I don’t know about you, but for me, the less cooking and grocery shopping I have to do for a busy week, the better.
Especially now that school is in full swing and our schedules are becoming fuller by the nanosecond.
Sigh. The afternoons at the pool have come to an end, as have the leisurely Saturdays spent splashing around at the lake.
But enough lamenting, let’s get back to REAL LIFE!
You know, where we actually have to feed our families and stay on a budget? Oh yeah, and attend 3 sporting events, a school meeting, piano practice, and the list goes on…
So, how is it possible to keep your sanity and still serve your family wholesome meals that are made with real food in real kitchens and a limited budget? I have two simple solutions for you:
- The Slow Cooker
- Stretching Your Meat
The Slow Cooker
Can we say time-saver?!
The slow cooker is an all around time saver and kitchen helper. From homemade chicken stock, to baking bread, and beans from scratch, there’s frequently something in my slow cooker! But one of my favorite uses is of course to cook once, and eat several times. Can I get an Amen?
My second tip is something that you may not have much experience with, but once I teach you this trick, you will feel like a rock-star! And I will save you hours in the kitchen. Go ahead and get down with your bad self and do a little dance to celebrate!
Stretching One Roast
Think about the word stretch for a minute. You can stretch your time, stretch your wallet AND stretch your energy, all by stretching your meat! Here’s my simple trick:
Whatever meat happens to be on sale or calling my name from my freezer, I feature in as many recipes and in as many ways as I can throughout a week.
Today I’m featuring the pork loin, which happens to go on great sales at all of my local stores.
(You don’t eat pork? All of these recipes I am sharing with you can be subbed out for boneless, skinless chicken.)
I start with a pork loin that is about 5 1/2 pounds (this does not have to be exact!). Then, I take the huge piece of meat over to the meat counter and very sweetly ask my butcher to cut the pork loin for me. (Yes, they will do this for you, no charge—with or without your sweet smile, but it doesn’t hurt to be nice!)
I ask the butcher to cut into 2 equal pieces. Then I finish up my run to the grocery store, feeling satisfied that my dinners for the week are as easy as throwing a few things into the crock-pot – with a few extra dollars left in my wallet.
So back to the meat and the meal planning.
I do not plan on feeding my family a simple pork roast every night.
NO WAY! Not in my house! My children may not complain about eating the same food everyday (as long as it was something they love), but I on the other hand, would. I like variety and flavor.
So we are going to turn that pork into two amazing, mouth-watering creations that are incredibly delicious and can be transformed into so many amazing dishes throughout the week. Your taste buds won’t believe you’re eating on a time constraint and budget!
*These portions are based on a 4 generous servings per meal.
Stretching One Pork Loin into 7 Meals
Dinner #1: Pulled Pork with Coleslaw (Slow Cooker Meal)
Oh, how I love a good barbecue sandwich. But let me tell you it is truly taken over the top by throwing some slaw up on top of that sandwich. You may use up a few extra napkins with this meal, but it is well worth it!
Before allowing your family inhale the entire batch of BBQ, pack away about 2 pounds of the cooked meat for later use in the week. (I love these glass storage containers for leftovers!)
Money Saving Tip: Buy one large head of cabbage to shred yourself. Use half the cabbage for the coleslaw and save the other half for the Mexican slaw later in the week.
Dinner #2: Mexican Carnitas with Slaw (Slow-Cooker)
I cannot even begin to tell you how much I love these carnitas… or tacos… whatever you call them!! The meat is so juicy and so flavorful and perfectly seasoned. Topped with a crunchy lime slaw, these carnitas become an eruption of flavor and texture in every bite.
Again, be sure to set aside about half of this meat mixture for later in the week.
Note From Tiffany: If you’re following along, you’ll notice that you’ve used your slow cooker to cook each half of the pork loin, for two separate meals. From here on out, you’re using leftover pork loin to cover the remaining five meals.
Dinner #3: Grilled Barbecue Pizza
Um, yes, I know. This sounds insane and it is!
Grilling your pizza dough keeps it tender and crispy in every bite. And then topping that flame fired dough with nearly a pound of meat and smothering in cheese, well, it is a MASTERPIECE!
Note from Tiffany: If you have trouble with your dough falling through the grate like we did, try using a cast iron pizza pan. This works great!
Dinner #4: Mexican Shredded Pork Bowl
You are now about to embark on a mission of morphing. By morphing, I mean you are going to take your leftovers and transform them into something new and amazing!
The Mexican Carnitas you had in meal two will now become the base for an amazing Mexican stew that I love to serve over rice as a “Mexican Shredded Pork Bowl.” However, if rice is not your thing, add an extra can of beans and a few cups of chicken stock to the recipe and you have a hearty soup that you can top with shredded cheese, a squeeze of lime, and a few tortilla chips.
