Sunday, January 11, 2026

Leftover Pizza Pizza Salad

Leftover Pizza Pizza Salad is a lovely meal, with croutons from leftovers and other fresh ingredients with pizza flair, like pepperoni, tomatoes, olives, anchovies and mozzarella.

Food Lust People Love: Leftover Pizza Pizza Salad is a lovely meal, with croutons from leftovers and other fresh ingredients with pizza flair, like pepperoni, tomatoes, olives, anchovies and mozzarella.

We have a family tradition that Friday night is pizza night or at least it almost always was when our girls were young and still living at home. These days we do pizza night way less often but it’s still a mostly Friday night treat when we do. 

We always order extra because leftover pizza makes the best breakfast. It also makes fabulous croutons for snacking on or sprinkling on salad, especially  Domino’s thin and crispy extravaganza, which is what I used for this salad. 

Leftover Pizza Pizza Salad

Use the ingredients list as a jumping off point for your leftover pizza salad. Hate anchovies, leave them out. Don’t like olives, try artichoke hearts instead. Whatever your favorite pizza toppings are, they will probably go great in a salad!

Ingredients
1-2 slices leftover pizza
1 romaine heart, chopped 
2 large tomatoes, cut in wedges
12 slices pepperoni
1 small shallot, finely sliced into rings
10 black olives, pitted and chopped
3-4 anchovies in oil, drained, cut into pieces
1/4 cup or 60ml Caesar dressing – from this recipe https://www.foodlustpeoplelove.com/2013/03/caesar-dressing-with-anchovies-or-capers.html or store-bought

Method
Preheat your oven to 375°F or 190°C and prepare baking pan by lining it with baking parchment or a silicone liner. 

Use a sharp knife to cut the leftover pizza into small pieces. 


Bake them on the prepared pan in your preheated oven for about 8-10 minutes or until they are browned and crunchy. 


Slice the pepperoni into strips. Pit and chop the black olives. 


Peel and slice the shallot into thin rings. 


Chop the lettuce and cut the tomatoes into wedges. Arrange them both on a large serving platter. 


Scatter the pepperoni strips, black olives, shallot rings and cheese over them. 


Blot the anchovies on a paper towel to remove the excess oil and cut them into pieces. Dot the pieces around the salad. 


Serve the pizza salad with the leftover pizza croutons and the Caesar dressing. 

Food Lust People Love: Leftover Pizza Pizza Salad is a lovely meal, with croutons from leftovers and other fresh ingredients with pizza flair, like pepperoni, tomatoes, olives, anchovies and mozzarella.

Enjoy! 


It’s Sunday FunDay and today we are sharing recipes for pizza or a twist on pizza ingredients. Many thanks to our host, Amy of Amy’s Cooking Adventures. Check out the links below. 

 
We are a group of food bloggers who believe that Sunday should be a family fun day, so every Sunday we share recipes that will help you to enjoy your day. If you're a blogger interested in joining us, just visit our Facebook group and request to join.



Pin this Leftover Pizza Pizza Salad!

Food Lust People Love: Leftover Pizza Pizza Salad is a lovely meal, with croutons from leftovers and other fresh ingredients with pizza flair, like pepperoni, tomatoes, olives, anchovies and mozzarella.

.

Wednesday, January 7, 2026

Ají de Cerdo - Peruvian Pork Stew

Ají de Cerdo aka Peruvian Pork Stew is a twist on the classic chicken dish made with yellow chili peppers called ají amarillo in Spanish. It’s spicy, rich, irresistible sauce makes it a favorite in our house. 

Food Lust People Love: Ají de Cerdo aka Peruvian Pork Stew is a twist on the classic chicken dish made with yellow chili peppers called ají amarillo in Spanish. It’s spicy, rich, irresistible sauce makes it a favorite in our house.

When I was growing up, my father worked/lived for many years in northern Peru so when school let out for the summer, I’d pack up and head south. While the little town didn’t have a lot to recommend it, it was an ideal place to be a free-ranging child with nothing but time on her hands! They were wonderful summers.

Daddy employed a cook named Cata who came in every morning to prepare our main meal which was served at midday. She was an older local woman who had years of experience cooking for her own family and made her living cooking for others.

One of her specialties was ají de gallina, a traditional Peruvian chicken stew served with white rice and garnished with hard-boiled eggs and black olives. It was always a good day when that was for lunch! A bad day included sweet stewed beets.

