Three in One

Having been reminded that the 9 days were about to fall upon us, I resolved to make a meat dinner and headed to the store with a clear mission.

Tip #1: if the belt is tight do not enter the store without a clear plan, be it a shopping list or any particular strategy you may have perfected.

I approached the meat aisle and quickly settled on a package of fresh ground beef, weighing in at about 2.13 lbs if I recall correctly. Once home, I removed a little over half of the meat and froze the rest. Dinner was to be a meatloaf with sweet and sour sauce with sides of mashed potatoes and a quick salad. Hearty comfort food, possibly too heavy for July but hey, nobody was complaining. Dinner was a success and the following day I warmed up the potatoes in a pan with some olive oil and added the leftover meatloaf slices, briefly searing them.

Day three was upon us and I still had 2 slices of meatloaf to get rid of. I removed the extra ground beef from the freezer allowing it to thaw on the counter until I was ready to make dinner, which was going to be beef lasagna. I browned the beef, let it rest on a plate while I sauteed onions, carrots and mushrooms then added canned crushed tomatoes and the browned beef with spices. After bringing the sauce to a boil I added and broke up the remaining meatloaf slices and constructed my lasagna.

I am contemplating warming up the rest of the lasagna for the third course on Friday night. A bit unconventional but it tastes good and this is no time to waste some good food, is it?