Breakfast from Leftovers

First off, some housekeeping. Lately, my posts have been inundated with spam. Not just any ole 'try this site, increase your readership, buy this, blah, blah, blah. P*rn spam. So...I'm back to moderating comments for awhile until the spam subsides.

Okay, with that out of the way...I hate throwing good food away. It's almost an obsession.

As a general rule, we always have leftovers. I try very hard to cook for just the two of us, but even though our kids have been gone and out on their own for 20-plus years, I still have difficulty paring down my old recipes into two or three servings. Who can make soup or a casserole for two?

If there is enough left for another meal, I let the food cool or sometimes pre-freeze, then vacuum seal it for another time (I love my Foodsaver!).

Of course, there are those times when there's just a little bit left, maybe one manicotti or a single piece of chicken, so that becomes lunch the next day.

At other times, there's a little bit more leftover than I can eat for lunch and I have to eat just a small portion of it and (cringe) throw the rest away. That's what happened last weekend.

Friday night I made Shrimp & Grits. We didn't have any leftover shrimp, but we had a nice portion of grits, about a cup of gravy and a handful of sauteed ham cubes leftover. Sounded like a yummy lunch to me.

But we weren't home for lunch on Saturday, so I decided to use the leftovers for breakfast Sunday morning....

When we were clearing the table and putting the leftovers in storage containers, I used a rectangular container to store the grits. When I took them out Sunday morning, they had solidified nicely, so I turned the molded grits onto my cutting board and cut the slab in half from corner to opposite corner, making two triangles.

In a small pan, I mixed the leftover gravy and ham together and warmed them over low heat.

I heated about a tablespoon of vegetable oil in a small frying pan over medium-high heat, fried the grits triangles until they were golden brown on both sides and removed them to two serving plates.

I poured about 3/4 cup of Eggbeaters into the frying pan, turned the heat to medium low and cooked them until they were just barely done through (obviously you could use eggs, scrambled or over easy). I divided the cooked Eggbeaters in half, placed them on top of the grits and topped that with a spoonful or two of gravy.

I sliced up a half of an avocado that I had in the refrigerator and topped the grits, eggs and gravy with it.

My, my, my. That was a tasty breakfast.

What do you have lurking in your refrigerator that could become a delicious meal?