I hadn’t thought about Cata or her ají de gallina for years, when a great neighbor gave me a couple of chili pepper plants, one growing the bright yellow peppers I’d need to make it! We had been eating a lot of chicken at the time so I decided to make a variation on the classic recipe using pork instead. It was an excellent decision!

Ají de Cerdo – Peruvian Pork Stew

If you don’t have white sandwich bread, unsalted crackers or fresh breadcrumbs can be substituted. This dish calls for a specific yellow South American chili pepper. If you live in a big city then you may be able to find these in your supermarket or, failing that, you can find yellow ají paste in a jar online. Search for Inca’s Food which is a reliable brand.

Ingredients
4 slices white bread, about 3 1/2 oz or 100g
1 can (1 1/2 cups or 355ml) evaporated milk or light cream
2.2 lbs or 1 kg pork shoulder, cubed
2 tablespoons white vinegar
Fine sea salt
Freshly ground black pepper
Olive oil
4 cups or 960ml pork or chicken stock, or more as needed
4-5 yellow ají (yellow chili peppers – see note above ingredient list)
1 large onion, finely chopped
6 cloves garlic, chopped
1 oz or 28g cotija or Parmesan cheese, grated
1/4 cup or 30g pecans

To serve:
Boiled potatoes
Cooked rice

Garnish:
Hard-boiled eggs
Black olives

Method
Soak the bread in the evaporated milk or cream till it softens and gets mushy.


Season the pork shoulder chunks with the white vinegar and a good sprinkle of sea salt and freshly ground black pepper. Mix well. Set aside for 30 minutes to marinate.


In a large pan, heat a splash of olive oil and fry the pork in batches until the pieces are nicely brown, removing each batch to a big plate when it’s done. 


If you can’t eat too spicy, remove the seeds from the chili peppers and mince. If you love spice like we do, leave them in.

In the now empty pork pan, add another drizzle of olive oil and fry the onion, garlic and chili peppers until soft. 


Scrape them into your blender jug or a measuring vessel for a hand blender.

Add the pork back into your once again empty pan and add in the stock. Bring to a boil then simmer, covered, about 1 hour or until the pork is tender. 


Add your bread mix to the onions, garlic and peppers in the blender, along with the cheese and pecans.


Blend until smooth. 


When the pork pieces are tender, add the smooth blender ingredients to the pork pan, adding more stock as needed to make a thick sauce. 


Simmer for 30 minutes, checking and stirring occasionally and adding more stock as needed.

Food Lust People Love: Ají de Cerdo aka Peruvian Pork Stew is a twist on the classic chicken dish made with yellow chili peppers called ají amarillo in Spanish. It’s spicy, rich, irresistible sauce makes it a favorite in our house.

Serve with the rice and potatoes. Decorate with a hardboiled egg half or quarter and a couple of black olives for each plate.

Food Lust People Love: Ají de Cerdo aka Peruvian Pork Stew is a twist on the classic chicken dish made with yellow chili peppers called ají amarillo in Spanish. It’s spicy, rich, irresistible sauce makes it a favorite in our house.

Enjoy! 

Food Lust People Love: Ají de Cerdo aka Peruvian Pork Stew is a twist on the classic chicken dish made with yellow chili peppers called ají amarillo in Spanish. It’s spicy, rich, irresistible sauce makes it a favorite in our house.

This is our third year to work our way through the alphabet sharing recipes with ingredients or title featuring the letter of the post so welcome to the 1st edition of Alphabet Challenge 2026, brought to you by the letter A. Many thanks to Wendy from A Day in the Life on the Farm for organizing and creating the challenge. Check out all the A recipes below:





Pin this Ají de Cerdo - Peruvian Pork Stew

Food Lust People Love: Ají de Cerdo aka Peruvian Pork Stew is a twist on the classic chicken dish made with yellow chili peppers called ají amarillo in Spanish. It’s spicy, rich, irresistible sauce makes it a favorite in our house.

.

Sunday, January 4, 2026

Goetta - Cincinnati Breakfast Sausage

Goetta aka Cincinnati Breakfast Sausage is made with steel-cut oats, beef, pork and lots of spices. It’s a delicious accompaniment to eggs and toast in the morning. Or as a sandwich filling for lunch.

Food Lust People Love: Goetta aka Cincinnati Breakfast Sausage is made with steel-cut oats, beef, pork and lots of spices. It’s a delicious accompaniment to eggs and toast in the morning. Or as a sandwich filling for lunch.

