Leftovers

I've never liked eating leftovers. There was something about food sitting around for an extended period of time that fed the hypochondriac in me. In fact, I've been known to simply throw out the tupperware, rather than identify and eat the leftovers in it. Even from a fancy restaurant, leftovers just sat in fridge. Basically, I was a food waster. My worries about eating leftovers, in context, made sense. I also had my med school roommate check every piece of meat I cooked to make to sure I wouldn't get sick from it.

Thanks, Loan! (Photo someecards.com)

Honestly, med school makes you a hypochondriac. I wasn't born this way.

Okay, maybe I was. But this is common problem during the first two years where you are taught the details of every single rare and deadly illness. Many times during a lecture you would see a student look up from their notes, pale and terrified and hear the wheels in their head turning, putting together the symptoms they just learned about, thinking, "I've got that!"

I can thank my med school roommate for many things. She and I kept each other sane through a mentally and emotionally challenging time. She may have thought the dishwasher should be used for storage of pots and pans, but she taught me that food wasting was inexcusable.

My Med School Roommate, Loan. 

You've heard, "Clean your plate, there are hungry kids in INSERT THIRD WORLD COUNTRY HERE." Well, she believed you should use all your resources in eating and in cooking and not waste a thing.

Recently, I've been on a pretty strict budget and have been channeling Loan with my eating habits.

Last week, I made that delicious roasted vegetable dish with fresh veggies from the Farmer's Market in neighborhood.

The Farmer's Market in my neighborhood. (Photo City of Chicago, CBS)

When you buy directly from the farmers (support local!), you get the ENTIRE vegetable, which left me with a HUGE bunch of green from the tops of my beets. They are full of nutrients, but I didn't know what to do with them. Until I had a day off and cooked up a huge batch of stuffed beet greens to eat throughout the week.

This is a variation of stuffed grape leaves or Dolma. But I made them without rice, and of course, with extra "hidden" carrots.

Beet greens, carrots, onion and garlic...yum!

Stuffed Beet Leaves

Hands on time: 20 minutes

Total Time: 50 minutes

What you need:

• Leftover beet greens (or grape leaves)
• 1/2 cup chopped onion
• 1/2 cup finely chopped carrots (I used the food processor)
• 3 cloves of garlic, chopped
• 8 oz of lean ground turkey (half of a package)
• Salt
• Pepper
• Olive Oil
• Red Pepper flakes
• Sprigs of fresh rosemary (I'm still using it)

Browning the onions, garlic, carrots and turkey

All the leaves covered with water and simmering

Start with a tablespoon of olive oil in a skillet, cook the garlic, carrots and onions until they become soft. While that is going, start boiling water in a big pot. When the water is boiling, drop the beet leaves in 2 at a time for just a few seconds. Then submerge them in a bowl of cold water for a minute, remove and set aside. Repeat this step for all of your leaves, it makes them pliable and easy to work with. When the onions are translucent add in your ground turkey, rosemary, salt and pepper. I also added some crushed red pepper flakes for a little bit of heat. Brown this mixture up and set aside. 

Now you're ready to roll! Literally. Put some of the meat mixture into the beet leaf and roll just like a burrito (fold the ends in first). As you finish rolling the leaves, sit them in a sauce pan coated with olive oil. Put the rolls as close together as possible, so they don't fall apart. When you pan is full, cover with a cup of water and add some sea salt. Allow this to come to a boil. Cover and reduce heat to simmer for 25 minutes. 

There you go! You can eat them hot, or cold. You can eat them now, or all week!

What you get:

A healthy meal that travels easily and lasts all week. The star of this show is the beet leaves. Beet leaves have fiber and protein both of which help keep you full. You get 220% of your recommended vitamin A and 60% of vitamin C from a single serving of beet leaves! They also have 15% of your daily iron, necessary for the red blood cells that carry oxygen to your cells, and 15% calcium for strong bones and teeth.

You can also make these vegetarian by using rice instead of meat, but be sure to not overfill your leaves, the rice expands in the pot!

Running the Hot Chocolate 5K this weekend, check back next week for how it went!