Test Kitchens and Recipe Stretches

I LOVE a good deal! be it a clothing item on clearance, a furniture find at a flea market, or taking one or two ingredients and stretching them into several other creations. I have been testing out some new recipes using the stretch method and think that I have come up with a few that are actually very good.

First up, I have my fried potato and veggie balls. These were created after having a meal which included mashed potatoes and mixed vegetables. The following day I used the cold potatoes and then diced up the mixed veggies, added some cheese, bread crumbs, and egg and a new and healthy appetizer or side dish was made. The mixed vegetables were a combination of broccoli, carrots ,& cauliflower. I pan fried a batch and then deep fried a batch. In the pictures the ones with NO sour cream topping are pan fried and used as a side, the ones with topping were deep fried and used as an appetizer.

These are so tasty and easy to make. I will post the recipes to follow for each item on today's blog later in the week.

In addition to making the potato veggie balls, I also threw together a so simple leftover meatloaf sandwich. Take your leftover meatloaf and your favorite bread and cheese and grill it up like a patty melt. This then creates the meatloaf melt. Make sure that you have warmed the leftover meat prior to placing on the sandwich. otherwise it won't be hot all the way through. A great tip is to also sub out mayo for butter to grill your sandwich to give it that meatloaf and mayo flavor. Make sure to grill slowly over medium heat to get a good even crunch and great melt on the cheese.

My final stretch meal is a chili. In an earlier blog I showed my spaghetti with meatballs and black truffle oil. My meatball recipe always yields about 24-26 meatballs, so I freeze what's not used. Also this week we enjoyed a traditional meatloaf meal. Obviously, per the picture of the sandwich. The weather turned cold very quickly and chili sounded great. I added just one pound of Angus ground chuck to the meatloaf and a few of the meatballs mixed them all together in a large pot with several spices and some tomato puree and diced tomatoes a little chili powder and cayenne and voila a chili was born with little to no money out of pocket.

Stretching a meal stretches a buck. I'm all for that. Plus a few new items were conjured up in test kitchen which always makes me happy!

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