Either way, you will have a completely new and satisfying meal!
And this new creation makes such a large dish that it will be enough for your family to have two dinners from it!
*So be sure to save half of it!
Dinner #5: Baked Potato Bar
One of my family’s favorite BBQ restaurant features a loaded baked potato piled high with any pulled meat of your choice, butter, cheese, scallions, sour cream, bacon, and of course barbecue sauce. I adore this restaurant creation.
The best part about it – it is SO EASY to create at home.
In the morning, I scrub either sweet potatoes or russet potatoes (or a combination of the two) and wrap them in foil. I place them back in my good old slow cooker and set to low. In eight hours, you will have the most tender potatoes!
When they’re cool enough to handle, pull them out of the slow cooker and load them up! I prefer to top a sweet potato with the shredded pork and some sharp cheddar cheese and serve with a salad. That is perfection in simplicity in my opinion.
My hubbie, however, prefers butter, bacon and chopped onions along with his meat and cheese. Guess what? The options are endless and the choice is yours. The potatoes are ready, the meat is sitting in the fridge. Just use whatever else you have in your kitchen!
Note: If you forget to get your potatoes in the slow cooker in the morning (who does that?!), try one of these quick and easy ways to bake potatoes!
Dinner #6: Shredded Pork Nachos
Remember that Mexican Pork Bowl you made on meal four? The one where you set half of it aside?
Well, pull out the leftovers and heat up that Mexican stew.
Pour it generously onto tortilla chips and throw some additional cheese on the “stew.” Melt the cheese under the broiler or in the microwave, and then top it with your favorite taco toppings like lettuce, chopped tomatoes and diced onions.
Dinner #7: Clean out the fridge!
You did it – you have created 6 delicious meals to feed your family. And it was pretty easy wasn’t it?
So for the final night of the week, take a look in your fridge. My advice is to set out all the leftovers and let your family go to town.
If you are pretty cleaned out, what about a cooking a box of pasta and tossing with some butter and garlic? Super easy, and probably something you have in your pantry.
Or if it is in your budget (and after saving all that money at the grocery store this week, it just might be), take the night off from cooking and treat your family to a night out.
And don’t you dare feel guilty! You worked hard at sticking to a budget and cooking REAL food for your family!
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So let me ask you: what is your favorite way to get creative with leftovers to “morph” into a new creation?
This post was written by Kristen from A Mind “Full” Mom.
Thanks for letting me share my frugal food advice Tiffany! I hope you enjoy your celebrating your sweet Grandma and the sunshine!
You’re most welcome Kristen! Thanks so much for allowing me to relax for a few days!!
Others for leftover pork:
Pork fried rice
Tacos al pastor
Cuban sandwich
Monte Cristo sandwich
Great ideas!!
Leftover. I started to make just enough for supper with no leftover. I took a roast and made three different meals. This week the store had ground turkey on sale for less then 2.40 a pound vs. 3,99 to 4.99 lb for hamburger. We be eating chicken and turkey this week.
Great job improvising with what’s on sale Ms. P 🙂
I also like to do pork like this. Though I would use a cheaper shoulder or butt roast rather than a tenderloin for this. I love the Mexican and barbecue iterations (we do this with a vinegary Eastern NC style sauce). Additionally, we do the pork slow cooked with hoisin and served with some Asian inspired cabbage slaw. I love posts about morphing leftovers! I am always looking for new ideas.
I’m not very familiar with the cuts of pork, so I appreciate the options Tarynkay. Your Asian variation sounds good! Wrapped in buttercup lettuce leaves? YUM!
My favorite frugal/ week long meal is a whole chicken. My husband and I eat organic so that is the cheapest per pound that we can find. If I can find them under 1.49/lb I will literally buy every single one. I actually found a whole organic chicken for 1.19/lb a few weeks ago because it was close to the expiration, and this is what I did with it. Keep in mind this is only for two people and we are big eaters.
Meal One (2 Servings) – Baked Chicken (Bake the whole thing at 425 with lots of fresh herbs and garlic. We normally finish off one breast and a leg like this)
Meal Two (normally 4 servings)- Chicken Soup (The next day I put the whole carcass with veggie scraps from my freezer in the crock pot to make stock, then I strain and remove all bits of chicken I can find, I make soup with whatever veggies are in the house, about 2/3 cup chicken, and the broth)
Meal Three (normally 4-6 Servings)- Chicken Pot Pie (Whatever is left of the soup I add to the leftover chicken. I then make a light roux to thicken the mixture and add a little cream and extra veggies to plump it up. I add this to a pie shell)
I can get six full meals, for two, out of one Whole chicken. Literally winner winner chicken dinner 🙂 If I really wanted to make it stretch instead of having a night of JUST chicken meat and a veg I would turn the breast and leg into fajita fillings to add 4-6 more servings (2-3 more meals)
Chicken is the most affordable cut of meat we can find too, which is why it’s on our menu so often! I like your idea of adding the roasted carcass – with the meat intake (minus the other breast and leg, I assume?) so that the chicken falls off directly into the soup. And then using leftover soup for pot pie? Genius! Thanks so much for sharing CeCee!! (And don’t be surprised to see a variation of this combo in a future meal plan. 😉 ).
