Schnitzel Sandwich

Best part about having leftover schnitzel? Making a schnitzel sandwich!










Fresh rolls, schnitzel, lettuce, tomato, and your choice of mayo, mustard, of ketchup (or all three if you are feeling adventurous).



You can't really go wrong when making a schnitzel sandwich, except DO NOT microwave the schnitzel. Take the few extra minutes to heat it up in the oven so you keep the crispiness.

Pancake Soup (Flädlesuppe)

Flädlesuppe

Without fail, whenever we make crepes we have leftovers. Usually, the leftover is the first crepe made. Neither of us want to eat it because one, we are already stuffed by the time we get to the bottom of the pile, and two, for some reason the first crepe never comes out as well as the others. Instead of throwing this crepe away, however, we keep it and make pancake soup.




This soup is as easy as warming up soup from a can. All you need is broth (we use either chicken or vegetable broth) and the leftover crepes.

If after reading this you have a major craving for crepes you can get our recipe here.



We made this pancake soup the day after we made savory crepes filled with a mix of vegetables. To add to the flavor, we mixed herbs into the crepe batter. This just made the pancake soup even tastier.

We suggest one crepe is good for 500 ml (2 cups) of soup. Realistically, it doesn't matter if you are heavier on the broth or the crepe.






All you have to do is heat up your broth (we used bullion cubes).

Flädle

While your broth is heating, cut your crepe into strips.

 

Once the broth is hot, remove from the heat and add the crepe strips.

Flädlesuppe

Serve immediately. The crepe strips are best once they have sat for a minute or two, but letting them sit too long just makes them soggy.



Easy but delicious - our favorite type of dish.

Semmelknödel (Bread Dumplings)

Knödel are a traditional German side dish. They are also popular in other European countries but go by other names. Knödel can be made out of bread or potato. We are bigger fans of Semmelknödel (bread dumplings), so that is what we chose to make.

Knödel are delicious and although a bit time consuming, quite easy to make. This recipe is like biting into  delicious giant balls of stuffing. She is tempted to make them as a Thanksgiving side dish this year.




10 medium Knödel:

250 g hard rolls (using leftover or day old bread is best)
250 ml milk
2 eggs
1 Tbs (EL) butter
1 small onion, chopped
2 Tbs (EL) parsley, chopped
salt, pepper, nutmeg









Rip or cut up the rolls. They should be in small pieces, but not crumbs.




















Mix the eggs, milk, salt, pepper, parsley,  and a dash of nutmeg together.

 

Add the bread and mix well (you need to get your hands dirty for this part). Let sit 20 minutes.









While the bread mixture sits, dice the onion and cook in the butter medium heat. Cook the onions until they are glassy looking.


After the bread has sat for 20 minutes, add the butter/onion mixture. Mix well.











Form balls out of the mixture. They should be solid but not so squeezed that they are super dense. Being too dense will keep them from cooking through as well.










Depending on size, you should get 8-10 Knödel.















Put the bread balls in a steam cooker (we used the steamer we cook veggies in). Steam for 30 minutes.

Serve as is or with gravy and a meat dish. After just the first bite you will find yourself wishing you had bread laying around to make more.

Taco Salad

After making our baked fajitas last week we were still craving Mexican food but had no tortillas or chicken. Instead of going out and buying more we decided to get creative and made taco salad for dinner. Not much healthier than a normal dinner of Mexican food but a nice change and a quick way to use any leftovers in the fridge you may have.


Two large salads:

1/3 lb ground beef
1 onion, diced
1/2 to 1 bell pepper, diced
3/4 - 1 can kidney beans
1/2 can diced tomatoes
2 hot peppers, diced 
sugar, salt, red pepper flakes, pepper, oregano
3-4 cups shredded lettuce (or as much as you wan)
cheese
sour cream
tortilla chips

In a pan over medium heat. Cook your onions, bell pepper, hot peppers, and ground beef. Once the beef is fully cooked, drain off the excess fat and return to the stove.





 
Add the kidney beans and tomatoes. Start with 1/2 Tbs of sugar and continue to add until the sweetness is how you would like it. Add a pinch of salt and a healthy dash of oregano, red pepper flakes, and pepper.

Cook until everything is heated and the tomato sauce begins to reduce.

During this time place the lettuce in a bowl or on a plate. Top with a handful of nacho chips.

When the ground beef/tomato mixture is finished. Pour on top of the lettuce and top with a spoonful of sour cream and some cheese.

Enjoy!

Mini Pizzas with Currywurst Sauce

Just made German currywurst and have leftover sauce? Try these mini German pizzas using curry sauce in place of tomato sauce.










Use the curry sauce from our super delicious currywurst recipe

You also need cheese and either rolls, bagels or English muffins. We think this sauce would also be good on regular pizza.






 
Toast whatever type of break you are using (a little bit lighter than you normally like it). If you are using rolls (like we did), scoop the inside bread out.













Fill the hole with curry sauce or spread curry sauce on the top of your bagel or English muffin.




 






Top with cheese and place in the oven at 200 (about 400 F). The mini pizza is finished when the cheese is melted and the curry sauce is warm. If you want to save time, heat the curry sauce before putting it on your mini pizza and then just run the pizza under the broiler to melt the cheese.








Yum!











Here is our curry sauce pizza with English muffins.

Choco Crossies (Reindeer Poop)

Using up our chocolate

I don't know why these remind me so much of reindeer poop, I actually have never even seen reindeer poop to compare it to, but when he made choco crossies, reindeer poop was all I could think about.

