How to Get Several Meals Out of One Roast

Times are quite tough these days, and it's even harder to make your food dollar stretch through the week. I'm finding myself buying more generic products instead of the brand names I'm used to just to make my budget go a little further. One thing I was always guilty of was making more food for dinner than we could eat and not all dinners were finished up as left overs as I had hoped for. One of our favorite meals in our house is my beef stroganoff which I could always be assured would be completely finished as left overs. However, I was wasting an entire roast which even though it gave us a few dinners and lunches of left over stroganoff, it gets boring eating the same food for a few days, even though my stroganoff is quite honestly, the best. Here's a few suggestions that you can get from one roast, I prefer bottom round for these meals, which is approximately four to six pounds.

Meal One - I slice off a few pieces about a quarter inch in thickness. I then cut those slices into bite-size chunks, throw them in a bowl, sprinkle with paprika and soak them in a bath of any cheap red/burgundy wine. Wrap the balance of the roast up for another day, but make sure to wrap it air tight. Once you have all your cut up meat soaking in wine, brown some chopped onion in a skillet over medium high heat. Once the onions are opaque you can then add the beef by using a slotted spoon and pressing out some of the wine. Brown the beef pieces all over, cover the skillet and simmer, stirring occasionally, for about an hour until the meat is really tender. During this process you should add a packet of brown gravy mix with a cup of water to the beef.

Make sure you constantly have liquid in the skillet. I also add a little Gravy Master during this time to heighten the beef flavor. Once your beef is tender enough you want to make sure your gravy is nice and thick so it sticks to the noodles. You can do this by adding another packet of brown gravy mix, using just enough water to make a thick but pourable paste to add to the skillet. Once you have a nice thick gravy, turn the stove down to low and slowly add sour cream (I use light) stirring until it is all incorporated. Make some egg noodles and place them in a bowl. I usually make about 8-12 ounces of noodles for this meal.

Add the beef and gravy to the bowl and stir it all up so its all mixed together. Leave this bowl sitting inside your microwave so the gravy thickens and sticks nicely to the noodles. This should yield about six to eight meals and is great as a left over meal. It actually becomes much creamier by the next day and is wonderful heated up. So now you have enough to feed two to four for dinner and a couple lunches or another dinner the next day.

Meal Two - Need a nice simple dinner for two? Pull that left over roast out of the fridge and slice several very thin pieces off the roast. Again, re-wrap the leftover and put it back in the fridge. Now you can brown some sliced onion in a skillet and then add the slices of beef to brown quickly. Place the beef slices on the bottom half of a hoagie roll, top with onion and your favorite cheese and place under a broiler just long enough to get the cheese melted if necessary. Coat the top of the bun with mayonnaise and then enjoy. This makes a tasty and quick steak sandwich anytime and pair this with some french fries if you desire.

Meal Three - Okay, you should now have just enough roast left over to make a quick oven pot roast. What I do is coat the whole outside of the roast with garlic salt and pepper and place in a roasting pan. Since the roast will be quite small at this point, place a meat thermometer in the center of it and place in a 350 degree oven for about a half hour or so. Make sure to pull the roast out when it reaches about 130 degrees or a little less as the meat will continue to cook. This will give you a nice lightly rare roast in the middle and some more well done slices on each end of the roast. Make a packet of brown gravy mix on the side and serve over slices of the roast. Serve with a side of vegetables or salad.

There you go. Three different meals out of one roast that can actually serve two for many days in many ways.