Cooking a big meal and using some of the prepped meat, pasta or grains later is a great way to save both money and time.
A cook once, eat twice strategy can easily be applied to practically every cooking style and cuisine. If you know you’ve got a busy week ahead, some kitchen pre-work can make all the difference. Here are some ideas for how you can cook once and eat twice.
Chicken
Buy a couple of chickens (two to three pounds each) and roast them. If time is really tight, you can also pick up rotisserie chickens. Serve one for dinner and use the meat from the second bird to make one of these recipes:
- Mexican: Chicken Enchiladas
- Italian: Creamy Italiano Chicken and Pasta
- Asian: Thai Cashew Chicken Stir-fry with Rice
- Skillet: Easy Broccoli and Chicken Skillet
- Salad: Thai Chicken and Basil Noodle Salad
Pot Roast
There’s nothing better than pot roast for Sunday dinner with vegetables and a salad. Try these ideas for using the leftover beef:
- Italian: shred the meat and simmer in Prego® sauce before tossing with cooked, drained pasta.
- Sandwich: replace the seared beef in Saucy Steak Sandwiches with shredded leftover pot roast.
- Skillet: use chunks of leftover beef in place of the sirloin steak in our One-Dish Beef Stroganoff
Pork
After roasting a pork loin try the leftovers in:
- Mexican: enchiladas. Simmer chunks of pork in Pace® Salsa, wrap in flour tortillas and top with enchilada sauce and Monterey Jack cheese. Bake until cheese is melted and sauce is bubbly.
- Asian: a stir-fry, replace the beef with leftover pork strips in our Beef and Orange stir fry
- Sandwich: Combine leftover pork with the flavours from our Pulled Pork Recipe
- Soup: Pork Ramen
Turkey (Whole or Breast)
Sure, cold turkey sandwiches are great, but there’s so much more you can do with the leftovers. Give any of these recipes a try.