Miscellaneous things with leftovers.

 I almost forgot about the last thin chuck steak from the stroganoff until I was frying potatoes and baking chicken for another meal. Grabbed it out, coated it in the same breading as the chicken and it wasn't quite chicken fried steak. It was at least coated in flavor, I may have cooked it a bit too long I think but then inspiration the next day happened.

 'Open Face Cottage Pie'

Cold leather meat is difficult to cut but I did it into 1/2 to 1 inch pieces. Used packaged brown gravy, about a half cup or so of mixed veggies, and the pieces of meat. Added some Italian seasoning and a pinch of salt and pepper. Whipped up a small batch of mashed potatoes and voila! It was dang tasty! 

I use a lot of my leftovers whenever possible during the week because of my schedule picking up grandkids. Three days a week I don't have all day so it's a perfect opportunity to use what's in the fridge and using the last of supplies at the end of the month.

Almost Carnitas Pork Roast-Crockpot version.

It's almost carnitas because I didn't have all the ingredients needed (I never seem to have oranges on hand when I need them) and didn't have time to marinate overnight. Instead of making tacos we put the meat on the rice. I only got a picture of the finished meal because what's to see? Meat cooking? So here's what I used:

 Cartnitas Seasoning+:

 

 1 tablespoon light brown sugar

 1½ teaspoons kosher salt

 1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

 1 teaspoon cumin

 1 teaspoon oregano

 1 teaspoon coriander

 ¼ teaspoon cayenne, or to taste

 

 1 yellow onion, peeled and quartered

 1 heaping teaspoon minced garlic (3 or 4 cloves)

 2 limes juiced, about ⅓ cup juice (discard the spent halves)(I used bottled lime juice about three tbl.)

 2 tsp lemon juice

 2 bay leaves

 

I took the (2 or 3 lbs maybe?) bone in pork butt shank (whatever the heck it was called) and was going to just score the skin but ended up cutting all the meat off in large chunks and taking the tougher outer skin off, leaving a good portion of the actual fat. Put those pieces in a bowl with just the spices and coated them thorougly. Quartered the onion and dropped those into the crock pot. Added the juices to the bowl of meat and tossed again, then dropped it all into the crock pot, moving things around so some of the onion was on top. Add the two bay leaves and crushed garlic on top. Be sure to have your crock pot plugged in..... only lost a half hour of cooking on that one, cook on high for 4-5 hours or until meat pulls apart easily.

Cook a batch of plain white rice, break up the meat into smaller chunks, spoon onto rice with the juices in the bottom, bits of onion and all that good stuff (remove the bay leaves). Absolutely delicious! More than enough meat and rice left over for the next day when I made...... 

Carnitas Soup

Leftover carnitas meat

1 c frozen mixed veggies

1 c beef broth/bullion (+3 tbl water)(or veggie broth or chicken, whatever)

1/2 c rice

1/2 can Rotel

 

Using the leftover meat and chilled juices/fat (about a cup or so) warm up in a saucepan. When that is warmed, add in the rice and stir around so the rice absorbs the juices. (Blogger is being a booger about putting photos in after publishing)

Add in the half can (1/2 c) Rotel. Stir and heat through then add in the cup of bullion/broth plus a little extra water. It honestly was delicious and reminiscent of chicken tortilla soup.

 

The Rotel I used was the fire roasted version so it was spicy but very good. I was going to use left over tomato sauce but decided on the Rotel. 

 

 

 

Two days of left overs from two meals. That's four days of food out of very little supplies. That's my kind of cooking when you're having to be frugal. Frugal gourmet has nothing on what this tiny kitchen can do!