What to do with leftover tough roast

I'm writing this post mostly because I cooked a roast yesterday and even though I thought I had done everything right, it turned out tough. Gosh I hate tough roast. I would rather not eat meat at all than eat tough meat. The problem is, I am not a waster. You probably aren't either. So, I thought I would peruse the web to find out what other people do with leftover tough roast.

Well, to my dismay I found practically nothing. Most people posted on their blog that they would try to re-cook it a different way to tenderize it. If you have been cooking for any length of time at all, you will know this won't work. Once it's done, it's done. All you can hope to do now is find a way to use the meat that is palatable.

Now I will interject a note here. I did find 1 or 2 comments on how to use the leftover meat. Some said that you could slice it thin against the grain and make meat sandwiches. That does help somewhat, but my kids won't eat chewy meat and if you can imagine taking a bit into that meat sandwich and when you pull your mouthful away from the sandwich, the bread, tomatoes, etc stays in your mouth but the tough meat just yanks itself back into the sandwich. You know what I mean. My kids won't touch that. I won't either.

A suggestion to cube it and use it in stew will work with some meats, but if the cubes are too tough to grind between your teeth, you can imagine the empty soup bowls being handed back to you with all the discarded meat remaining in the bowl. Not a success.

Well I will tell you what my dad used to do with leftover tough or dried-out roast. He had a meat grinder. You know, one of those that clamped to the side of the table and you put the food down into the hopper and then you turned the handle while the food was forced past a cork-screw shaped blade and came out the other end in tiny little pieces resembling fine-crumb cooked hamburger. It would all fall down into a strategically-placed bowl on the table. Then, he would run a dill pickle or two through the meat grinder. The dill pickle would then get stirred into the meat, and mayonnaise added to make a nice sandwich spread consistency.

I remember this so tasty and we just loved it in our sandwiches. I think I have an old meat grinder somewhere in the basement...but the truth is, it's so much easier to do it with a food processor and still works great. Most people don't have one of those old meat grinders anyway.

So here's what you do: Take the meat and cube it into chunks for ease of processing. Drop them in and process into it's small tiny shreds of meat. You choose how much to process, but don't go overboard and process it into powder.

There is a lot more you can do with it than just make meat sandwich filling. If you do want sandwich filling, only chop enough pickles to make what you can use right away. Don't process your pickles; they will turn to water. Just mince with a knife. Then add the mayo.

If you have a lot of meat shreds after processing, separate into 1/2-cup or 1-cup baggies and freeze some. Here is a list of ideas of what you can do with this transformed-to-lovely, already-cooked meat:

• sandwich spread
• taco meat
• add to casseroles
• add to soups/stews
• add to spaghetti sauce
• add to chili
• make into hash
• add bbq sauce for beef on a bun
• make a beef pie
• use your imagination

Have fun with this. It is a great way to use a piece of meat that just didn't want to melt in your mouth.

Packed lunches

Whether you have 1 lunch to pack every day, or 7, you will love having a quick, easy and cheap way to get this done!

The first thing to do is plan ahead. Make a list of items you need. Lunch kits, containers for food, thermos, water bottle, etc. Also, you need a plan of what to pack into that lunch kit. You can save a ton of time and money buy not buying prepackaged convenience foods to pack into the lunches.

I keep a couple of great lunch cookbooks handy as well as a list of lunch food ideas I have made myself.




This great cookbook will keep a fabulous assortment of quick easy cheap meals right at your fingertips. This book receives a 5 Star rating from me for it's easy, kid-friendly foods. Being vegan makes it easy on the budget as meat is often the expensive trump card. However, protein is very important and high quality non-meat proteins are used.

If you're really going cheap on packing lunches, I don't recommend the lap-top lunch boxes (pictured on the front of the cookbook) because they really do cost more money. However, if you are in this lunch-packing business for the long term, then I suggest you do invest in good quality lunch kits that will last a LOOOOONG time.

If you are interested in learning more about the laptop lunchbox system, you can find it through this link:

Laptop Lunch Systems

Preparing as much of your packed lunches as you can the night before will really save you time in the rush of the morning. Have family members all participate in peeling carrots, buttering bread, filling water bottles, etc. Gget the family into a routine the night before or (after school if evenings are busy), so that they expect to be helping to pack lunches. This way they also get more input as to what and how much they will eat. This saves a lot of food going to waste. And saving money is what we're trying to accomplish here, while serving and eating nutritious food.

For more ideas including which lunch kits are the best for your time and money, see Kids Healthy School Lunch Ideas here:

http://kids-healthy-school-lunch-ideas.blogspot.com/2010/02/best-lunch-kits-hands-down.html