All You Barbecue Chicken Quesadillas

Leftovers in our house are often neglected. We make every effort to eat them, but the same food days in a row can become monotonous.  I am always looking for ways to incorporate leftovers into another meal to save money. The slow-cooker recipe I discussed in my previous post had a subsequent dish using the leftovers for another recipe, barbecue chicken quesadillas.

This recipe goes together quickly, since the main protein is from a leftover dish. The remaining 10 ingredients require minimal prep, with a total time of around 15 minutes for the entire recipe. I made one modification, I used regular tortillas rather than whole-wheat. My family isn't a fan of the texture of whole-wheat tortillas. Finally, I found that the recipe made 4 servings for my family, not six.

My two kids enjoyed this recipe. I like that it uses leftovers to create another meal, saving me time and money. The best part is that it takes less than 20 minutes to prepare, which is great for a busy weeknight.

This recipe is not currently available online, but can be found in the June 2011 issue of All You magazine.

Better Homes and Gardens Hot and Chunky Guacamole

Our family of four snacks a great deal. I tend to eat six small meals a day instead of three large ones and my two sons are both in growth spurts. Within a day of making any snack it tends to be devoured and something else has to be made. This phenomenon has lead to me being constantly on the lookout for new snack recipes that are healthy and delicious for my family. Recently, Better Homes and Gardens magazine had a recipe for hot and chunky guacamole, which looked perfect for my family's snacking habits.

This recipe uses very basic ingredients that were easily found at my local grocery store. I used frozen peas as fresh peas, even when in season, are rarely available in my area. I modified the recipe slightly by mashing the peas before adding them to the rest of the ingredients. Doing this made the peas better incorporated into the avocados and left a very pleasant taste. I found this recipe to take far less time that the 25 minutes suggested, 15 minutes at most.

I like that this recipe incorporates peas, it gives the guacamole a slightly sweet flavor. This guacamole is in no way spicy as the recipe suggests; for more heat some of the jalapenos seeds could be left in, instead of completely seeding. I served this recipe with pita chips, which worked great and my whole family enjoyed it.

For the recipe go to Better Homes and Gardens Hot and Chunky Guacamole. (registration required).

All You Roasted Tomato Salsa

Snacks go quickly in our house, so I am always making more. Lately, my two sons have been obsessed with homemade tortilla chips and I have been looking for dips and salsas to accompany them. I have tried a number of guacamole and salsa recipes, but I am always looking for that can't miss recipe. The June issue of All You magazine had a recipe for roasted tomato salsa that looked different than previous recipes I have attempted and perfect for my snack-oriented family.

My ancient Caloric oven's broiler has been broken for about 4 years, so I roasted the tomatoes, pepper, and jalapenos in batches in my convection toaster oven. It worked great, so the results were the same. The roasting did take longer than the suggested 10 minutes to char the tomatoes, I would say close to 20 minutes, but that might be related to using the toaster oven instead of a standard oven. All the ingredients for this recipe are basic and the plum tomatoes at my local grocery store were cheaper than any other tomato variety available. This salsa recipe does take slightly longer than other salsas, but it makes a very large batch of eight servings and has lasted in our fridge for multiple days.

This recipe has been received well by every member of my house and my in-laws. I like that the flavor of the charred tomatoes make for a nice well rounded salsa. Even my father in-law who shies away from spicy foods enjoyed this salsa recipe. The only thing that received complaints was that my husband wasn't a fan of the cumin, next time I make this recipe I will probably leave this ingredient out.

For the recipe go to All You Roasted Tomato Salsa.