Remember the adage, measure twice and cut once? The purpose was to make sure the measurement was correct before cutting something and possibly making a mistake.
Well, I like the idea of cooking once and eating twice or more. Yesterday I fixed a slice of ham. It was a thick slice bought at Aldi. I had made scalloped potatoes and cornbread and green beans to go with our New Year's meal.
Today, my last day of vacation, we had some errands to run, including running dh's vehicle in for a recall. We got home and I suggested we have a rerun of yesterday's lunch. DH was fine with that and we had a hearty meal on a windy, cold day. I still have some ham and potatoes left as well. Part of the ham will be a lunch this week with the leftover potatoes. The rest of the ham will be cut up and I'll make ham and beans for dh. I don't particulary care for ham and beans, but he likes it and apparently I've found a simple recipe to make a lunch size portion of them for him. I have to admit I use a can of navy beans, but I have been lucky and found them on sale.
I cut up the ham in small pieces and saute' it with onion and celery, then I add a little chicken broth. I then drain some of the liquid off the beans, but keep enough so the beans don't get dry. I add a half of a teaspoon of cumin and tumeric and let them simmer for about an hour, adding broth as needed. I put them in a dish he can heat up in the microwave and he's a happy boy.
I really think the idea of cooking once and eating twice saves money. I know I prefer cooking a whole chicken in the Crockpot and although we usually don't eat an intial meal off of it, I do make 2-3 dishes from the chicken and broth, depending on the size of the chicken.
On New Year's Eve we did go out to eat and we had some vegetables we couldn't eat on our plates. I asked to have a box with the skin from my baked potato. We got home and I added a couple of vegetables that were sitting around here with some herbs, and made a very rich vegetable broth. It has been strained and is in the freezer awaiting my next soup adventure.
Tonight we are having chicken and sweet potatoes. The chicken breasts were reasonable at Aldi when we went and I think there are more than two. Two will be used for us tonight, but the others will be made in a casserole with rice and vegetables for another meal this week. I'll just cook them all so I have them.
I did that the other day with sweet potatoes. I baked the 5 small ones we had. We had two for a meal and the other three I used to make a small sweet potato casserole for another meal. Sure saved time.
Well, the kitchen is calling, so I guess I better heed the call. Please share if you have some ideas on cooking once and eating twice.
Cook Once, Eat Twice
January 2nd, 2012 at 07:51 pm
January 2nd, 2012 at 08:42 pm 1325536951
January 2nd, 2012 at 10:41 pm 1325544115
Tonight I'll cook once and eat twice and will post a blog entry about that later.
January 2nd, 2012 at 11:48 pm 1325548127
January 2nd, 2012 at 11:48 pm 1325548136
January 3rd, 2012 at 01:05 am 1325552703
Leftover ham is also great to use in split pea soup.
January 3rd, 2012 at 01:01 pm 1325595678