2-in-1 recipes

I often cook extra mince for a curry when I am making a shepherds pie or lasagne. Extra tomato sauce (sugo) to spread on a pizza when I am making a bolognaise or gnnocci (that italian potato dumpling thingy). I also cook up extra chicken pieces or a larger whole chicken so that I have some for a pie or a pasta bake (or a curry!)

My 2 standard ones are a bolognese turned into a chilli by adding a couple of cans of beans and some chilli/cumin powder.

Also roast 2 chickens to get 3 meals and save energy! From the one chicken you can have a slap-up roast dinner. With the other half the meat can make a chicken and muchroom pie, while the other makes chicken and sweetcorn pasta sauce. If you are particularly good at stretching the chicken there may even be enough for a chicken and broccolli bake.

Leftover mash and veg is always mashed up together and made into a topping for 'bean pie' - one tin beans one stewed steak and half an onion. It's a fave with the kids.

Ham, gammon or bacon (whoever has leftover bacon?) can be added to a cheese sauce and served with pasta for a quick and tastey meal.

I'd love to have some leftovers, but even when I plan for some the hubby eats them!

As for bacon, he's eaten it before I've managed to cook it!

My son was raving earlier about my chicken casserole which is a 2-in-1 meal.

I buy large chickens (especially if on sale) to get several meals instead of buying just one small one because I reckon it's better value that way. This is what I typically do with a chicken:

Roast the bird with stuffing made of sausage meat (peel the skins off special offer sausages). About halfway through cooking, take the chicken out of the oven and cut the legs off. Put them in a casserole dish with a can of tomatoes (ratatouille if you can get a dented can cheap!) and put back in the oven to cook slowly with the chicken. If you're really frugal you can bake potatoes and possible even squeeze a cake into the oven too

Serve half the chicken as a roast dinner. Use the sausage stuffing to make sausage hash (sausage, spuds, onion, baked beans). The casserole makes another meal, you can use the other half chicken in a leftovers recipe like curry or pasta bake. Finally you cook up the chicken bones for stock - use for soup or gravy for the next roast.

Padded out with potatoes/pasta/rice and plenty of cheap veg, this serves two adults and a hungry 11 year old boy for four main meals.

Sometimes I make a huge casserole where I double all the ingredients except the meat. On the first day you serve the meat, casseroled veg and some of the sauce as gravy. The next day you have lots of tasty sauce, which you can use to tart up something cheap like mince, lentils or more veggies.

I try to make the most economical use of the oven, so if I have it on for hours to cook a roast or casserole it's second nature to try and squeeze several meals from one cooking session.

I always buy the largest chicken I can find to roast. We have it as a Sunday roast dinner on the first day (Not always Sunday!) & then make up a chicken curry or thai green curry or chicken & pasta bake or my hubby's speciality "chicken muck up". There's often enough left over for chicken sarnies to take to work too.
Same goes for a joint of beef too - beef sarnies for work & a cottage pie.
Gammon joint - leftovers go into a chicken & ham pie (often with chicken leftovers from the week before that have been in the freezer)

I seem to naturally make most meals into 3 portions - there are only 2 of us at home, so the 3rd bit either goes into the freezer or one of us will take it to work for lunch the following day.