One Roast, Three Meals: Stretching Flavor and Budge

Cooking on a budget doesn’t mean sacrificing creativity or comfort. With a little planning, one cut of meat can become the star of multiple meals. Recently, I bought a roast and challenged myself to use it three different ways — each dish building on the last.

🥪 Meal One: Ree Drummond’s Drip Beef Sliders with Onion Rings

I started with Ree Drummond’s famous drip beef sliders. Slow‑cooked roast, tender and juicy, piled high on King’s Hawaiian rolls with melted cheese — the perfect kickoff meal. To round it out, I served crispy onion rings on the side, making it feel like a restaurant‑style dinner at home.

👉 Try the recipe here: Ree Drummond’s Slow Cooker Drip Beef Sandwiches

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🥔 Meal Two: Swamp Potatoes with Leftover Roast

The next day, I reinvented the leftovers into swamp potatoes — a hearty Southern‑style dish where diced potatoes soak up all the savory roast juices. Adding chunks of the leftover beef gave the potatoes depth and richness, turning a side dish into a filling main course.

👉 For inspiration on slow‑cooker comfort dishes, check out McCormick’s Slow Cooker Recipes

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🥧 Meal Three: Pot Pie with Cheddar Bay Biscuit Crust

Finally, I took the leftover swamp potatoes and transformed them into a pot pie. Instead of a traditional crust, I used Cheddar Bay biscuit mix for the topping. For the filling, I kept it simple: the left over swamp potatoes, beef broth, some mushrooms I had previously cooked and frozen, a half packet of Lipton Onion Soup mix, and a bag of frozen vegetable beef mix. I also added some thyme and Italian seasoning. The biscuits baked up golden and cheesy, creating a comfort‑food twist that made the pot pie feel both familiar and fresh.

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💡 Why This Works

• Budget‑friendly: One roast stretched across three meals.
• Time‑saving: Each dish built on the last, reducing prep work.
• Creative comfort: Familiar flavors reimagined in new ways.

Cooking this way not only saves money but also sparks creativity in the kitchen. It’s about seeing leftovers not as “repeat meals,” but as opportunities to reinvent and surprise your family (or yourself!).

What’s your favorite way to stretch one ingredient into multiple meals? Share in the comments!

Ribs R' Us

Restaurant: Ribs R’ Us
Date: April 15, 2010
Time: 6:30 pm
Guests: Mike, Tina and Brooklyn
Rate 1-5 with 1 being worse than 5
Entrée Value Taste Appearance Temperature Overall
Fried Tomato BLT 2 3 1 3 3
Brunswick Stew 2 3 2 2 2
Ribs 3 5 5 5 5
Coleslaw 4 4 4 4 4
Fries 5 1 0 0 0
Hushpuppies 5 2 5 2 4
Apples 5 0 3 0 2
Pulled Pork 0 0 3 3 0

Category Rating
Hostess 2
Bathroom Cleanliness 0
Restaurant Cleanliness 5
Server 3

Comments:
Our server was so quite you could hardly hear her speak.

The ribs were wonder. When the food was brought out my pulled pork was not there. The waitress went to the back and told me she would bring some out. She came out and said it would be out in a minute. She brought me a little cup with maybe 3 oz of meat in it and said she would bring more out. The meat was inedible. I told her not to bother. I asked that they take it off the bill and they did. They reduced my meal price to that of ½ rack of ribs (9.95). I thought that was very fair. I do not like Jo-Jo potatoes. I had a ½ plate of those. I loved their cole slaw. Brooklyn’s apples were probably cooked last week and warmed.

Mike's Fried Green Tomato BLT was $5.95 and was two pieces of toasted white bread with one piece of lettuce, two slices of green tomato fried and one piece of broken into bacon. The brunswick stew was some sort of stew with pulled pork on top.

Mike would not use their restroom. Brooklyn went over to go and said no way. So I take it the restrooms were horrible.

We will not go back to this restaurant.

Blind Spots

The other day I was driving home from work thinking about my day and just driving. You know in that zone. I’ve been driving for 23 years so driving is automatic. I wasn’t texting (I don’t text and drive), I wasn’t on my phone, I probably was singing, but I was driving.
All of the sudden I heard someone frantically blowing their horn. I could not for the life of me figure out where it was coming from. Then I figured it out – it was someone blowing their horn at me. I was about to run them off the road. I went to pass an 18-wheeler and could not for the life of me figure out where this car came from. Of course, I got past the 18-wheeler and immediately pulled over. The driver shot me a bird (I expected that) even though I tried to apologize but then he pulled over in front of me and slammed on his brakes. I almost rear ended him. That was even less expected than the bird.

