Cook Once Eat Twice Recipes

I love that kind of stuff. May I suggest you look at Robyn Miller's page on Foodnetwork.com? Everything she does is like this, and the stuff I have tried is pretty good too! Good luck!

I do the chicken thing also. The first night is baked chicken with mashed potatoes and a veggie. Then is morphs into chicken curry, then the carcass gets turned into chicken soup. Since there is only my son and I, we can get a good three - four meals out of one chicken.

Also, when I do turkey burgers I cook twice as many - the first night is burgers, the second I reheat them in gravy and turn them into hamburger steaks.

Left over mashed potatoes become a twice baked casserole on the second night - add shredded cheese, sour cream and green onions, toss in a pie pan and bake.

When I make spaghetti I cook extra pasta for a quick toss up meal the next night. Also, cook extra rice and you can do a quick stir fry with veggies and left over cooked meats/poultry.

The key here is planning meals for the week that build around one of two basic ingredients.

Good luck and happy cooking!!! It really challenging coming up with tasty meals night after night.

Depends on how many people you're feeding. For my family of 2 adults & 2 small children, I can do almost any Italian dish for 2 nights (lasagna, eggplant parm, etc.). The main dish remains the same but I'll do a green salad one night & then a different side with bread the next. Soups are great over the winter (lentil, split pea, italian sausage, homemade chicken noodle, etc.). Again, change out sides each night to give it a little variety. For me, it's easy to stretch a meal for hubby & I but the kids really aren't into most of what I make for dinner, so that's another reason I double my efforts. That way, on the 2nd night, I can make something just for them that's healthy but I don't feel I'm cooking 2 separate meals each night. Another one I used to do is chicken pot pie, but now my kids are eating it pretty good so it only lasts us one night & some leftovers for lunch. If you really like a particular recipe for something, just double it & stick the other half in the fridge for the next night.

Rachel Ray has a new show called "a week in a day". I can't remember if it is on Food Network or the Cooking Channel, but both of those websites make it very easy to search for recipes. I used one of her recipes for a roast chicken and it was great! The concept of the show is to get most of the work done for making 5 meals in one day.

You need to check out the website www.weelicious.com. A mom blogs about delcious recipes for kids as well as the entire family. They are all pretty easy and delicious. She gives advice how to change some of the meals into something different for the next night or two. Check it out! I love cooking because of her website! :)

Our favorite is BBQ chicken or steak w/ veggies, then tacos, fajitas, or enchiladas the next night.
Rotisserie chicken from the store is awesome too - You can do something basic with the breasts (chicken, steamed vegetables) the first night, and the second night shred the rest for tortilla soup, chicken noodle soup, homemade pot pie (add some butter, flour, milk, carrots, peas, onions in a casserole dish and a pie crust on top).

Chili
Chili for one night.
The next, use it as a topping for a hearty salad & with cheese on top and tortilla chips on the side.... or, for a spaghetti sauce. Or even as an alternative for tacos.

all the best,
Susan

My husband is the main cook in our family, so I can't take credit for these ideas, but we do a couple things like that. We do the chicken thing - he'll BBQ a whole bunch of chicken one night and we'll have BBQ chicken with veggies and rice that night, then use the leftover chicken the next night for chicken salad. Another good one is tacos - he'll cook the taco meat (we usually use ground beef with Lawry's taco seasoning) and chop up veggies one night for tacos, then the next night the leftovers are used to make taco salad. The other thing that came to mind is when he makes spaghetti - he just cooks a large batch one night, and it lasts at least two nights.

I do this with either a beef or pork roast. Depending on the size of roast and/or your family, you can get 2 to 3 meals. You'll need a slow cooker/crock pot. This may sound weird, but trust me on it.

Season the roast as you'd like - salt, pepper, etc. (For the pork I use cumin as well.) Wrap the roast tightly in aluminum foil. (I double wrap, once in each direction.) Cook in crock pot on low all day. Open the foil while the roast is still in the crock pot - there will be juice. (ajus or gravy)
The first night we eat as-is, with sides for a roast, i.e., potatoes & veggies.

Then shred the leftover meat and use for:

Mix with BBQ sauce for pulled pork/beef sandwiches (side of fries/slaw).

Use for burritos or tacos.

Use for stir-friy or fried rice.

Or anything else you'd use shredded meat for.