This recipe is as easy as they come. It is all a great way to use up all that chocolate from your advents calendar that you will never actually eat.

What you need:

Chocolate
Cornflakes
- About a 3/2 ratio

Add cornflakes and mix

Melt the chocolate (in the oven or the microwave). Stir in the cornflakes, spoon onto parchment paper (small mounds) and let cool. Finished!

Yeah, when I said easy I meant EASY.

Make some reindeer poop and feel the Christmas spirit!

Leftover Thanksgiving: Chicken/Turkey Soup

What is a better way to use your massive amount of leftover turkey (or chicken in our case) than to make a big batch of homemade soup? It is perfect for the cold winter months, it breaks you free from the turkey sandwiches we all know you have had too many of, and it is pretty healthy when it comes down to it. We made a big batch of chicken soup this week and used up the rest of our chicken, carrots, and celery. Officially ending the Thanksgiving season.

For our soup recipe you need:
2 Liter chicken broth
1 Liter water
A roasting chicken or leftover turkey
3 Tbs oil
2 onions, medium diced
2 carrots, cut into rounds
2 celery stalks, sliced at least 1 cm thick
thyme and other herbs


Directions:


Separate the bones and skin from the chicken or turkey meat.



Mix broth and water and bring to a simmer. Add the bones and skin and reduce the heat to low. Let cook partially covered for 30 minutes.
Strain the broth to remove all skin and bones. Keep broth separate and put your soup pot back on the stove over medium.



Add the oil, onions, carrots and celery. Cook for about 10 minutes or until vegetables start to soften.





Add broth back to the pot and add the chicken (or turkey) meat, and seasonings. We used a little thyme, Nature's Seasoning mix, and basil.

Let entire soup simmer and either serve then or save in the fridge for a later date. If you want you can cook noodles and add them to the soup. Only add noodles to the soup you will be eating, if you leave them in the soup overnight they will become very bloated and soggy.

We got so excited about eating we never took a picture of the finished product. Oops :(

Leftover Thanksgiving: Hot Turkey Sandwiches

Hot turkey sandwiches are super fast and easy to make. They are a simple way to use up some of your leftover turkey and gravy after American Thanksgiving. Serve them for lunch or dinner and with your other leftover sides such as mashed potatoes and green beans.

Lay white bread out on a plate. Heat up turkey slices in the microwave. Place the turkey on the bread, heat up the gravy and pour over the the turkey.

Serve with green beans and mashed potatoes.

Yes, we really just made an entry about something so simple but it is good and many people don't think about making hot open-faced turkey sandwiches. He had never heard of them until this week!

Leftover Thanksgiving: Tacos with Corn Tortillas

We made these recipes with Thanksgiving especially in mind, and the leftovers that you might have and need to get rid of over the next week. Making interesting meals, instead of just turkey sandwich after turkey sandwich will get you through your leftovers without getting fed up with the massive amounts of boring turkey. Like we said in our previous post Thanksgiving Day Dinner, we made two chickens and therefore this recipe was made with chicken meat. Turkey works just as well, so don't let it fool you! Make a little Mexican out of your all-American Thanksgiving Dinner!

We felt that we needed a change from our regular flour tortillas and so we decided this time to try corn tortillas. What we found out is that it is much much much easier to mix up the dough and roll out than flour tortillas. We might just have a new favorite :)

For ~ 6 medium sized tortillas you need:
2 cups corn flour (or masa harina)
1 1/4 cup boiling water + 1-4 tsp more
1 tsp oil
1 tsp salt

Mix the salt and the flour (don't mix up cornmeal and corn flour, cornmeal will not work!) Add 1 1/4 cup boiling water and oil and mix with a fork. It will be hot so wait a few minutes before you try to knead it with your hands (he learned this lesson the hard way!)






Once the dough is cool enough knead it with your hands for  2 to 3 minutes. The dough should stick together but not be sticky. You will need to add more boiling water to get it to this state. Do this slowly, adding only 1 tsp at a time. We had to add 3 tsp to get our dough the perfect consistency.




Roll the dough into balls (we like medium sized tortillas so we made balls halfway between a golf ball and tennis ball in size). Use a tortilla press or roll out using a rolling pin. Best is to put plastic wrap or parchment paper over and under the dough while rolling so it is sure not to stick.





We rolled out our dough and then used a plate as a circle outline to cut our tortillas into proper tortilla shape.









Heat a pan (no oil) on high heat (best is a cast iron skillet but we do not own one) and wait to add the tortillas, one at a time, until it is very very hot. Cook on each side for about 1 minute. Put the tortillas in aluminum foil or wrap in a towel to keep warm.


 

For the taco insides we used:

1 1/2 cup chopped chicken (or turkey) leftover from Thanksgiving
1/2 cup mushrooms, sliced
1 large onion, chopped
2 tomatoes, chopped
1/2 bell pepper, chopped
Seasonings like pepper, salt, garlic powder, oregano and bail



 Heat a pan on medium with a small amount of oil. Add the chicken, mushrooms, onion, bell pepper and onion. Cook until hot and onions start to get soft. Add seasonings and tomatoes. Finish cooking through.








Serve on the corn tortilla with lettuce, sour cream, cheese, and hot sauce. We did not have any sour cream or cheese but our tacos were still delicious. Eat alone or with rice and beans.

Enjoy this different type of recipe to use up your turkey!