Second Tuesdays Déjà Food Inaugural Event!

And yes, there’s a prize! (See below)

Here at Foodie With Family we- Rebecca and Valerie- love leftovers. They let us get creative with ingredients, minimize food waste,  save money,  try new flavor combinations without risk (You got one meal out of this already, right? Take a chance!), and save time. And they do the laundry. (No, wait, that’s what I wish they did.)

There are, as far as we’re concerned, two kinds of leftover meals. Regular leftover meals are simply a second serving of the first meal. Not bad by itself, but we prefer the second type of meal; a grand makeover of the original dish we like to call Déjà Food. 

Shockingly, we know a great many people who do not eat leftovers. Since we prefer to think well of people we choose to attribute this to the fact that they don’t know how to make-over leftover food. So in order to educate them and to celebrate the oft-maligned leftover we have decided to create our very first event; The Second Tuesdays Déjà Food Event.  The second go-round with the food on the second Tuesday (2sday?) of each month. Easy enough, right?

The event is open to everyone and will be repeated monthly. Here’s what we’re asking:

1. Use your leftovers to create something delicious and different.
2. Write up and post what you made by the second Tuesday of each month. (We understand that leftover wizardry does not often involve measuring, so if you can’t provide the exact recipe don’t sweat it. Just tell us what you made originally- with or without the recipes- and how you transformed it!)
3. Send us the permalink for your Déjà Food write-up and a 150 x 150 image of the dish. (Image optional)
4. Mention the event in your post so that more people learn about the event and we can all inspire each other to create greater Déjà Food masterpieces.

Because of the relatively short notice of this first event, you’re welcome to submit previous posts you’ve made of your Déjà Food show stoppers!

The rules for a Déjà Food meal are simple. It has to be materially different from the first meal. For example, you can take leftover refried beans, beef, lettuce and tomatoes from tacos and supplement it with homemade tortillas and fresh guacamole to make tostadas as we did in this post. Alternately, you could make a pizza crust and top it with the goodies to make a taco pizza. You can take leftover roasted or barbecued chicken, chilled leftover rice, and a supplement it with some fresh veggies, eggs and soy sauce to make fried rice. You can throw your turkey carcass from Thanksgiving into a pot with rice and water to make jook (congee). The possibilities are nearly limitless.

On the second Wednesday of each month, we will post the entries. You’ll  then have 48 hours (2 days- Can we stick with a theme or what?) to let us know your vote for who did the most amazing thing with their leftovers. The winner can choose of a jar of sweet, fruity, smokin’ hot homemade pure habanero jelly (perfect for glazing grilled meat, serving over cream cheese with crackers or spreading on a sandwich and guaranteed to give you immediate pain AND a hot sauce hangover!)

 Or you can choose a jar of lovely, mild, homemade cranberry ketchup (great with pork, venison, as a dip for or part of a glaze for grilled turkey.)

And as always, all of our homemade preserves, pickles, jellies, jams and whatnot, are all-natural and contain no added funky unpronouncable preservatives or colorings and are prepared according to established safety standards.

Click here if you’re the badge-loving sort!  I made it all by my little-old-self. (Like you wouldn’t be able to tell that when you see it. I’ll just feel superior until you click here.)