I am working on a pasta e fagioli dish for backpacking. I will make the dish fresh, dehydrate it, and then reconstitute it. It only will have beans, veggies, seasonings and pasta. I can post here on how it goes.

I realize this is different than your problem. You can probably turn your meal into a Mac and cheese soup by adding water to it though. You will probably have to forget about it being a pie, and if there is a pie crust then maybe making it into a soup is not a good idea. Or who knows? grind the whole thing in the food processor, add a bit of broth or milk, some seasonings, and get cream of Mac and cheese soup.

Have you tried steaming it? Works for many things. I do it in the microwave. Stir in some more milk or water (your choice), set it in a larger container with some water in the bigger container. Cover the larger container tightly with Saran wrap and heat on high for 1 1/2-2 min. till it begins to fog up the wrap. Then let it just sit and steam for 5-10 mins. or so.

Hope it works for you.

Dave

I wonder if you could literally rehydrate it?
Pour boiling water over it to just cover and let it soak awhile. See what happens. Sounds like not much to lose.

I think in the future when those calls come in, I'd pull the food out and refrigerate, then resume cooking at the next opportunity.

Deanna

Thanks for the tip Dave, it worked!

Great! Would hate to see it go to waste. Of course you can steam it several other ways but that works best for me.

Dave

What? You are telling this person to eat something that is full of bacteria ? If it sat in the oven, it must be tossed unless you want to risk getting food poisoning.

Linda, I should have mentioned it was still hot when I removed from the oven. I had to use a mitt.

I thought you left it for a full work day. I am sorry if I was wrong. Just don't want you to get ill.

I have a microwave-safe cover - that we use frequently when re-heating pastas - spaghetti especially. It also works well to keep foods from spattering all over the inside of the microwave - especially exploding beans! But mainly it steams the food instead of drying it.

For things like frozen burritos - I found putting them in a frying pan - low heat with a cover does a fairly decent job of thawing/heating without toughening up the tortilla.

Bejay