Link UP Late

Linking up to OrgJunkie's Menu Mondays.

This week, I am all about the "Roll Over Leftovers". What that means is you cook something, take one or two leftover components, use them on a different dish the next night; rinse and repeat.

Monday night we made homemade guacamole. I am utterly in debt to my friend Jennifer P. for teaching me how to make this two years ago. I thought I hated guacamole, but I actually love it when made this way.

Homemade Guacamole
4-5 large avacados (if you haven't bought them before, gently squeeze. You want some give to know they are ripe, but not mush. Hard isn't ripe yet. Color may vary, *usually* a very dark green to black is what I'm looking at.)
3-4 limes
1 fresh bunch of cilantro
1 red onion
garlic powder
salt
(tomatoes if you like them; I do not)

Cut the avacadoes in half by running a butterknife the long way around to meet up (cutting around the pit). Twist off the top half and set aside. Jab the butter knife into the pit and it should pull out (usually) easily. Use a spoon to scoop out the good stuff into a large bowl. Repeat for all the avacadoes, making sure none are brown-spotted or rotten (that's why I usually buy an extra, inevitably one will be yuck).

Dice about half the onion finely. Mince and chop the cilantro to release the flavor. Add all ingredients to the bowl and use a potato masher to reduce the mixture to a lumpy goodness. (The more you mash the smoother it will be. The riper your avacado was will contribute to this as well). We like a LOT of lime; add the lime and garlic to suit your tastes, then salt at the end to taste. Serve with pretty much anything; makes 2-3 cups.

That was last night. Guac does not keep long once made, so if you're going to roll it, it MUST be the next day. Mine was a little browned on top so I scraped that off tonight. We made burritos with cilantro lime rice, black beans, ground turkey, cheese, lime, and sour cream. (Pic was taken while DD was slicing the limes for me).

I made extra rice so tomorrow will be Dijon Tarragon Chicken. After that, I will start a new round of Leftover Rolling; doing a spaghetti with meat sauce on Thursday, and a crockpot chili on Friday.

It keeps things rotating out of the fridge so they don't go bad, which works well; but I don't need to plan more than two meals at a time to take the advantage of a little extra prep for the following meal to fall into place. It also helps because we are a family of 5, so we're sort of in between needing to make doubles of most meal amounts and typically either have to deal with leftovers, or supplement with a large salad so everyone eats well and balanced (most things are portioned for either 4, or 8).

We rarely do the same meat two nights in a row, and try to have at least one meal per week be meatless. The following roll will probably be crockpot pork tenderloin and potatoes on Saturday, finishing out the week with pulled pork sandwiches on Sunday - and an empty fridge just in time for grocery shopping.

This was nom, but I could only eat one - I saran wrapped the other in hopes that it can be tomorrow's lunch (I hate wasting food!)