow. Here's what's cooking this week. Meatless Monday
Japanese Curry with leftover vegetables. I used the last shallots and half-onion, plus all the leftover parsnips, carrots and even Brussels sprouts for this curry. With the last of the Okinawan sweet potatoes and kabocha on the side. Curry makes everything taste good.
 Chinese "Turkey" Salad
 ThursdayMy Mom's Chicken Katsu, Co-Worker Kale Salad and rice . November is now too cold for my Mom to make the trip for Thanksgiving, so we'll make Mom-food this week instead. Possibly-Meatless-FridayYakisoba. Meatless, or perhaps with just a little bit of pork. This is one of my son's favorite meals. Eat Well. Be Well.
 My son's fully-dressed katsu curry Another head cold has entered my sinuses so this shall be an abbreviated post. I'm downing gobs of honey/lemon/li-hing mui tea, going to bed, and then hoping to make jook. Leftovers roulette ended up pretty well. Only 2 spoonfuls of coleslaw and about a chawan's worth of Japanese pickles are left. A few raspberries did end up getting fuzzy, but it was a generally a successful fridge cleanse. I added the recipe for what I'm calling Almost Alfredo Pasta from last week. We had it last week with chicken, but it could easily go meatless. Katsu Curry was a a restaurant-worthy leftover hybrid. Just make a simple Katsu with chicken instead of pork, and then reheat leftover curry. My son's masterpiece, which lasted about 3 minutes before being inhaled after soccer practice, is shown on the left. Will try to get a weekly menu out in the next day or two. In the meantime, wash your hands and stay healthy!
 Photo: Cooking Light Chicken Pasta JapaDog party was loads of fun, and I'll post the popular combos later this week. Like any good potluck, we have a few leftovers. Thus, the success of this week's meals will be based on how many Tupperwares we empty by the end of the week. Here's what cooking with leftovers this week. MondayGrilled Chicken Florentine Pasta, from Cooking LightThis was a quick, creamy bowl of ono, and a great foil to the JapaDog fest. The husband made a few changes, and it was yet another use for Costco chicken. Will post revised recipe this week. 1 Tupperware down.
 TuesdayTeriyaki Salmon and rice using the leftover Teriyaki Sauce from the JapaDog party. With leftover Lana's Coleslaw and Cool Corn Salad. Also posting this recipe this week. 4 Tupperwares down. WednesdayChicken Divan, using the last of the Costco chicken. The children have requested broccoli. 1 Tupperware done. ThursdayKatsu (using chicken) curry using the leftover curry sauce. Just thinking about this meal is making me happy. 1 Tupperware.
 FridayNachos (tacos) with frozen taco meat. One of our friends brought over a Costco-sized bag of tortilla chips...so nachos to end the week. 2 Tupperwares cleaned out. Between dinners and lunch leftovers, this should get rid of a least 9 Tupperwares' worth of leftovers, and hopefully, no biological hazard waste. Have a great short week! Eat Well. Be Well.
Crock Pot Kalua Pig is one of the all-time Feeding My Ohana favorites. It is foolproof, using three absolutely simple ingredients and a crock pot. It makes you look like a genius. And the potential for full-meal and even-a-little-fancy leftovers makes me love it even more. Here is the Kalua Pig retrospective.  Day 1
Kalua pig solo.
Rice balances out the salt/smoke flavor. Salad and fresh melon made for a complete meal.
 Day 3
Kalua pig and cabbage.
Shred a head of cabbage thinly, either by hand or using a mandoline. Heat a hunk of kalua pig in a wok and add cabbage. No oil necessary. As the pork and cabbage heat, the pork will release some of its flavors and the cabbage will soften and get slightly sweet. Another salty/smoky/sweet balance.
Fried egg on top is optional, and was a little overkill this week.
 Day 5
Kalua pig taco cups.
Kalua pig masquerading as carnitas. The Li-hing pineapples need to be worked out a little more, so instead, a quick salsa from a gigantic heirloom tomato.
The leftover gyoza wrappers work out really well when you use a muffin tin to shape them into cups. A quick bake crisps them up.
Please note that I do not advocate pork three times a week as a regular practice, even though kalua pig and cabbage and the kalua pork tacos use very little meat. This was an 'off' week to play with food. In a normal week, I'd freeze the leftovers for another time.
