Leftover Pot Roast

My first experiences cooking on my own were in my apartment in Charlottesville, Virginia while I was in graduate school and I was pretty clueless. I distinctly remember one of the first meals I made just for me for dinner one night – sticky white rice, overcooked flavorless chicken, and steamed broccoli. I seasoned the entire dish with soy sauce and nothing else and it was edible, but not exactly tasty. To be honest I really didn’t cook all that often back then mainly because I was studying all the time and didn’t have much time to cook, the most amazing Chinese restaurant delivered, I have a wonderful friend, Betta, who also happens to be Italian and an incredible cook (think delicious pasta dishes, fantastic chicken cacciatore, and so many more) and she fed me and the rest of our grad school group frequently, and to be quite honest cooking for one is not that easy. Like most people I don’t really love to eat the same thing for several days straight and if you live alone and cook a meal that is often times what ends up happening. So, while this post doesn’t exactly show new recipes or anything really exciting it does show how to cook one main meal and then incorporate the leftovers into several different meals throughout the week that would work well for someone who lives alone or for a family. We are not always this creative with our leftovers, so I really wanted to show how you the pot roast could easily be incorporated into other meals where you won’t feel like you are eating the same meal over and over.

I started with a 3 lb roast and if you are cooking for one person you could easily do a 2lb or if you are cooking for a family a larger one. For lunch yesterday Russ made us delicious sub sandwiches. He toasted a whole wheat bun open faced in the toaster oven for a couple minutes. Then he put Swiss cheese and slices of the pot roast on the sandwich and put it back in the toaster oven (open faced) until the cheese melted and the meat was heated. We both added a little A1 sauce to them and they were delicious!

Tonight I made a version of Russ’ Mom’s Beef and Vegetable Soup like what I had made for my Mom last month here. This time I used the remaining pot roast instead of ground beef. I shredded the leftover meat and added it to the pot along with canned tomatoes (1 can diced and 1 can Rotel), a little vegetable broth, a little of Tony’s seasoning, the leftover vegetable gravy, and a little bit of all the frozen vegetables that we happen to have in our freezer right now (green peas, green beans, corn, and black eyed peas). Once I had all the ingredients in I added a little bit of water as it was too thick. You can always add more water (or broth) as it cooks – just eye ball it until you get it to the thickness that you prefer. I brought the soup to a boil and reduced it to a simmer for about an hour (you could do less).

The soup was perfect for a cold night! It was warm, hearty and filled with wonderful vegetables and tender, flavorful shredded pot roast. I really prefer this soup with the shredded roast over the ground beef for the texture and the added flavor that it brings to the soup. We’ll eat the rest of the soup for lunch this week, however, if you have lots left over it freezes really well. Russ rates the leftover pot roast soup and sandwich both a 9.