I must confess that while I have driven to, and flown out of Cincinnati, I haven’t actually spent any time there. We were on our way home from a wedding in Ohio and just passing through. 

That is to tell you that I have no prior personal knowledge of the goodness of goetta, a sausage of German-American origin that is often called Cincinnati’s signature dish. I found it in a search online for something savory I could make with steel-cut oats! If the internet can be believed, it is pronounced gettah, like the O isn’t there. 

There are many classic recipes for goetta but most include beef and pork, along with a variety of spices. I cobbled this one together from a few different ones because I didn’t need to feed a crowd! I used the little loaf pans because they freeze well and a big bread pan won’t fit in my freezer. Also, with only two of us at home, I could take one out, slice and fry, leaving two more to freeze for later, which is exactly what I did.

Goetta - Cincinnati Breakfast Sausage

This recipe makes three small loaf pans, 1 lb each. You can also make it in one normal bread pan, if you prefer. 

Ingredients 
2 cups or 480ml beef stock
2 cups or 480ml water
1 teaspoon fine sea salt (adjust to taste, depending on your stock)
1 1/4 cups or 170g steel-cut oats (also known as pinhead oats)
2 bay leaves
2 teaspoons dried marjoram, divided
8 oz or 225g ground beef
8 oz or 225g ground pork (or sausage)
1 medium onion, finely chopped
2 large cloves garlic, minced
1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
1/2 teaspoon cayenne
1/2 teaspoon ground coriander

Method
Place the broth, water, salt, oats, bay leaves and 1 teaspoon of the dried marjoram in a large pot. Stir for a minute or two so the salt will dissolve.


Bring it to a boil then reduce the heat to low, cover, and gently simmer for 60-75 minutes, stirring occasionally, until the oats are soft and the liquid is absorbed. Discard the bay leaves. 


If you have one, I recommend using a diffuser under the pot to help the heat be distributed more evenly so the thickening oatmeal doesn't catch. This is mine.


Meanwhile, in a mixing bowl, combine the raw ground beef, ground pork or sausage, onion, garlic and spices.


When the oats are ready, by which I mean they are fully cooked and no longer wet, add the meat mixture in three batches to the pot and stir well to combine after each addition. 


You can add it in all at once but that does make it more challenging to combine well. This is with addition number 3, the final one. 


Heat through until it starts to slightly bubble then reduce to low, cover and cook for another hour, stirring occasionally. Again, the diffuser comes in handy here. The mixture will get quite loose and watery for a while as the onion cooks down and releases its juice

 
If the liquid has not all been absorbed after the hour with the lid on, remove the lid and continue to cook uncovered, stirring often until the mixture has thickened so it doesn’t stick to the bottom of the pot. 


Pour and press the mixture into 1 regular loaf pan or 3 small loaf pans, greased, and let cool completely. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate overnight.  Each of mine were 1 lb or 450g.


When ready to serve, slice the goetta into 1/2-inch or 1 cm thick pieces in the loaf pan. 


Remove the slices carefully as needed and fry in a DRY nonstick skillet. 


Do not overcrowd the pan because you need ample room to turn them over carefully when that time comes. Allow the goetta slices to brown completely before attempting to turn them. This may not guarantee that they won’t crumble but it helps! 


Once browned on both sides, you can turn them again to get a deeper brown on each side.


Repeat the process until all the goetta you need is brown. Serve with eggs for breakfast or as a sandwich filling. Wrap well and freeze any unused loaf pans for later. 

Food Lust People Love: Goetta aka Cincinnati Breakfast Sausage is made with steel-cut oats, beef, pork and lots of spices. It’s a delicious accompaniment to eggs and toast in the morning. Or as a sandwich filling for lunch.

Enjoy!  

It’s Sunday FunDay and today we are sharing recipes made with oats in celebration of National Oatmeal Month. Many thanks to our host, Wendy of A Day in the Life on the Farm. Check out the oat-y links below.

 
We are a group of food bloggers who believe that Sunday should be a family fun day, so every Sunday we share recipes that will help you to enjoy your day. If you're a blogger interested in joining us, just visit our Facebook group and request to join.




Pin this Goetta – Cincinnati Breakfast Sausage!

Food Lust People Love: Goetta aka Cincinnati Breakfast Sausage is made with steel-cut oats, beef, pork and lots of spices. It’s a delicious accompaniment to eggs and toast in the morning. Or as a sandwich filling for lunch.

.