Turn one dinner into a school lunchbox and a leftover’s dinner the following night! What!?! Thats like three meals in one!
Lunchbox to Leftovers Slow Cooker Beef Brisket
If you are anything like me, then you rely on leftovers filling the gaps in most weeks. With these recipes, you can actually plan, shop and prep for those gaps. It means more meals out of less ingredients and no more just reheating last night’s dinner. You can give it a new life and turn it into a complete meal on it’s own.
The trick is….. make sure you make enough on the first night so you have plenty of leftovers!
I love this idea of using up everything in my fridge and pantry, especially things like packets of dry goods such as polenta. I would often buy a packet for one meal, use half and the rest would sit in my pantry for months. This way I can use up the rest of the packet for school lunchboxes, giving the kids a break from ham sandwiches.
A big pot of slow cooked meat is the perfect dinner for creating leftovers. Turn the slow cooker on in the morning and you will have perfectly pulled apart beef ready for dinner time. Serve with creamy polenta and steamed broccoli and you will have some very happy full tummies.
Click here for my Slow Cooker Beef Brisket recipe.
2. LUNCHBOX: Oven Baked Polenta Bites
These lunchbox fillers are great to plan ahead for. If you can make twice as much polenta and refrigerate half, you can throw these in the oven first thing in the morning, ready to pack in the kid’s lunchboxes. These go great with an avocado, aioli or sweet chilli dipping sauce. They make a great gluten and dairy free lunchbox option. Plus, they use up the last little bit of polenta in the packet, rather then sitting around at the back of your pantry for the next few months!
Click here for my Oven Baked Polenta Bites recipe.
3. LEFTOVERS: Pappardelle with Leftover Beef Ragu
This amazing ragu is so full of flavour, rich and indulgent no one will believe it’s a leftover’s dinner. I recommend cooking this for an hour to enhance the flavours, but if you are short on time 30 minutes will do the trick. I just love thick pappardelle pasta like this. You could add a couple of slices of fresh crusty bread and you will be in heaven!
Click here for my Pappardelle with Leftover Beef Ragu.