Leftover Meatloaf Hash

Mondays are nearly always leftover days, and today I managed to empty no less than eight containers when cooking our lunch – not bad going eh? 

 

This is not a recipe as such, more of an idea of what to do with leftovers. Using the remains of the meatloaf as a base, I added nearly all the leftovers I had in the fridge. The list looks like this:

meatloaf

cooked Jersey Royal potatoes

cooked carrots

cooked baby sweetcorn

cooked tenderstem broccoli

cooked sugarsnap peas

grilled cherry tomatoes

I also had containers with Oriental coleslaw and Vietnamese pickled vegetables which I mixed together, and half a box of salad leaves which I served alongside the hash. 

 

I started off by crushing the potatoes between two palms, then tearing them roughly with my hands. In a large pan sprayed with some Fry Light, I sautéed the potatoes for a few minutes before adding everything else. I found it to be a little dry, so I added some water to make it a smoother consistency and some chilli flakes to zest it up a little. 

I do love leftovers, and the challenge of creating something that tastes good.

American Style Meatloaf

Take one recipe you find on line and start to follow it, then begin your own modifications. You think you have only made a few small changes until you see your notes.... I like to call it “being creative”.

Serves 4-6

Syn free on Extra Easy*

* providing you use the bread as part of your Healthy Extra B

3 slices wholemeal bread from a 400g loaf, roughly torn

1 tsp cumin powder

1 tbsp paprika

1 tsp smoked paprika

1 tsp ginger

½ tsp ground white pepper

1 tsp garlic powder

2 tsp celery salt

½ tsp ground nutmeg

1 tsp dried thyme

1 onion, roughly chopped

1 red pepper, roughly chopped

500g of 5% fat minced beef

1 egg, beaten

500g passata

1 tbsp sweetener

½ tsp mustard powder

1 tbsp paprika

2 tsp smoked paprika

2 tsp bouillon powder

1 tbsp red wine vinegar

dash Worcestershire sauce

1 tsp ground cumin

Preheat the oven to 160°C.

Whizz the bread to rough crumbs in a food processor and place in a large bowl. Pulse the red pepper in the same way, followed by the onion, but do them separately, making sure they are finely chopped but not processed to a pulp. Mix in with the breadcrumbs and add the cumin, paprika, smoked paprika, ginger, white pepper, garlic powder, celery salt, nutmeg and beef. Mix very well together, then add the egg and continue stirring until everything is very well combined, but avoid squeezing the meat.

Grease a loaf tin and pack the meat mixture into it. Line a baking sheet with greaseproof paper and invert the loaf onto it. Place near the bottom of the oven. 

Combine the passata. Sweetener, mustard powder, paprika, smoked paprika, bouillon powder, vinegar, Worcestershire sauce and cumin. When the meatloaf has been in the oven for about ten minutes, brush the glaze over it and continue cooking for 35-45 minutes until it id cooked through.

Serve the remaining glaze as a sauce to accompany the meatloaf. 

  

Pulled Beef Chilli

More leftovers for dinner tonight. Using the pulled beef from last night, I added tinned tomatoes, passata, kidney beans, cooked leeks, red pepper, yellow pepper and onions; chopped red chilli, cumin powder, oregano and garlic. 

 

I was going to serve it with twice cooked jacket potatoes, but we'd been out for the afternoon and got back so late I wanted something quick and easy. If I have to wait too long for dinner in the evening when I am hungry, it becomes a bit of a danger area for me for snacking. There are times when you can wait, and times when you need instant gratification. 

 

The jacket potatoes can wait until later this week - there is plenty of leftover chilli (leftover of the leftovers) to go inside the potatoes, so that's another easy meal sorted. 

 

Has-Bean Cottage Pie

A cottage pie with a difference. I love anything made with minced beef, especially cottage pie. I also love baked beans, so combining the two was a winning combination for me. 

 

Serves 4

Syn Free on Extra Easy

500g extra lean minced beef

3 onions

1 tin baked beans

250ml passata

bouillon powder to taste

1 swede

1 butternut squash

1 tbsp bouillon powder

Sauté the beef and onion in Fry Light until the onion is soft and the beef is cooked. Add the passata, baked beans and bouillon powder.

Peel, dice and boil the swede and squash until tender (the swede will take longer than the squash, so cook them in separate pans), then mash together with a potato masher, adding the bouillon powder and a little of the cooking liquid if the mixture is too dry (unlikely).

Place the beef and bean mix in an oven-proof dish and top with the swede and squash mash. Bake at 220°C for 15-20 minutes until slightly browned on top and cooked through. Serve with vegetables of your choice and Slimming World chips.

Mulligatawny Soup made from Leftover Chilli Con Carne

Nice and quick, nice and comforting, nice and easy, nice and warming, nice and healthy. What more can you want on a miserable day? 