Eat Well. Be Well.
Just a few quick updates. By request, here is the Jane's Stuffed Zucchini, another idea for leftovers and a few things we've been eating lately.  Jane's Stuffed ZucchiniWith aloha from Rhode Island. In addition feeding me stuffed peppers, fresh scallops, and all manner of homemade desserts, I got to eat this at a BBQ. Jane's Stuffed Zucchini is awesomely vegetarian and she used gluten-free bread crumbs to boot.
 Mountain View Obon Strawberry Shortcake
There is nothing that is remotely "Japanese" or "Buddhist" about this, but Strawberry Shortcake is an Obon essential.
It's a BIG piece of fluffy white cake, piled with strawberries that are personally couriered up from Watsonville, fresh whipped cream and a bit of strawberry glaze. And it's made to order. I usually skip the glaze and double the whipped cream. Once a year, splurge and have this.
 Leftovers Roulette Featuring From-Scratch Pork Loin and Fresh Corn SalsaMy child kindly de-cobbed our leftover fresh corn, which was converted into Fresh Corn Salsa. The other half of the red onion was used to make a batch of guacamole. Corn tortillas and slices of Tuesday's From-Scratch Pork Loin made short work for a recycled meal.
 Squirrel Food for Breakfast
I found that I am less grouchy and ravenously hungry at lunch when I go carb-less at breakfast. This make everyone happy, especially my children and my boss. Who are not the same people.
My current go-to is Yoplait coconut Greek yogurt, fresh berries and a mixture of lightly salted pistachios, almonds and cashews that I found from Safeway.
It was a good week for enjoying summer and letting meals evolve. I think we are having leftovers again for dinner today.
Eat Well. Be Well.
What's an uku-pile? Yes, uku is the Hawaiian word for head lice. NO, our household has not been attacked by head lice. Uku-pile is a pidgin English mesh of a Hawaiian language phrase ku ka paila (pronounced KOO' kah pai' lah) which means a big pile of something, usually work, laundry, dirty dishes...say it really fast and you can hear how this was shortened to uku-pile. By request, here are some recent recipes and updates that I've added to the site. And Kale Chips and Sweet Po's and Peachy Catsup can be made in time for a 4th of July BBQ.  Kale Chips30 minutes to satisfy that potato chip craving in a healthier way. With or without parmesan cheese at the end. Teenagers were very skeptical, but ended up eating every last bit. Even better, they can make it themselves.
 Sweet Po's and Peachy CatsupColleague's recommendation, teenager requested and family approved. We've eaten this several times to test it out.
 Co-Worker Kale SaladAnother winner that has been colleague recommended, teenager requested and family approved. Plus, the recipe was requested by a friend who came to our last potluck, who was quite surprised that it was kale. Yes T, I really did feed you kale.
 Adrienne's Soba Salad, with spaghetti swapI couldn't bear to see gobs of leftover spaghetti as I contemplated opening a new package of soba. Worked out very well as a stir fry with snow peas, red and yellow peppers and a bit of char siu.
 Happy 4th of July to All.
Eat Well. Be Well.
A good week of leftovers means no wasted food. While my children don't hear the "starving babies in third-world countries" saga that my mother always told me, they know better than to argue when leftovers are the meal du jour or in this case, de la semaine.
 Quiche is long gone, Costco chicken picked to the bone, hard-boiled eggs made into sandwiches and after-schools snacks, and the last of the ham and Greek salad are getting eaten today. Plus, a long-forgotten recipe for salmon cakes was revived. Here was the highlight leftovers meal. Salmon cakes. New recipe in the Greenhouse, working out measurements. Leftover Greek SaladThe lemon juice makes this salad keep well. Just keep the feta cheese on the side and add it at the time of serving. Purple rice from last week's purchase at Hankook. The rice doesn't taste that much different, but it looks pretty.
 Easy roasted asparagus is a new addition that is pretty well based on the Barefoot Contessa, who I adore. We've made it twice, and it was a hit at Easter brunch. Click here for the recipe. Good food makes good leftovers. Eat Well. Be Well.
