If you have attended one of my Menu Planning Workshops then you have heard me mention Re-Purposing Meals. I typically give a few examples in my class; however, I have had several request for more examples and to show meals that I use and re-purpose.
This month, I have decided to start a series that will be featured every Friday on Re-Purposing Meals. I plan to show you a few of my favorites that I make in large batches, then I either serve that particular meat in different meals throughout the week or I freeze it and use it throughout the month.
I am a huge advocate of freezing leftovers. I hate wasting food; however, I quickly found that with the amount of cooking that I do sometimes it’s unavoidable. Now that I have a system down and typically have a good idea of how much we will eat of certain meals, I freeze a lot of what I cook. Most of the meals I make I am using only for my husband and I, so I will take 1/2 of the dish and freeze it for later. This works especially well with soups, stews, and chili. When I’m having a busy night, I simply put the frozen soup, stew, or chili in the crock pot and let it warm up all day until we are ready to eat dinner! This saves me time plus money because I am not running to the store buying more ingredients.
In saying this, there are several recipes in my recipe index that I have made by re-purposing meat from another meal.
Let’s get started on these ideas!
Day 1: Slow Cooker BBQ Chicken: If I were planning out to re-purpose chicken, I would start with Slow Cooker BBQ Chicken. I would likely double or triple the recipe so that I had plenty to use up during the week or throughout the month if I planned to freeze it and re-purpose it over the course of the month. This will need to be adjusted based on the size of your family and how many meals you want to get out of it.
Day 2: BBQ Shredded Chicken Burritos: Next up, I would use that same meat and prepare these BBQ Shredded Chicken Burritos.
Day 3: BBQ Spuds: Load up a spud with BBQ Chicken and make a BBQ Spud. These can easily be topped with all the favorites you have on hand to make a delicious dinner!
Day 4: BBQ Chicken Pizza: Enjoy a pizza night using that same chicken and create a BBQ Chicken Pizza! Simply, skip the steps to make the chicken because you already have that done and just build your pizza, bake, and enjoy!
Day 5: BBQ Chicken Salad: On the last day use the remaining BBQ Chicken and build yourself a wonderful salad full of your favorite toppings on some fresh green leafy lettuce! Add a little egg, tomato, and bacon plus drizzle with your favorite dressing and dinner is served!
Do you see where we are going with this series? It is simple to take one meal, Slow Cooker BBQ Chicken, and create many meals from it. Now, you may not want to eat 5 days of BBQ Chicken in a row, so you simply freeze the chicken after possibly day 2, then you have chicken to make some of these meals throughout the month.
The key is to take your leftovers and instead of feeling like you are eating the same dish until the leftovers are gone, create a new one!
What are some of your favorite ways to re-purpose chicken? Share them with us!
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Comments & Reviews
BBQ spuds! Genius! Can’t wait to try it!
Oh, I LOVE this new series. Can not wait to see what you come up with. I copied down some of these ideas and can’t wait to try them.
I also freeze any leftovers from dinners if I am not re-purposing them that week. Some idea are: Crockpot Carnitas Tacos-Carnitas burritos; Baked Chicken breasts-Chicken Salads-BBQ Chicken Baked Potatoes-Chicken Casseroles; this week I have Korean Bulgogi on the menu and with the other 1/2 of the meat I will make Smothered Beef Burritos.
Since it is only my husband and myself eating the main course of main since our baby boy isn’t, I usually split roasts, a lb of hamburger, etc in half and use it for 2 different recipes.