Monday, June 16, 2008

Menu Plan Monday: Party Leftovers!


Welcome back to Menu Plan Monday! This week has raced by. I've learned my lesson about inviting guests over for dinner with only a week's notice to clean, cook, shop, and finish redecorating the bathroom! Or maybe it's that I've learned my lesson about leaving the house so messy that it takes a week to clean up . . . .

Anyway, we planned the amount of food for the party pretty well so we only had a few odds and ends, mostly half a can of this or a handful of leftover fruit. Guess where I've incorporated the party leftovers into this week's meals!

Monday: Beef Tacos
Tuesday: Cambodian Chicken Soup (first time trying this recipe--it uses coconut milk, pineapple, and shredded chicken, so I'll be able to clean out the fridge a little!)
Wednesday: Corn Chowder
Thursday: Meatloaf

You might notice that this menu bears some resemblance to last week's menus. The corn chowder was a big hit and was very cheap to make, and I messed up the meatloaf by doubling it and then mis-measuring the amount of beef involved, so it ended up being basically two large hunks of flavorless, cooked beef. Hubs was very sweet, but the leftovers didn't disappear like they usually do, so I thought I'd surprise him with the "correct" version this week.

I also don't usually serve soup two nights in a row, but I had to plan this week's menus in order with the earliest-expiring foods going first. Hubs found some homemade chicken stock thawed in the fridge that I had completely forgotten about, so I plan to use that up in both the soups, hopefully before it goes bad. I hate wasting good food.

So . . . any ideas on how to reuse tasteless, leftover meatloaf?

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

The only thing I can think of for the meatloaf is to cut it into little chunks and make a gravy for it and serve over noodles. Good luck!

Laura said...

Oo, there's a thought! Hubs definitely likes him some comfort food!

Unknown said...

Crumble up the meatloaf and use it in spaghetti or chili, or even as taco meat, if you can get it in small enough pieces.

Also, you could make a shepherd's pie with it - add in some veggies and top with mashed potatoes.

Hope that helps!

Laura said...

Those are such great ideas--now I have a head start on next week's menus! Thanks for stopping by!

cakeybakes said...

Definitely put it in spaghetti sauce or lasagna. That way, you get lots of extra flavor.