 Union Square, SF. No fog in the winter! Hope everyone had a good Christmas. We've had a great time with assorted family dinners and thus, have a fridge full of assorted leftovers. This is my 'off' week, when we eat very modestly and with lots of leftovers. It's a Japanese tradition to clean your house for New Year's, so this is the week to flaunt my inner OCD. We purge outgrown toys/clothes/stuff, clear out the computers/email, clean the house from top to bottom and generally, get ready to start New Year's clean and fresh. We also write thank you notes (on paper) and mail them out before the New Year. Again, all to start out the New Year clean and fresh. So here's what's 'cooking' this week. MondayScrambles with leftover spinach salad, ham and a grated cheese.
TuesdayThe ever-popular fried rice with ham, leftover green beans, kim chee and carrots. I use very little shoyu because the ham is so strongly flavored. WednesdayLeftover sticky rice, roast beef and Anna's Broccoli Salad. (See below) ThursdayNearly chicken-less enchiladas with the last of the turkey FridaySandwiches of some sort, with fresh baked bread. Eat Well. Be Well. Happy New Year of the Dragon.
Shepherd's Pie is ideal for leftovers roulette, and when you use the Thanksgiving leftovers instead of the more traditional ground beef or lamb and canned peas and carrots, it's that much better. I found a skeleton recipe from PGEW (Poor Girl Eats Well) for our post-Thanksgiving Shepherd's Pie. This is a knock-it-together kind of dinner, so here's what I used: 1 onion, chopped The rest of the leftover baby carrots (about half a bag), chopped 4 stalks of celery, also chopped 1/2 carton of leftover chicken broth (vegetable would work also) A few handfuls of eftover turkey, chopped About 1 cup of the leftover Make-ahead Mushroom (+ Onion) GravyThyme Marjoram Poultry seasoning The rest of the mashed potatoes, maybe 3 potatoes worth Milk Grated sharp cheddar cheese Chop vegetables and turkey so that they are all approximately the same size. Toss the onions into a large pan with the rest of the chicken broth and cook over medium heat. Add carrots and celery. Add chopped turkey, thyme, marjoram and poultry seasoning to taste. Toss in the rest of the gravy and stir. Let the mixture reduce slightly, but it shouldn't be dry. Pour into a 9 x 13 pan.
I then microwaved the mashed potatoes. Add milk to re-hydrate. NOTE: This may not be necessary, but our mashies got a little overcooked the first time, so some help was needed. Toss in a little bit of grated cheese.
Spread mashed potatoes over the turkey/vegetable mix. Lightly sprinkle grated cheese over the potatoes. Bake at 350 degrees until cheese is melted and mixture is bubbly and the edges are turning brown.
Turned out well, emptied out 3 Tupperwares, and the kids had seconds and requested it for lunch the next day, so this is a good sign.
Eat Well. Be Well.
 Turkey plate #1 Controlling the leftovers is one of the benefits of hosting Thanksgiving. This week is all about creative and tried-and-true ways to use Thanksgiving leftovers. First of all, my relatives want to know what the no-leftover Thanksgiving winners were (not that we're competing or anything). So here it is: honey-walnut prawns, sashimi, spam musubi, inari sushi, steamed green beans, pumpkin mini-muffins, sauteed American peas and Chinese chicken salad. Most requested take-home leftovers: salted version of Thanksgiving turkey, sweet potatoes, pecan pie and full-cream pumpkin pie.
And lucky us, now we have a fridge full of Tupperware leftovers. Leftovers roulette is one of my favorite activities and it's even better with Thanksgiving leftovers. Along with plain old turkey sandwiches, here's what's cooking this week. SundayMy Daddy's Fried Rice using the leftover ham, carrots, onions and the spare green beans we had 'just in case' Husband also made pear sour cream coffee cake to take advantage of in-season pears. MondayMom is requesting (Aunty) Marie Callender's. They don't have these in Hawaii. TuesdayI'm going to attempt a turkey shepherd's pie, with onions, mushrooms, celery and the rest of the mashed potatoes. I may even throw in the rest of the gravy and some stuffing. WednesdayLeftover ham, cranberry sauce, green salad and sweet potato fluff. Simple and satisfying. ThursdayTeddy Bear Turkey Soup with more turkey and the last of the carrots, celery and onions. FridayBBQ Turkey PizzaWhat were your Thanksgiving winners? Eat Well. Be Well.
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