7 meals from one piece of meat is pretty impressive, Kristen – I’m pinning your carnitas recipe now. I often do pulled pork in the crock pot, but use a butt roast. I love that we can eat it twice and still have extra leftover for lunch sandwiches, or set aside some to share with others!
I love the slow cooker/crock pot! And I’m all about the crock pot pulled pork. We make it with an Asian flare, and then turn it into a Pho of sorts with Miracle Noodles and lots of veggies. After that, it becomes part of an Asian inspired salad! Our other favorite is a rotisserie style crock pot chicken, that the next night becomes a big batch of white bean chicken chili (leftovers are frozen for quick go-to meals!).
The picture looks really yummy! However, I wouldn’t buy pork meat at all. One reason for this in my case is that my husband is Muslim and doesn’t eat it and the other reason is that I get information about how animals are kept by an animal rights association. I live in Austria / Europe. Actually all is very natural here and many people care about the environment and organic food and still… Seeing the pictures and hearing about all the lies and most of all seeing the low prices for meat: how much food will an animal need to grow (also grains)! It is not so cheap! And then all the costs for killing it, cutting it, transporting it, the share of the supermarkets… Something is wrong… This association reported that pork meat can be so cheap because the animals are kept very badly and grown in super quick conditions. Being an Italian, I was used to eating salami and prosciutto and it was a shock for me to hear and see these bad things and stop eating them. Sometimes when I really miss that ham taste, I do buy an organic one.
My husband says that according to the Quran, pork meat can transmit many diseases to us and contains a lot of uric acid. What about chicken then? Well… It would be an alternative but it is also mostly incredibly cheap and instead of growing slowly with good food over some months, a chicken is forced to grow very rapidly within 4 weeks. Another couple of things changed my mind: my daughter has become a vegetarian and in addition of this some people I know have arthrosis and I have just read that this disease is caused by a high consumption of animal proteins. Because of this I am trying to avoid dairy produce, meat etc. and I was really happy to find your recipes about nut milk! My husband usually makes a milkshake as a kind of ‘lunch’ for work but I want to try your milk recipes for us. 😉 Thank you!
Hi Sabrina,
Tiffany has many vegetarian meals in her plan/on her site too that I’m sure you and your husband would LOVE. (you would just have to substitute the chicken stock for vegetable stock) I understand your ethics for the no animal products and respect that. I wish you much luck in your journey. 🙂 She (Tiffany) also has many high protein smoothie recipes too that you could use for your husbands lunch and her ebook High Protien No Powder is definitely worth the $10-12 that it cost, it has lots of fruits and nuts etc.
where is the recipe listed for the pork? I just dont see it on this page. I just see the ideas for the week.
it is the first picture on this page with the comments 😉
I dont see it 🙁 can you send me the recipe for the pork. Thanks !
Here you go Barbara:
http://amindfullmom.com/pulled-pork-and-homemade-coleslaw/
http://amindfullmom.com/pork-carnitas-for-the-crock-pot-with-mexican-slaw/
You just earned a new subscriber! As a brand new SAHM my husband and I have to start cutting corners to stretch his paycheck. So far I’ve only found recipes that I’m not interested in or meal plans that call for a ton of ingredients. This post is exactly what I was looking for. I can’t wait to try these. Thank you SO MUCH!
You’re most welcome Kari – welcome to Crumbs!!
Excited to find this! I have a huge pork tenderloin in my freezer and I love cooking once and having it stretch over a few meals. Will definitely be giving it a try! Thanks! 🙂
I forgot to mention that I love the baked potato bar. We used to do it all the time when our boys were at home. I would make groupings of toppings and everyone could choose as long as there was at least one from each group. My kids, at least, were much happier about eating a green veg, for example, if they could choose the one they liked.
My previous comment didn’t post. Trying again.
Two of my favorite ways to,use leftover pork is in enchiladas and a cassoulet-like casserole. Both dishes include beans so they can turn that little end piece into a main dish.
Add the pork to beans flavored with onions, garlic and whatever seasonings you like. To make it quick I use a barren green salsa for the sauce and I stack the tortillas with filling and cheese between. A stack of five works for me. Top with sauce and cheese and bake.