Yesterday on my way home from work I realized that I have a huge blind spot in my van. I adjusted my mirrors to no avail. I will really have to be careful merging left because if I look in my mirror and the car is beside me I cannot see it.

I was thinking about that whole situation this morning on the way to work as I was merging into traffic on the Smokey Park Bridge. How do we prepare for blind spots? You know, the times in our lives when the tragic or unexpected comes along and we are completely blindsided. Like when someone close to us is diagnosed with cancer, or we are diagnosed with cancer or another potentially terminal illness or when someone close to us dies or is in a serious accident or maybe our husband is diagnosed with cirrhosis. I know we immediately ask for prayer, but are we thinking ahead? We know that Eve ate the apple releasing chaos into a perfect world. How do we prepare for that chaos in our lives?

I think that is what 1 Thessalonians 5:17 is referring to. I don’t think we are meant to always be spouting scripture or sounding religious like the Pharisee. We can pray without anyone even knowing we are praying. In the old days it was called being prayed up. I don’t think we can always be prepared for everything that is going to happen; however, our relationship with our Father can be so full of trust that we can rely on Him in the midst of any storm and know that we are washed by the water.

Pray without ceasing.

Biltmore Baptist

Well, we've been so undecided about what to do about church. We like the Underground; however, it's just not exactly what we are looking for. Brooklyn has no one her own age there to connect with. Therefore, we keep checking out other churches to see if we can finally find the right church.

This morning we visited Biltmore Baptist. It's huge. I love the Children's Area. We parked on the side of the church and had to stroll through the elementary side of the building. It was exactly what I wanted to do at Covenant. I'm so glad they have the resources to provide that in our area.

The greeters spoke to us, but other than that no one else said hi except when they were told to during worship time. The orchestra did a great job and the worship was nice. The issue was it wasn't interactive. The worship was on stage, but it was as stiff as could be on the floor. That was disappointing. Some people would talk about how orchestrated it seemed (I'm sure they have a producer); however, most larger churches are using that format and to be honest, the people on stage seemed more into worship than the congregation did.

They baptised a guy that had intended on killing himself the weekend before Easter, and had gone to a restaurant to have his last meal. He was invited by someone he knew (his waitress) to attend their Easter program. He decided to wait and attend the service. He got saved and was baptized this morning. I cried. That's life changing. Everyone clapped. All I could think of was that man could have been dead, but instead someone invited him to church and he's alive. Not just alive physically, but also spiritually. God Rocks!

The pastor spoke on Baptism. It's was pretty much textbook. It was funny. It was straight forward.

They sang Blessed Assurance again and we left.

We would go back. I would like for Brooklyn to check out the middle school service at 9:45 and see what she thinks. That's the whole point.

Why Women are drawn to certain things in Culture

I think I know why women are drawn to the television show Grey's Anatomy. It's the men. Not because they are hot, but because they are manly.

A month or so ago, I heard a couple of guys talking on a radio show about how most comedies these days portrait men as weak. They were talking about how they had almost quit watching most situation comedies because of this continual attack on the family. It shows the women as smart, marrying obviously below themselves and enduring a marriage with a man who cannot lead and/or carry on an intelligent conversation.

I've thought about that show that I heard on the radio as I've watched television lately and found it to be quite true. The men on many shows are only after one thing, can't hold on to a job and cannot carry on a conversation. The shows I am drawn to: Bones, Fringe, and Grey's Anatomy have men that are strong, intelligent and care for their families.

I also think this is why the Twilight Series by Stephanie Meyer is so popular. The Cullen men are strong, they play ball, they fight for their families and they are extremely in touch with their emotions while also having a great desire to learn. Of course, they also have a desire to drink blood but that isn't the topic here.

As a woman I do want a man that is sensitive, can carry on a conversation and allows me to use my skill set to enhance our marriage.

Ecclesiastes 10 I think the bible is clear about roles. I think our society has tried to twist those roles. I don't really enjoy watching TV where the man is weak. Take "Life According to Jim," Cheryl is beautiful, intelligent and a stay at home PTA mom while Jim is off doing his best to get out of working. Same with King of Queens, Two and a half Men, etc.

Think about what you are allowing your children to watch. Do you want them to have a world viewpoint of men as weaker than women? I prefer a viewpoint where both genders are equal in the relationship with the man at the lead. The way God set it up in the garden.

THANKFUL

I am so thankful for all the friends and family that have been praying for us as we have been on this journey.

When we went to Florida we had an experience that showed us what being ungrateful looked like. I never want anyone to think I am ungrateful.

May our family always show gratitude.

Psalm 139:14

Insurance, MELD Scores, etc

While we were in Florida we got the call that Mike had been accepted by the insurance company to receive the transplant. When he told them we were in Florida they were a little shocked; however, they understood and told him to get his bloodwork done when he got back into town.

