Ideas for "rollover" meals?

[nrp]

That's what Rachael Ray calls them, I think - when you take a meal one night and then turn the leftovers into something entirely different. I am trying to start more meal planning, and I thought this would be useful. Ideas I have now are:

(1) spaghetti sauce to (2) lasagna or (2) chili

(1) roasted chicken to (2) quesadillas or (2) tetrazini or (2) mini pot pies

Any other suggestions - somewhat healthy and kid-friendly, of course. Bonus points for creatively sneaking in veggies!

[Indianamom2]

Well, I am seriously not good about this myself, but something I have done with success is to buy a pork loin on sale (usually more than I would need for one meal anyway) and have a nice crockpot or oven roasted pork loin dinner one night and then shred the pork, add your favorite bbq sauce and reheat in a crockpot on low for BBQ pork sandwiches the next night or so.

That's all I have right now...I might be able to come up with something else later!

Christina

[brittone2]

I have a b unch of chicken ideas in the archives. We usually roast two chickens at the same time in a big cast iron "fish pan" (like a big roasting pan really). We eat the roasted chicken for dinner one night, and the rest gets pulled off the bone, cubed, and frozen (or put in the fridge for the next night).

From that we do:
Chicken salad (we change it up...tarragon and grapes, curry and apples, etc.)
chicken quesadillas
chicken w/ salsa in the crockpot
chicken stir fry
chicken curry
chicken chili
chicken over salad greens (quick caesar salad, etc.)
chicken, boursin and broccoli (baked like a casserole)
on homemade pizza dough w/ some veggies (chicken and spinach, etc.)
bbq chicken
etc. etc. (more ideas in the archives)


Whenever I brown ground beef I try to do 2 lbs at a time and I use the 2nd lb to make something else (and then you also have less grease splatter, etc. to clean up if you only do it once). You can freeze the cooked ground beef. So we'll have the original ground beef dish one night, and then use the precooked beef (the 2nd lb) another night, from the fridge or freezer.

You could do things like:
tacos
spaghetti and meat sauce
cheeseburger quiche (we like this for breakfast and lunch too, so leftovers are nice). I add spinach to it sometimes too.
lasagne
sloppy joes
chili (can add a little pumpkin to chili...nice texture and you can't really taste it)
etc. etc. the 2nd night.
eta: stuffed peppers. We do funky combos...shredded cauli (shred cooked cauliflower in food processor) mixed w/ ground beef (the cauli kind of disappears), and then mix in pizza or spaghetti sauce, top w/ grated parm. If you eat grains like couscous, rice, quinoa, etc. you can add different cooked veggies to that, mix w/ ground beef and stuff into a pepper half as well...and that's a great way to use up some extra leftover veggies from the previous night.

eta: I also try to group recipes w/ similar ingredients when possible. That way I don't end up throwing out half a bunch of cilantro or other less commonly used ingredients, kwim? So if we have a thai/curry type of dish or similar w/ cilantro one night, I'll try to make something like a tex mex chicken salad or something else that uses cilantro the 2nd night.

[JamiMac]

My favorite lately is a big pot of cooked pinto beans on night one.
Night two I mash the leftover beans and cook refried beans to use with a mexican meal, like tacos or quesadillas. The next night we have hamburgers using the leftover lettuce and tomato and onion from the mexican meal. It really does flow nicely!

[egoldber]

One favorite here.....

Make a big pot of black beans in a crockpot. Scoop out about half the beans and save. Make black bean soup with what's in the pot. This will usually last us 2-3 days alone.

Use the extra black beans for quesadillas, in chili, black beans and rice, tacos, etc.

[newmomm]

Roasted chicken or turkey breast one night, use the carcass during the week for soup. Roast beef one night, stew later that week with the leftovers. Ham on night, use the leftover ham in a quiche later in the week. The good thing about all these leftovers is I get to put lots of veggies in them!

Clare

[g-mama]

One favorite here.....

Make a big pot of black beans in a crockpot. Scoop out about half the beans and save. Make black bean soup with what's in the pot. This will usually last us 2-3 days alone.

Use the extra black beans for quesadillas, in chili, black beans and rice, tacos, etc.

Oh, how I wish my kids would eat black beans. I love them, but the sight of them brings out the "ewwwwwww's" and potty humor galore in my sons.....

[ohiomom1121]

My favorite is to make a roast with potatoes and baby carrots in the crock pot, then use the leftovers to make a beef vegetable soup. (DD will eat the roast and potatoes, DS will eat the potatoes and carrots and neither eats the soup, but DH and I love it!!)

[MontrealMum]

Do a large piece of salmon one night. (I'll usually do half a fish)

The following night you can make salmon loaf out of the leftovers which will last for a few more nights. I usually serve this with either peas or green beans and white sauce.

Then, you can use bits of salmon that are left to make a pot pie combined with the veg, carrots, potatoes, and the leftover white sauce (which you can replenish by adding more milk etc.)

I might also put the tiny bits of salmon that are left into my fettucine which I add artichoke hearts, black olives and sundried tomatoes to.

This can last us a whole week (2 adults, 1 child who eats tiny portions). Of course, this is a lot of fish in one week, so sometimes I freeze either the salmon loaf or pot pie to take out for later on in order to spread our fish servings out a bit.

OR

I do a large ham on Sun. We'll eat it sliced thinly for a few days with either pineapple or cranberries/lingonberries and a veg. on the side. Then I cut it into cubes and make a casserole of ham, pineapple, potatoes and a white sauce in a Pyrex. This can last maybe two more days.

I also do the roast idea described above by pp.

[linsei]

I just picked it up from the library and I'm drooling :) It is part of the Cook's Illustrated series, so I'm sure I won't be disappointed when I actually do make something.

The section on double duty cooking looks promising. For example, there is a recipe for 2 roast chickens with Garlic and Herb Jus followed by recipes that compliment the flavors for using the leftovers without it tasting like leftovers. (Ziti with chicken, chef salad, chicken and dumplings)

It also has recipes for other cuts of meat with recipes to use the leftovers.

Anyway, it seems like a good idea to have a plan for what to do with the leftover meat so you're not using italian flavored chicken in a mexican recipe later. Not that I've ever done that before...