With inflation rising, your money getting you less and less finding ways to stretch everything, or repurpose is becoming more important to live a comfortable lifestyle.
I will be writing a series of blogs over the coming weeks to spark the inner imagination for you on how to stretch your money and food (including leftovers!) and some great ideas on repurposing packaging and other odds and ends that you may have in the past just thrown out. Not only will you save money, but time and also get to have a hand in going green and keeping things out of the landfills!
Today as the title suggests I am stretching the dollar regarding food….This past weekend I made an absolutely YUMMY cornedbeef and cabbage dinner in my trusty crockpot. Cornedbeef (which is basically a bad cut of beef that has been brined/preserved in a saltwater solution) can be tricky to cook without drying it out and making it tough. Enter the CROCKPOT (and I am sure a dutch oven would work well too if you are camping out or find yourself without power but have access to a fire or wood stove).
Simply Sweet and Tangy Tender Cornedbeef and Cabbage In a Crockpot or Dutch Oven
1 Cornedbeef (and actually you can use ANY not so good cut of meat or game)
Crockpot or Dutch Oven (if you use the dutch oven be sure to coat the inside of it to keep things from ‘sticking’)
Potatoes (as many as you add to the crock/dutch oven)
Cabbage (one large head or two small ones) If you don’t like cabbage, skip it.
Apples (3 medium ones)
3 cups water
6 tablespoons minced garlic with the oil (not dried garlic)
4 tablespoons of yellow mustard
2/3 cup honey OR ½ cup brown sugar
Cut up your potatoes, cabbage and apples to your liking…I tend to just thickly slice up the cabbage in chunks, the potatoes the same way and cut the apples in quarters removing the seed area.
In a small bowl combine your water, mustard, minced garlic and honey/sugar, mix well.
Place your cornedbeef or other meat (deer roast is awesome this way) in the bottom of your crockpot or dutch oven.
Next, add your cabbage, potatoes and apples
Pour your water mixture over this.
Put lid on.
If you use a crockpot, low setting it will take about 10 hours if your piece of meat is large, high setting it takes about 5-6 hrs. Adjust time according to size of meat. Typically I use about about 2-3 lb piece of cornedbeef. Less time for smaller, more time for larger.
Dutch Oven users: It will be about the sametime…the key is to keep the heat LOW…I have used my own electric oven and set the temperature on about 250 degrees.
EAT and ENJOY
Now for the ‘reusing’ and stretching the dollar…after you have eaten your fill (and typically the meat disappears and I have veggies and the broth leftover) take your leftover veggies and put into a container or baggie (put in the frig AFTER it has cooled of, this is important! If you put the hot or warm veggies in the frig before they cool off enough to handle by hand when you go to reheat them they will go to MUSH and the taste is off) and then SAVE THE BROTH you have leftover in a jar or another container…this you can put immediately into the frig.
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Now you have a fast way to make another crockpot dish in a few days! No muss or fuss though it won’t make as much…in this case I used a small pork loin that came from the depths of my big freezer…yes, you know that piece of meat that has been there forever and maybe you would throw out…DON’T…slow cook it!
Defrost the meat thoroughly, place in the bottom of the crock (this time I am using my small one) and get your broth out from frig and pour this over the meat (it is about 1.5 pounds in this case).
Low temp setting for 6 hrs or high temp setting for 3-4 hrs. When the meat is close to being done (about 45 mins or so) take out your left over cooked veggies that you saved and put this on top of the meat and recover the crock, this will reheat them slowly and not over cook them and re-infuses them with the previous ‘seasoning’ making them even better tasting the second time around.
Bingo…time is up and everything is hot, tasty and delicious the second time around and no one is complaining about ‘leftovers’ and the pork that ‘freezer dead’ came out tender, delicious and falling apart!
Enjoy again!
survivingshtfmom 