 

Serves 2

Syn Free on Extra Easy

1 cup leftover chilli con carne (syn free of course)

½ cup red lentils

2 onions

2 stems celery

2 tsp bouillon powder

1 tsp ground cumin

1 tsp ground coriander

½ tsp ground turmeric

½ cup cooked carrots, chopped

a few drops food colouring

a small handful chopped coriander leaves

1 red chilli (optional), finely chopped

Finely chop the onion and celery and onions and sauté in Fry Light until soft. Add the lentils and bouillon powder and enough water to make it a soup consistency. Boil rapidly for ten minutes. Turn the heat down, add the leftover chilli con carne and spices and simmer for another 15-20 minutes until everything is cooked through and the lentils are soft and mushy. Add the carrots and fresh coriander and heat through. Add a few drops of food colouring if the soup looks a little insipid. Serve topped with some chopped coriander. 

 

Ropa Vieja

This is a very traditional Cuban stew – the name, which means 'old clothes', refers to the fact that the meat is cooked so well it can be shredded. It's a great dish to cook in the slow cooker, although I am sure it would be equally successful to make on the stove top – you just need to adjust the timings accordingly. 

 

Serves 4

Syn Free on Extra Easy

Small beef roasting joint

1 red onion, chopped

1 red pepper, chopped

1 green pepper, chopped

4 garlic cloves, crushed

salt and pepper

1 tsp oregano

1 tsp ground cumin

½ tsp dried rosemary, crushed

6 tbsp sherry vinegar

3 cups stock

200 ml passata

Remove all the fat from the beef and cut into 3 or 4 large chunks. Place in the slow cooker with the stock and cook for 7-8 hours on a low setting. About half way through, add all the other ingredients, except the passata. Once the beef is cooked, shred with two forks and add back into the stew with the passata. Stir well, make sure it all hot and serve. It's that simple.

Traditionally served with rice, as my dad doesn't eat rice, I made some mash from potatoes and sweet potatoes to go with it, on the advice of a very dear Cuban friend. 

 

Spiced Beef Satés

I was lucky enough to find a packet of thin sirloin steaks in Tesco, which were perfect for this dish. You need a reasonably good cut of meat, but it doesn't matter if you cook it in strips as I did, or cubes. If you haven't got tamarind powder, you can use lemon juice instead.

Serves 3

550g sirloin

1 tsp coriander seeds

1 tso cumin seeds

1 tsp tamarind powder

1 small onion

2 garlic cloves

1 tbsp sweetener

1 tbsp dark soy sauce

If you are using the thin slices, cut the beef in one inch width and the length of the steaks. You basically want long, thin strips of meat to thread on to skewers. Alternatively, cut the meat in 1 inch³ cubes.

Dry fry the spices until they are fragrant and beginning to brown, then grind them to a course powder. Put the onion, tamarind powder, sweetener, soy sauce a 3 tablespoons of water in a food processor and blend well. Mix with the spices and place in a bowl with the beef. Toss well together and leave for at least an hour to marinade.

Thread the meat strips on skewers in a concertina fashion and grill until cooked through, basting with the marinade as it cooks.

Indonesian satés are usually served with a peanut sauce, but I served mine with Sambal Kecap (spicy onion dip), Sambal Kol Kembang (spiced cauliflower), lettuce and potatoes (as my dad doesn't like rice). 

 

Beef Lasagne

This was really nice and rich, and my dad loved it. He took the rest of it home with him for the freezer. 

Serves 4

2½ syns on Extra Easy*

* Providing you use the cheese as your Healthy Extra A

500g extra lean minced beef

2 onions, chopped

200g mushrooms, chopped

300ml passata

1 tsp Worcestershire sauce

2 tsp sweetener

2 tsp dried thyme

2 tsp dried basil

2 tsp dried oregano

2-3 tsp bouillon powder

9 dried lasagne sheets

180g reduced fat Cheddar, grated

1 pkt Coleman's white sauce

300ml skimmed milk

Salad to serve

Fry the onions and meat in Fry Light until the onions are soft and the meat slightly browned. Add the mushrooms and cook for a few more minutes. Add the herbs, bouillon powder, sweetener, Worcestershire sauce and passata. Stir well and simmer for a few more minutes. Make up the white sauce according to packet instructions. 

 

Place a layer of three lasagne sheets in the bottom of a dish. Top with half the meat mixture, then another three pasta sheets. Next, put the rest of the meat sauce and another three pasta sheets. Pour over the white sauce and top with the grated cheese. Bake for 20-30 minutes at 200°C until the pasta is cooked and the cheese browned. Serve with your choice of salad. 

