Monday, April 20, 2009

How I make a Roast stretch!!

So, I am what you call
the "Meanest mom on the block" because unless someone has requested a birthday dinner of roast beef and potatoes and gravy, this meal rarely gets fixed at my house. I know, my kids and hubby are deprived, however, they never seem to mind. That is what makes going to my parents house so fun is my mom usually fixes this kind of meal and so it is a real TREAT for us!
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My frugal mindset can't handle cooking up a roast and having us gorge ourselves full of "Meat and potatoes" and so I am going to share
"How I make a roast stretch"!!

First,
I take a roast and put in my crock pot
before I go to bed and then it cooks all night and day
and by the time it's dinnertime it is just falling off the bones.

The first meal we have with our roast is FAJITAS!!
I saute up 2 onions and 2 bell peppers until they are tender
and also chop up tomatoes.
We then put a small helping of roast on a tortilla,
with a little bit of cheese
and put it in our toaster oven until the cheese is melted.
We then top this with a big pile of sauteed onions/bell peppers
and tomatoes and a little dollop of sour cream.
This is SO yummy!
(I KNOW this isn't the best photo, but it's the best of the photos I took of this!)
The next day

we get leftover roast beef sandwiches for lunch
and if we have left over onions/bell peppers
these go on the sandwiches as well.
I drain off the juice from the roast
and let it sit in the fridge over night
and then the next day I pull off all of the fat on the top of the drippings
and then put the drippings in a snack size bag
in the freezer with bags of the rest of the roast.
This is then ready to FREEZE and pull out for future soups!!
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Here are 2 yummy recipes
to use leftover roast/gravy!

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Vegetable Beef Soup
(great way to use your leftover roast)

In a large pot add a little bit of olive oil
1 chopped
onion

1 chopped
bell pepper

(any left over roast that you have…I usually add in 1/3 cup of chopped roast)

Cook until onion and pepper are soft


Then add in:

1 large
potato diced

1 cup
chopped carrots

1 cup chopped celery
1 cup
chopped cabbage
2 cans diced tomatoes (OR 3 or 4 cups diced tomatoes)
6 cups
water

1 tsp
salt

¼ tsp Basil
¼ tsp
Thyme

½ cup
barley


Bring to a boil and cook for 1 hour.

Enjoy!
Wonderful served with homemade bread and this tastes better the next day.

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How Frugal is this meal?
roast---.50
onion/bell pepper---.75
potato---.10
celery/carrots---.40
cabbage---.25
2 cans tomatoes---1.58
barley---.26
.......................
Total---$3.84

We fed 4 people 1 dinner
and 4 people 1 lunch
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Minestrone
(pretty much a "vegetarian meal")
1 Tbsp
olive oil

1 large
diced onion

1-2 cloves minced garlic
1 cup
sliced carrots

1 tsp
basil

1 can
Italian tomatoes (undrained)

3 beef bouillon
cubes with 6 cups water
(OR, pull a bag of leftover "roast drippings" from the freezer and add in enough water to make 6 cups)
2 cups
finely chopped cabbage

1 can
Great Northern Beans (undrained)

1 cup
Spinach (OR, 1 cup chopped zucchini)


Cook
onions, carrots, garlic and basil in olive oil for 5 minutes.
Add tomatoes, beef bouillon and cabbage.
Bring soup to boil and cook for 1 hour.
Add beans with liquid and spinach and cook another 20 minutes.

Garnish bowls with freshly grated Parmesan cheese.
This tastes even better the 2nd day.
This is my kids favorite and it’s SO easy and healthy!!
Great served with homemade bread!

***************

How Frugal is this meal?
Onion---.24
garlic---.10
carrots---.25
tomatoes---.79
Beef bouillion---.30
cabbage---.40
canned beans---.59
spinach/zucchini FREE (from our garden)
.......................
Total--$2.67

This meal fed 4 people 1 dinner
and 3 people 1 lunch
******************

6 comments:

  1. OH I JUST LOVE THIS!! Thanks for sharing your recipes and ideas of using a roast. We have a couple roasts, but my husband doesn't like roast and potatos anymore. I know CRAZY! He was sick once while eating.....

    This is for sure happening at our house.
    Have a great day.
    Sandra

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  2. I love this post and can relate. Just today I bought a Beef Brisket (see I am even too cheap to buy a "roast" roast - ha ha!) I do the same kind of thing. I will cook it 24 hours and make BBQ beef sandwiches and then use the meat in taco's and then save the rest for some kind of soup.
    Great minds think alike. I don't think it is mean at all. It is good food and it is thrifty and a good way to stretch a dollar.

    You rock!!

    Oh and I TOTALLY LOVE your Minestrone recipe!! YUMMO!

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  3. Nice way to stretch a roast. I'll look forward to trying your soup b/c I haven't done that with roast before.

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  4. I don't usually cook my roast that long...think I'll try it next time. I just made one last week for company and it was ALL gone except a few carrots and potatoes.

    You're not a mean mama...you're a smart one!

    Thanks for sharing those recipes...my family loves soup!

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  5. Yum!
    That Minestrone is calling my name.

    Ok..If you feel guilty buying a roast then maybe you don't ever want to visit me. Seriously?
    I know now that you would really be sick seeing my grocery shopping.

    The only time I feel guilty is when Chad and I go out to eat and we spend more than we should have...
    I always think I'm being frugal until I read your posts! LOL!

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  6. You are so cleaver!! All those meals look so tasty! I need to learn how to cook meat. Usually Mark is the one who cooks the "big hunks of meat". I stick with chicken or hamburger. No one ever taught me how to cook, so I still have lots to learn. Can you believe that from the Smith house? LOL. Great Post!

    ReplyDelete