Good meatloaf is super satisfying, full of flavor and the perfect comfort food for a family meal. But what do you do with the leftovers?
No one wants to eat the same thing night after night. Once you’ve perfected your loaf with these tips, it's surprisingly easy repurpose any leftovers for exciting dinners all week long.
Think of it like a pre-seasoned ground meat — you can actually break it up and use it in place of ground meat in most recipes, making it extremely versatile. It’s a great shortcut for weeknight meals during the school year and will keep your kids looking forward to dinner.
Here are a few recipes in which you can easily use any of your leftover meatloaf:
Dice up some leftover meatloaf, saute it — or even microwave it — to add to the stuffing in these roasted, stuffed bell peppers.
Replace the ground beef in this recipe with crumbled meatloaf. You can skip the step of browning the meat since its’s already been cooked. Add the seasoning, canned beans and broth, simmer for 20 minutes ... and dinner is all set!
These sliders are a perfect after-school snack, or you can serve them up with a side of cooked veggies or a salad for a hearty dinner. Use a round cookie cutter or the ring of a mason jar lid to transform slices of meatloaf into round patties for your sliders. Then, start with step 6 of this recipe, brushing barbecue sauce on the patties and broiling them. Dinner is ready in minutes and you can save the scraps for one of these other recipes.
Pair meatloaf with mushrooms in this easy dish. Add diced up meatloaf to the saute pan with onions, seasonings and mushrooms and cook until it’s heated through. You may have to adjust what seasoning you use depending on how you flavored your meatloaf originally. Serve it up piled high on some toast with a salad on the side and you’ve got yourself a four-star, homestyle feast
Saute some garlic, ginger, bell peppers and green onions in sesame oil, then add your seasoned diced meatloaf to the pan until it’s cooked through. Toss with a little hoisin sauce and soy sauce. You can serve this up on lettuce leaves for delicious Asian-style lettuce cups with some rice on the side.
You really, truly only need one pot for this recipe — the pasta cooks right in the sauce, so no boiling water or colander for draining is needed. Use crumbled meatloaf in place of the ground beef and you’ve got a winning dinner that leaves you with very little mess to clean up.