I love re-inventing leftovers. I usually find that I get as much, if not more, satisfaction out of crafting a meal from meager beginnings than I do creating a luscious meal from scratch! Honestly this re-do was hardly a re-invention, but it was delicious!!

It all started with half of a leftover Blackened Catfish Po’ Boy with Sweet Potato Fries from Brother Jimmy’s BBQ:

While replacing the now-stale French bread was the primary objective, the whole sandwich looked pretty sad:

The first step for reinvention was the bread. I reached for a Fresh Direct frozen Par-baked Rosemary Ciabatta Roll, which cooks in the toaster oven in only 10 minutes! Par-baked really is the best because you can have delicious fresh bread whenever you want without rushing to the market or worrying about it going stale! In this case the Rosemary Ciabatta elevated my sandwich, and was the perfect size for lunch!

Not only did I transfer the tomatoes and catfish over to my new roll (they were warmed in the microwave first), I also scraped the old French bread for a good smear of the Cajun Mayo. To balance my mayo inclusion I also added fresh Boston Lettuce. You can see some of the leftover wilted shredded lettuce stuck to the catfish above, clearly this sandwich needed more green.

Even the sweet potato fries got a little refresh in the toaster oven. I made a little tin-foil pouch (my preferred method of baking fries, always) and baked them at 400 for about 10 minutes until they were warm and had a little bite back – no one likes soggy fries!

Two simple substitutions plus a little extra care in the preparation and I had, seriously, the best leftover lunch in recent memory – maybe even better than the original Po’ Boy!