 

Creamy Coconut Keema Pilau

I boiled up too many mixed vegetables yesterday when cooking up dozens (46 to be exact) dishes for my dad's freezer, so I had to think of something to do with overcooked veggies (my dad doesn't believe in al dente!). I used the frozen mixed vegetables that come in 1cm large cubes or so for this. 

 

Serves 2

½ syn on Extra Easy

300g extra lean minced beef

2 cups cooked finely chopped mixed vegetables

1 cup rice

2 tsp bouillon powder

2 tubs Müllerlight Greek yogurt with coconut and vanilla

2 tsp paprika

1 tsp chilli flakes

2 tsp ground cumin

½ tsp turmeric

1 tsp ground cinnamon

1 tsp ground ginger

Boil the rice in the stock for 10 minutes. Meanwhile sauté the meat in Fry Light until browned and cooked through. Mix together the yogurts and the spices. When cooked, drain the rice and mix into the meat along with the vegetables. Stir well and simmer until everything is heated through. Take the pan off the heat and allow to cool for a minute or so before adding the yogurt mix. Stir well and serve. 

 

Beef Larb with Baby Sweetcorn and Spinach

Larb – the traditional dish of Laos – is one of my all time favourite comfort foods. It also has to be one of the quickest and easiest dinners ever. There are as many versions of this dish as there are cooks, so feel free to experiment with your own ingredients.

I used sambal oelek in this recipe for laziness, but you can substitute with a chopped fresh chilli or even chilli flakes. You may wish to vary the amount of chilli used to suit your own taste as we like our food spicy. I used a combination of iceberg lettuce and watercress to serve, but any lettuce or salad leaves will do. 

 

Serves 2

Syn Free on Extra Easy

250g extra lean minced beef

150g baby sweetcorn

100g spinach

2 tbsp dark soy sauce

1 tbsp sweetener

2 tbsp sambal oelek

1 tbsp rice wine vinegar

shredded lettuce to serve

Sauté the beef with the baby sweetcorn until cooked through. Add the soy sauce, sweetener, vinegar and sambal oelek. Stir well to mix, then add the spinach. Simmer gently until the spinach has wilted. Serve over shredded lettuce. 

 

Chateaubriand with Pepper Sauce

We decided to have a date night in on Saturday night, and popped to Morrison's for a steak. I love their meat and fish usually, but this time they really excelled themselves – the steak was one of the best we've ever had! It was meltingly tender and beautifully tasty. Heavenly.

Chateaubriand is a lot of hassle and work, but oh so worth it in the end. I would usually make a sauce with lots of cream and sherry to go with it, but as that does not fit in with the Slimming World plan, I decided to try out the Coleman's Pepper sauce. It was nice, but I could probably make my own just as easily with just as few syns. Oh well, it was nice to have one less thing to do as the whole meal was quite labour intensive. 

 

Serves 2

3 syns on Extra Easy*

* Providing you use the milk as part of your Healthy Extra A.

1 whole piece end fillet steak

1 tsp cumin

1 tsp oregano

½ tsp whole black pepper

1 tsp whole coriander

½ tsp garlic powder

2 tsp paprika

1 tsp black mustard seeds

1 tsp celery powder

½ tsp ground nutmeg

½ tsp ground ginger

1 tsp salt

1 pkt Coleman's Pepper Sauce

300ml skimmed milk

Grind all the spices to a fine powder using a spice grinder or a pestle and mortar. Spray the fillet with Fry Light and coat with the spice powder. Use your hands to massage the spices into the meat, making sure that all exposed surfaces are covered. Leave to marinate for a couple of hours or more. 

 

Heat a pan with Fry Light until very hot. Place the whole fillet in the pan and sear on all sides. The outside is supposed to be almost burnt and crusty, so don't worry if it seems overdone at this stage. Lower the heat and fry, turning regularly (you may have to support the steak with something when cooking the end sides) for around ten minutes or so. This may seem like a long time for a steak, and of course it does depend on the thickness of the meat, but the inside will still be pink after that time. My piece was rather large, and I cooked it for around 15 minutes, and it was still rare in the middle.

Meanwhile make up the sauce according to packet instructions.

Leave to rest for a few minutes before carving in thick slices and serve with the pepper sauce, potatoes and vegetables of your choice.

 

Beef Laap with Mint

I fell in love with Laap (also spelled larp or larb) in Laos earlier this year, where it is the national dish. There are as many variations of this as there is of as a beef stew in the west, and this is one of many. Laap has now become a firm favourite in this household, it's such a quick, easy, cheap, healthy and tasty dish to make. 

