Okay, now you’ve tried the meatloaf, and you’ve found that you have leftovers. It happens. You could just get a couple of pieces of bread, some catsup and call it done. Or you could go a little further and try something different. No need to worry or fret though, for we have the RECIPES!!! (and there was much rejoicing)
Shepherds Pie
Preheat oven to 350 f.
Take the left over meatloaf and grind it up in a food processor. We’re looking for the consistency of like a wet sand here. Pretty fine. Add the ground up loaf to a bowl, and add equal parts small diced carrots and potatoes and frozen peas. How much you add depends on how much meatloaf you had left over. Add a good shot or twelve of Worcestershire and one egg and mix well. In glass baking dish, big enough so that the mixture is at least half way up the sides, but not more than ¾, spray some Pam or equivilent, then layer thinly sliced potatoes across the bottom. Add the meat mixture and bake for about 45 minutes, or until the top is browned.
Remove from the oven and get ready to top it. How you top it is up to you, but here are some ideas. Garlic Mashed potatoes: Spread across the top, then sprinkle the top with crushed rosemary leaves. Broil until the potatoes have a nice browned color. Au Gratin: Take a box of Au Gratin potatoes, prepare according to package and spoon over top. Broil until browned.
Remove from oven, and let sit for 10 minutes or so.
Stuffed Grape Leaves or cabbage.
Beauty of this one is the filling works well in both. Use prepared grape leaves unless you have the patience of Job and want to prepare fresh leaves.
Preheat oven to 350 f.
Grind the meatloaf in a processor until the meat is very fine, like wet sand again. Set aside in a bowl. Make enough rice to be about a 2:1 ratio of meat to rice. Use any kind you like, I would recommend good ol’ plain white rice for the cabbage and basmati for the grape leaves.
Once the rice has cooled, mix in with the ground meatloaf. For the cabbage rolls, boil the gabbage until still al dente, but not raw. Remove the bigger leaves, and stuff accordingly. Place in a baking dish, cover with tomato sauce, sprinkle with oregano and bake for about 45 minutes, or until the sauce is bubbly and nice. For the grape leaves, take some mixture, place in a leaf, and roll like you are making a burrito, or a stuffed cabbage for that matter. You want this to be pretty tight. Pack the stuffed leaves into a backing dish, sprinkle with sea salt and pepper and heat for about 20 minutes. You can make a tzatziki sauce to use for dipping. Yummy!!!
Tzatziki Sauce:
Take 16 ounce tub of greek plain yogurt. Yes, it has to be greek yogurt. Greek yogurt is firmer and not as moist. Take the yogurt and place it in a tea towel and squeeze it to get all the fluid out. If you are using regular yogurt, you need to place this over a bowl, and let it sit in the fridge for at least 2 hours. See? Just get the Greek kind.
Now peel, seed and dice fine a medium to large cucumber. Get a fresh towel or cheesecloth, and squeeze all the fluid out. The cukes really do have to be as dry as possible. Place the cukes into the bowl with the yogurt and add some salt, 4 cloves of garlic diced fine, about a tablespoon or so of good olive oil and 2 tablespoons of rice wine vinegar. Most recipes call for a red wine vinegar here, but I kind of like the subtle flavor of the rice wine. Mix this all together and put into an airtight container in the fridge. Before serving, add in diced mint leaves to taste. I’d start with like 4 or 5 and add in 2 at a time until you like it.
There you go, 2 ways to stretch that meatloaf dollar. 🙂
Enjoy
Gregor
