Leftover Makeover: Grilled Steak turned Vegetable Beef Soup

Quite by accident last year I discovered that leftover grilled steak tastes really good in vegetable beef soup ... so now I have one more idea for using up leftover grilled steak. Other ideas: quesadillas, steak fried rice, steak gravy over mashed potatoes, steak tacos, steak lo mein, steak stir-fry. 

I really do not have a set recipe for veg beef soup, so I'll just tell you what I did this time. I used 1qt of flavorful beef bone broth, a few teaspoons of thyme, a good squirt of Bragg's, 4 ribs of celery (minced), and a 10oz pack of frozen mixed veg (the organic option from Aldi), buckwheat groats, and of course: leftover steak. I think the steaks started off at about 12oz before being grilled. I had marinated them in an experimental homemade "streak taco" marinade before grilling ... made for super yummy tacos AND veg beef soup!

Easy. Delicious. Satisfying. 

Frugal Friday: Leftover Makeovers

Just a few thoughts to share here on making-over left-overs.

First a tip: never be afraid to experiment!

not mine but similar; I forgot to take a photo

I am always up for something new and if I like it I will try to duplicate it at home. For instance, a brother here introduced me to a Salvadoran food called pupusas. Pupusas are basically corn tortillas stuffed with either beans, cheese or meat ... just one ingredient, or two, or three. Low-cost, could be dairy free, are gluten free, could be vegetarian ... so versatile! A fermented cabbage dish called curtido and a smooth [blended] red sauce for dipping (salsa roja) are commonly served with the pupusas. There is a nice little Salvadoran restaurant in Rogers, AR that I've been to a few times. They serve both for really cheap ... a few dollars will fill you up. (Pupuseria Salvadorena #1 on Walnut Street by Aldi's for those who are interested!) YUM! Not only are they cheap but they taste good and I knew I could make my own at home with much healthier results.

I purchased some Bob's Red Mill Masa Harina from Azure Standard, looked up a few recipes online and then last monday we had a 'Salvadoran food night'. Homemade versions of pupusas [two options with or without dairy cheese] with salsa roja, cortido, platanos fritos (fried plantains), and some generic 'Salvadoran rice recipe' I found online. The results were delicious! I made too much (on purpose) so here is what I did with the left-overs.

The next day the 4 young men / men we feed lunch to had this packed in their boxes.

The day after that I was hankering for what I call 'Oriental noodle soup'. I gently stir-fried some of the curtido with sliced mushrooms and green onions. I also roasted some sesame seeds and cooked some Japanese noodles I got at the Asian Market in Omaha a few weeks ago. (Great store!) When all was ready I combined them and added Braggs, garlic, ginger and sesame oil. A delicious combination in my opinion. Usually I throw in raw spinach at the end and also put in raw broccoli with the cabbage and carrots and mushrooms ... however this time I was in a hurry and just wanted to eat ... and there was no room left in our bowls for the spinach :)

And now this morning we finished the rest of the rice and curtido ... I heated them together in a frying pan with a little olive oil and added some eggs. I guess this would kind of be like 'fried rice' but not really ;) It was very yummy topped with our favourite Indian junk food: Aloo Bhujia (spicy potato noodles ... fried ... certainly not healthy but tasty in moderation). Here is the exact brand we purchased last time, however we are not brand loyal. These were pretty good though and was just the right addition to our breakfast fried rice. 

So there you have it ... several meals made from one. What was interesting to me about these meals is that the flavors changed quite a bit ... from Latin American to Oriental-ish to Indian-ish ... from supper to lunch to breakfast ... and it all tasted great. Also, these were all vegetarian if you consider eggs part of a vegetarian diet. They were all gluten-free and most were dairy free too.  

Some times we just have a 'left-over buffet' where I get out all the left-overs, heat whatever needs heated and then let everyone choose what they want. Sometimes we have what I call 'left-over extravaganza' where I take all the leftovers, combine them in one pot, add some seasonings that seem appropriate and call it a meal. These usually turn out really good however it's impossible to get an exact recipe for it if it turns out really good!

Have fun! Don't be afraid to experiment!

Hot Breakfast Extravaganza

Most of you might think this is yucky, but we have tried it an like it ... I encourage you to do the same (if you don't already).

We often have hot cereal for breakfast ... oatmeal, grits, teff, or whatever. But many times we do not finish all that is in the pan. In the past I have tried to add the left-over hot cereal to muffins or quick breads. The flaw in this however is that either 1) I do not feel like making muffins or quick breads right at that moment ... so ... 2) it sits in the fridge, gets forgotten, starts growing and then gets thrown away. I really HATE throwing food away so I always end up feeling bad.

That is until I found a solution!

I now have a 1 gallon sturdy plastic honey jug that I keep in my chest freezer. Whenever there is left-over hot cereal, the breakfast person scrapes the contents of the pan out into the honey bucket in the freezer. This has become our left-over hot breakfast bucket. When it's full, I take it out and put it in the fridge. The next few days we have what looks like slop for breakfast ... but it tastes really good! Best of all, we are using up something that would have eventually been thrown away ... that's almost like having two or three 'free' meals.

We do the same thing for left-0ver broth and veggies ... they have their own bucket and this eventually becomes some sort of soup. If we have a little meat, we might throw that in the bucket too.