Serves 2

Syn free on Extra Easy

250g extra lean minced beef

1 onion

1 tbsp dark soy sauce

1 tbsp rice wine vinegar

1 tbsp sweetener

1 red chilli, finely chopped

1 cup chopped fresh mint

2 little gem lettuces

Sauté the beef and onion in Fry Light until the onion is soft and the meat browned. Add the soy sauce, sweetener, chilli, vinegar and mint and stir until heated through and well mixed. Serve over shredded lettuce. 

 

Spicy Mince and Beans

This is comfort food at its very best, combining two of my favourite foods: minced beef and baked beans. I was running late and popped in the supermarket to grab a few things to cook a quick and easy dinner before a night out with the girls, and came up with this. 

 

Serves 2

Syn Free on Extra Easy

250g extra lean minced beef

1 onion, finely chopped

1 tin baked beans

250ml passata

1 tsp harissa paste

1 pkt ready chopped root vegetables (carrot, swede and potato)

1 tsp bouillon powder

150g runner beans, trimmed

¼ cauliflower, cut into florets

Fry the meat and onions until the meat is browned and the onions soft. Add the baked beans, passata and harissa paste and stir until heated through.

Meanwhile boil the root veg and mash with the bouillon powder. Cook the cauliflower and runner beans to your liking, and serve with the mince. 

 

Beef Jerky

Until yesterday I didn't know the difference between beef jerky and biltong, but it seems it's all in the vinegar. And as I didn't use any, that makes this beef jerky.

Making your own jerky in a dehydrator makes it syn free unlike the bought variety. You also know exactly what went in it – no preservatives or artificial flavourings. 

 

This is what you need:

A thick rump steak

soy sauce

Worcestershire sauce

chilli flakes

You can of course use other flavourings, such as paprika, herbs, coriander etc.

Put the steak in the freezer for at least an hour to firm up. Using a mandolin on its finest setting, cut the beef in very thin slivers. Use the other ingredients to marinate the meat for at least an hour. Place on one or more trays in the dehydrator and 'cook' for several hours at 50°C. Mine took nearly eight hours, but it will all depend on how thin and wet your meat is. It should be fairly stiff and quite chewy. 

 

Chilli Con Carne

Comfort food at its best. You can make this as spicy or not as you wish. I often add an extra onion in to my savoury dishes, that way I am sure to get my superfree as well as make the meat go further. 

 

Serves 2

Syn Free on Extra Easy

200g extra lean minced beef

2 onions, chopped

1 green pepper, chopped

sml tin red kidney beans

400g tin of tomatoes

1 tube tomato purée

1 tsp chilli flakes

2 tsp cumin seeds

2 tsp oregano

1 tsp garlic powder

1 tsp sweetener

2 tsp bouillon powder

Fry the beef in Fry Light with the onions and green pepper until the vegetables are soft and the beef browned. Meanwhile grind the chilli flakes, cumin seeds and oregano in a spice grinder and mix with the garlic powder. Add the tomatoes, purée, chilli powder, kidney beans, bouillon powder and sweetener to the meat and onions. Simmer for a few minutes until well mixed and heated through. Taste and adjust seasoning if necessary. Serve with boiled rice.

Thai Beef Curry

Serves 2

1½ syn on Extra Easy

250g Beef, cubed

4-5 shallots, sliced

1 red pepper. chopped

small knob ginger, thinly sliced

2 carrots, peeled and thickly sliced

1 small butternut squash, peeled and cubed

2 Müllerlight coconut and vanilla yogurts

2 tbsp Thai red curry paste

stock

Fry the beef, shallots, pepper and ginger in Fry Light until the beef is sealed and the onion has softened a little. Add the carrots, squash and curry paste, with enough water to just cover the vegetables. Simmer until the carrots are cooked to your liking. To thicken the sauce, mash a few of the butternut squash pieces with a fork or potato masher. Take the saucepan off the heat and allow to cool for a few minutes before adding the yogurt, stirring well to incorporate.

Serve with rice. 

 

Keema Pie

A cross between keema curry and cottage pie, Keema Pie is spicy minced beef with a thatch topping. I used swede and carrot for my thatch but it would be equally nice with sweet potato or the more traditional mash. 

 

Serves 2

Syn Free on Extra Easy

250g minced beef

100g green beans, chopped

2 onions, chopped

tin tomatoes

1 tsp cinnamon

1 tsp chilli flakes

1 tsp ground cumin

½ tsp turmeric

1 ground coriander

1 tsp sweetener

1 swede

2 carrots

2 tbsp chopped parsley

Fry the onion and mince in Fry Light and add the beans. Add the tinned tomatoes and spices, and cook until the beans are tender.

Meanwhile, peel and chop the swede and carrots, and boil until soft. Mash, using a potato masher and stir in the chopped parsley.

Place the mince in an ovenproof dish and top with the carrot and swede mash. Bake at 240°C for 10-15 minutes until heated through and browned on top.