Tapas (a.k.a Leftovers) Night
The Strategy: Assemble a selection of not-necessarily-themed salads, meats, cheeses, and Tupperware treasures from the refrigerator.
The Rationale: Sometimes you need to let go of the meat-starch-vegetable dinner archetype. If there's food on the table and everyone is eating it, it's a meal.
The Recipe: Mediterranean Sampler
Start with the piece of the puzzle you feel best about—leftover flank steak, half a roasted chicken, the lone chorizo you forgot to put into Sunday's paella—and then build around it. The array shown above follows a Middle Eastern route, with hummus, pita, olives, lamb sausage, chunks of feta, and store-bought rice salad, before taking a critical detour to the back of the fridge for string cheese. But you could just as easily head in the charcuterie direction (salami, Parmesan, olives, gherkins, crusty bread) or, even better, the wing-it direction (whatever you got).
Next Page: Any Fish You Wish