Add chopped or sliced pork to a cooked mixed veg mixture–onions, carrots, celery, zucchini, sweet peppers, mushrooms, fennel, basically whatever you can find lurking in the crisper–and a can or two of white beans (cannellni, navy, great northern). Put in a shallow baking dish or casserole and add enough broth to just come to the top of the veg mix. Top with a mix of bread crumbs, Parm cheese, parsley (if you have it), and a little olive oil. Bake until bubbly and golden brown on top. Serve with crusty bread.
Yum – thank you for sharing these recipes!!
That’s JARRED green salsa. Auto correct made it “barren” green salsa!
I am so thankful to have stumbled upon this post! I’ve never done anything like this before so I am crossing my fingers it goes smoothly for me too 🙂 I am so excited to have found a way to save some money at the store and I already have 4.88 lbs of pork loin in my freezer!! Yay 🙂
My husband recently graduated and we’re definitely struggling to find ways to feed our family. I didn’t even realize you could stretch one thing of meat like this. So thank you!
I was wondering which leftover meat you use for the bbq pizza? I’m assuming it would be the leftover from meal 1 since you use leftover meat from meal 2 in meal 4. Is that right?
Do you have any other posts like this? I have been following this one for three weeks now using chicken and pork I had in my freezer….I am absolutely loving them but I’m sure my family would like me to change it up a little. Thank you so much for this!
We did a chicken one not too long ago Jori – here’s the link!
https://dontwastethecrumbs.com/2015/07/stretch-one-chicken-31-meals-1/
Enjoy!
This was the perfect post for my family this week! My meal plan didn’t quite go as expected these last few days, and I was forced to cook a five pound pork loin to avoid it from going bad. We have been getting creative using it all, and I will likely freeze a bit, but your post was so helpful! We had pork nachos, pork wraps, pork BBQ sandwiches, and tonight we are having pork BBQ pizza. 🙂 Thanks Tiffany!
So glad you found this helpful Kelli!
I love your blog and website, I am wondering how you stretch a roast of beef and if others have ideas. My roasts for eithe r ever or pork are large for my current family dynamic and I try hard to reduce food waste. Really looking for some beef ideas
I’ve got a beef roast plan in the works Jenn – stay tuned!
In our rural community, all the various chapels and churches have a combined youth group for the teenagers in the area. Since the kids head straight to the sponsoring church after school and stay until 7:30, they need to eat dinner, sot the various parents take turns providing supper–for about 40 kids and volunteers. I found some good-sized pork shoulders (12-ish pounds each) for about 69 cents/pound. So I’ve cooked and shredded the meat from 2 of them and we’re doing BBQ pork sandwiches, cole slaw, and brownies. We’re feeding kids right after sports practice, and there’s a number of teen boys in the mix, so I hope I have enough–lol.
I LOVE making a HUGE pot of chili. If my family doesn’t devour it… I freeze 1/2 for a later meal. Then make chili cheese dogs (not real foodie, but real cheap – and kind of a comfort food from my childhood especially with root beer floats!) and then chili cheese burritos (tortilla, cheese & sour cream maybe fresh onion) and if you have leftovers from all that.. chili cheese nachos for movie night! I also love chicken – I’ll usually get a 10# leg quarter bag for $5.90 (0.59/lb) and make chicken fajitas, chicken stir fry, chicken & noodles w/mashed potatoes, and chicken quesadillas, southwest chicken skillet etc. and I freeze the bones if I’m not making stock right away, and any stock that was from cooking I freeze in mason jars.
Ricki, you’re making me hungry over here!! Love all that American comfort food!
Hi! I’m loving this post about stretching one pork loin, and I have bought my pork loin with plans to make a few of these meals this week. One hangup! I can’t seem to find your recipe for the Mexican Pork Bowl. When I click the link, I get to the carnitas recipe, but not the stew recipe. I have also tried a search and can’t find it. Am I missing something? I’d love to know which veggies/broth/etc you used and how much. Can you please direct me to the right place? Thanks so much for your help! And thanks for such a helpful blog. I really love it. 🙂
Hi Ashley! The Mexican Pork Bowl is essentially carnitas, served over rice w/your favorite taco toppings. It’s very informal, and not much of a “recipe,” but a great way to use leftovers!
I can’t seem to find the recipe for the Mexican Stew…when I click the link for it, I end up at the Carnitas recipe. Thanks!
I had a lot of leftover pork loin after a large family dinner so I made this for one meal.
I cubed up a bunch of pork loin and pan browned it in avocado oil over med high heat
since it was already cooked I only needed to brown it slightly and get it hot. then I added green enchilada
sauce, 2 cans of diced green chili’s diced onion and diced garlic from a jar, lower heat to simmer and let thicken.
serve on heated tortilla’s with refried beans and typical taco stuffing ie; lettuce,cheese,tomato’s,avocado,
cilantro,diced onion or anything else that suits your fancy…enjoy
Sounds delicious!
I also make a killer chili with the leftovers