Enjoy!

Hi Janine-
I see alot of "chicken" answers, which was my first thought. You can also cook red meat, turkey, etc in bulk and save it up for a few days. Depending on how many people are in your family, there are a couple of shortcuts you can use.
1. Make up a large bowl of salad, but only the lettuce and the veggies, minus the tomatoes. Pull out the bowl, take the lettuce you need (you can also use a large zipper back, freezer safe), then add the other veggies. A fast way to do this is to cut up tomatoes, buy the pack of "shredded" veggies called the coleslaw mix (but no dressing), cucumbers, etc., and put them into separate tuppewares or zipper baggies. Then add the bits you need. This can last you through 3 days, the lettuce or spinach up to a week. If there is alot of moisture in your lettuce, stick a paper towel in the bag, loosely wrapped around the lettuce.
2. Beans, beans, and more beans. Get out your crockpot ( I saw chile below, and that is AWESOME too!) and soak in/cook enough beans for 2-3 days. Punch it up with some vegetable stock, mrs. dash, onion, garlic, etc.
3. Vegetable soup. Not only is this a prepare in advance meal, but when you get home from work, it will be ready. It's a combo of stock or broth, a good grain base like pasta, barley, or wild rice, then vegetables of choice and herbs and spices to flavor. Make enough for 2-3 days, and either eat it the next day or freeze it for later.
4. Stew: Good old fashioned stew meat, potatoes, carrots, onions, garlic, and celery if you like it. A dash of vinegar and some water/broth....really any crockpot meal will do.
5. If you do the meats, like chicken...you can always do a steamer bag or two of veggies, or wild rice/veggie mix. They are really cheap at places like Wal-Mart, Target, and your discount markets (Food Maxx, Winco, etc)

There are loads of great suggestions on here! I think I may take a couple of them up myself!!!

Happy Cooking!
-E.

Depending on how many you are feeding you can plan enough to make it 3 nights. I like to cook a lot of chicken pieces or even 2 whole chickens for the first night saving the rest for a casserole the second night and a few for chicken enchaladas for a third. So one night we will eat the thighs and drumsticks with veggies and rice. The next we will have chicken divan, using 3 or 4 chicken breasts . The third night I can shred the chicken and get all the meat off the bones for enchaladas and throw in a green salad. Or make a taco salad with chicken or the great suggestion of tortilla soup with chicken, cheese/sour cream on top and a salad. (its making me hungry right now!)You can make a big beef roast for one night and have left overs in a big crock pot of soup the next. I have made hamburgers for dinner and browned a huge pot of ground beef at the same time and used it for spaghetti the next night. All you have to do is cook pasta and heat up a can of sauce. If you are the type of cook who makes her own sauce you are probably going to take the time to cook the meat too, but if you like Ragu like we do, this is a fast, simple, less mess meal for left over ground beef. Also use it for lasagna and freeze it for another night. A lot of meals can be doubled easily and frozen, so you might consider that option. Cook every night that is easy for you, and save half for those nights when it is too much to deal with. You can even chopped extra veggies while cooking one night and save some in ziplock bags for a few nights later to just dump into the pot, or steam, and you didnt have to go thru all the washing and chopping again. Getting the "parts" all ready while cooking one night, and tossing them into the crockpot the next moring before work so they cook all day is a great plan and time saver. Think how nice it will be to come home after a hard day and dinner smells sooo good and is ready for you without anymore work! Hope some of this helps to smooth your day a bit.

I make meatloaf one night then hash out of the leftover meat fried with diced potatoes, and what is feally good is to add creamed corn to that and mix with ketchup! yep sounds weird but really good!

You can cook a roaster chicken the first night and then use it the second night for tacos or tostados. I just put some olive oil on it, salt, pepper, and italian seasoning and pop it in the oven. I have also put fresh herbs under the skin to give it flavor. Then the next night shred up the chicken for tacos, add in some lettuce, tomatoes, maybe make some rice and cook up some beans and you have a meal without too much fuss. Or you can shred up the chicken, use a can of biscuits to make little pies, add in some veggies and maybe some cheese. My kids like these. Another thing i have done is make too much soup. My hubby used to complain but then he saw that it makes a tasty side the next day by removing the veggies, meat and any noodles or rice if I added it, use the broth to make a gravy with flour to make a stew.