Stretch Your Hopkinton Food Dollar. Cook With Leftovers!

With the rise of oil and food prices, many families are suffering sticker shock at the grocery store.

There are many ways to shave dollars when grocery shopping, using coupons, shopping for off-brand items, buying in bulk, and comparison shopping. My favorite way to save money is cooking with leftovers.

When you transform yesterday's meatloaf into tonight's spaghetti sauce, you are saving money on groceries. With a little creativity, ground beef, turkey, roasts and cooked chicken breasts can be turned into days of meals to feed your family.

Here are some of my leftover favorites:

* Cook one, freeze one. - When preparing a lasagna or casserole, double the recipe and make two. Store extra casserole in freezer for another week. Hint:  Wrap tightly with heavy plastic wrap or foil to prevent freezer burn.

* Buy pre-cooked rotisserie chicken. - Very versatile! Remove chicken and store in baggies. Leftover chicken can be made into fajitas, quesadillas, tacos, soups and sandwiches for the week.

* Boboli pizza rounds - Purchase a few pre-made pizza rounds and create delicious pizzas out of leftover chicken, ground beef or turkey. Sprinkle cheese, cut up vegetables, onions, tomatoes, olives, or pineapple. Be creative!

* Garlic Bread - Use leftover hamburger and hot dog buns for garlic bread.

* Chili - Leftover chili can be used as a base for spaghetti sauce, lasagna, nachos or toppings for hot dogs.

* Crescent dough - Roll out crescent dough and fill with leftovers like chicken, barbecued ribs, chili, beef or turkey. Add favorite cheeses, vegetables and bake.

There are many ways to make sandwiches and main dishes out of crescent dough. Here is  an easy, money-saving way to use a leftover pot roast for dinner the next day:

Leftover Pot Roast Wrapped in Crescent Dough

2 - 8-10 oz. tubes of  Pillsbury Crescent dough

1 - 8 oz. package shredded cheese

leftover pot roast, sliced into small pieces

spray butter

Preheat oven to 350 degrees and line a shallow baking dish with foil. Remove crescent dough from package and roll out into two squares, pinching the seams together.  Place meat on top of the dough and sprinkle shredded cheese on top. Place remaining dough on top and secure all sides together so none of the filling spills out.  Coat the dough with spray butter and bake for 20 minutes.

The kids will love!

Enjoy!