I believe in recycling everything – even leftovers. My boys (includes hubby) will eat anything the first time, but I have a problem getting them to eat leftovers the next day so out of necessity have come up with some reworking of leftovers. This way I can create one meal that requires the usual amount of time and then the next night come up with something else that doesn’t and will leave me with more time to blog – he, he. Here are some of my meals and their rework the next night:

Roast with carrots and potatoes - next night potpie.

When you get ready to put the leftovers up, separate the roast, carrots and potatoes from the juice and store them in separate containers. Chunk up the meat when you do this. The next night heat up the juice and thicken it with a little cornstarch, throw in some frozen peas, can or corn, leftover roast, potatoes and carrots until just heated. Place in a casserole dish and cover with a piecrust (either homemade or store bought) and heat in a 350 degree oven until crust is brown.

Shrimp one night – seafood Quesadillas the next night.

Actually this can be done with any meat or even roasted vegetables. Just chunk up the meat or vegetables, butter both sides of a tortilla, brown one side of the tortilla in a pan and when you flip it over to brown the other side, layer cheese and meat and/or vegetables. Fold in half and heat until cheese is melted. Serve with sour cream and picante sauce, beans & rice.

Grilled chicken – next night enchiladas

Chunk up the chicken, roll it and some cheese up in a corn tortilla and place seam side down in a casserole dish. Add a couple of cans of Old El Paso Enchilada sauce (comes in red or green) top with cheese and heat at 350 for about 30 minutes.

Also you can cook some spaghetti and heat up some sauce and add the chunked up chicken to the sauce at the last minute, just long enough to heat up the chicken. Serve with bread and a salad.

Steak and potatoes one night – next night soup

Chunk up steak and any leftover potatoes when you put it up. The next night chop up some onion and garlic, sauté it in a pan with a little olive oil, add 2 or 3 cans of beef stock and simmer for 30 minutes. Add chunked up meat, potatoes, some canned vegetables and cook until heated. Serve with crackers and grated cheese.

Any kind of meat macaroni & cheese – casserole the next night

The next night mix the meat and macaroni & cheese together, add some Velveeta cheese and heat in the oven for 30 minutes. You can also add any leftover vegetables – this also works with leftover spaghetti, just put spaghetti, sauce, meat and some more cheese into a casserole dish and heat in oven.

Any kind of meat and roasted vegetables – sandwiches, or pizza

Slice the meat rather thin and build a sandwich with it and the veggies, or get one of the ready made pizza crust and some pizza sauce, add the already cooked meat, veggies and some cheese to the top of it and heat until cheese is melted.

You see the theme here – I can get the guys to eat anything if I add cheese to it. Any of these ideas will work thrown into the freezer and pulled out the next week for the rework meal. I just pull it out of the freezer that morning, before I leave for work and let it defrost in the fridge then create the rework meal when I get home that night.

Tell me your ideas on reworking meals for a second helping.