More of an idea than a recipe

I'm really excited about something I discovered tonight. It is probably really obvious to everyone else but it never occurred to me until tonight. For dinner we had this:



It is called Nutty Rice and Broccoli and comes from Christina Cooks cookbook. Personally, I much prefer her TV show to her cookbook but this recipe didn't sound bad and I had all the ingredients. I changed it around a little and added beans. It was bland bland BLAND!! We all ate it but I don't think anyone really enjoyed it. Plus it made a ton.

So after dinner I was writing down various ideas about how to jazz up the leftovers while watching Delicious TV. She had a guest chef on who was making what she called "Scavenger Patties". She went into the refrigerator, pulled out a few items, and turned them into a veggie patty. They had leftover millet, carrot, and I can't remember what else. All of a sudden I thought "wait a minute!!" and ran to the kitchen and pulled out the leftovers.

I threw them in the food processor along with some cilantro, salt and pepper. Then I stirred in some green salsa. It looked like this:

I formed it into patties and fried them. It worked perfect! So now whenever we have a meal that doesn't really live up to our expectations (which is more often than I'd like to admit!) I'm keeping this idea in mind. Instead of bland boring brown rice leftovers, I'm having salsa and rice patty for lunch tomorrow!