Do You Cook With Leftovers Or Create Nextovers

I have friends, you know who you are, that say they never eat leftovers. Well at this present time in our lives, I bet my friends aren’t throwing out their leftovers. Of course, you can just reheat what you have left and eat the exact same meal the next day for lunch or dinner but that can get boring. Instead of reheating leftovers, why not create nextovers.

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Classic Meatloaf With Brown Gravy

Meatloaf Topped With A Warm Mexican Salsa

Meatloaf Sandwich With Caramelized Onions On Foccacia

What…you’ve never heard the term nextovers before? The idea is to prepare a larger amount of something you would normally make when cooking a meal for your family and repurpose a portion of it for an additional meal. Instead of baking one meatloaf, buy a little more meat and then divide the meatloaf mixture in half. Season each one with different seasonings then bake both meatloaves at the same time. For the first night’s dinner, top the traditionally seasoned meatloaf with a brown gravy and serve it with mashed potatoes for a classic comfort meal. Take that second meatloaf seasoned with Mexican spices and previously baked, reheat it topped with a warm salsa and serve it with corn for a delicious Mexican inspired meal. Another thought would be to turn that second meatloaf into gourmet meatloaf sandwiches that are topped with caramelized onions and homemade truffled ketchup served on herbed focaccia with a simple green salad on the side.

If you are still able to go to your local markets to buy meat, produce, etc., then try to think about how many different meals you can make for your family when you buy a package of ground meat, a box of pasta, a bag of rice or dried beans.

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White Beans With Lemon Parmesan Dressing

Italian Pasta With Beans And Greens

Make a big pot of cannellini beans and serve part as a warm bean salad topped with sautéed chicken. On another night use the remainder of the beans to make an Italian comfort meal of pasta, beans and greens for a healthy and hearty meal.

In this challenging time in our lives, when most of us are preparing our meals from what we have in our pantry, our refrigerator and freezer we need to be creative. Instead of going to our local markets on a whim to see if we can get inspired for what we are going to serve our family that evening, many of us are working from what we have been lucky enough to find in previous weeks. Some of us, need to make every single item in our kitchen go as far as it can to feed our families a nutritious meal.

By planning ahead on how you can create two or more meals each time you cook, it will help make life a little less stressful. So…to my friends that don’t like the idea of eating leftovers, just plan differently and start preparing nextovers.