So, on April 21st he was officially added to the UNOS list to receive a donor transplant.

The other good news was that his bloodwork had improved and his MELD score had dropped. He is no longer in the top 10 so now we are just waiting.

I think the sunshine does alot for one's attitude and mental health. All the sun tanned him up and made him feel better (he drove the whole way back by himself).

The past few days Mike hasn't felt well again. If he starts feeling real bad, he has to go have more bloodwork and get a new MELD score. In the meantime, we wait.

Transplant List

Yesterday Mike was presented to the transplant conference and they accepted him for listing. He will do fresh bloodwork when we return from vacation and then he will be listed (as long as his insurance company approves it.)

We are heading in the right direction.

$10 Tip

Wednesday night’s Mike and I usually grab an inexpensive meal out because Brooklyn is with her dad. So this past Wednesday night we decided to head over to Cracker Barrel so we could have some veggies.

It wasn’t very crowded so we got right in and sat down. Our waitress didn’t show for about 8 or 9 minutes, but no worries. We ordered our drinks and food at the same time. She brought our drinks and I noticed on her apron it said rising star which I thought meant she was probably new. She asked if we needed anything else and Mike made a sarcastic comment about our salads under his breath, but she didn’t hear it.

I played the triangle country game until I finally got it down to one peg. We talked. We laughed. And then here comes our food. Salad & food at the same time. I asked her salads & food at the same time and she said, “yeap.” She obviously didn’t know what to do. She’s about 16, maybe. Very young. So she leaves. She came back a few minutes later and asked if we needed anything else. Well, I had been choking my salad down so I could eat my food hot and decided enough was enough. I asked for the manager.

He came to our tables and didn’t even give me time to politely ask him to help us out. He said he heard there was a timing issue, could he put our food back under the warmer. I said, that will be fine. Mike asked him just to cook him a couple of more pieces of fish because they would be horrible after being under the warmer (which was probably true). So he whisked our food away.
The girl promptly comes behind the manager and asks if we need anything else. I said no, she lays down the check and walks off.

Now, usually this would have made me mad. But I thought about Brooklyn in about six years and realized this girl had no idea how to handle conflict, no idea how to deal with this situation, we are probably about her parent’s age and she probably thought we were being mean.
Two young guys sit down at the table behind us. She obviously knew them. They start giving her a hard time about not knowing the menu. They said something about her tip going down and she whispered (but I could hear it) that her tip was going down because of our table.

She brought me another diet coke, she filled Mike’s water, and she did a great job of taking care of us the rest of the meal. I ordered a piece of caramel apple pie to go and she asked me if I wanted the ice cream in a separate container so it wouldn’t ruin the pie.

I was thinking about something Perry Noble preached on during Christmas about tipping your servers more during the season and especially on Sunday. I started digging in my purse. I had $10 in cash (I never carry cash) and I decided I would tip her that $10 and write her a note to hang in there.

Mike was worried that I would lecture her. I figure they hadn’t trained her; she was just learning and obviously needed some encouragement. Leaving her an atta girl without a tip would not have accomplished anything.

I don’t know if I did the right thing or not. I have no idea. I wrote "hang in there" on the coaster, put the $10 under it and we left. I hope she learned from the situation. I hope I learned from the situation.

Stats

The average liver transplant wait time at Chapel Hill is around 11 months. However, it depends on how sick you are because they don't transplant you until your MELD score is around 24.

The average liver transcipient has a survival rate of 85% at one year status post transplant.

The average transplant costs $250,000 and meds are $5000 after the transplant.

2 Samuel 22:31

Psalm 18:2

Transplant Bound

This past week was the good, the bad and the ugly all rolled into one.

We drove up to Chapel Hill so we could go to the transplant class. It is a very good thing that they don't just give away livers to the first person that can pay for one. They are a priceless comodity for the sick person that needs one.

Mike needs a liver. So we attended the class and found out the transplant will cost about $250,000 and his meds will cost $5,000 per month after the transplant. If his insurance stays the same the cost to us will be around $1500 for the surgery and about $300 per month for his anti-rejection meds. The cost of the meds will actually reduce after time as he goes on fewer meds; however, for the first couple of months he will be taking 30 pills per day at least.

I read on the internet somewhere today of a group called: Alcohol is cheaper than therapy. I would beg to differ. It has huge physical and spiritual ramifications.

Today's scripture is found in 2 Timothy: For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and love and of a sound mind.

Christian Witches

So I was reading a blog the other day and linked from a comment someone else made to another blog. I was very intrigued. I found something I had never heard of: Christian Witches. Sounds like an oxymoron to me.

How does one proclaim to be a Christian: living in the light worshiping God and also a witch: a worshipper of nature is basically what those who are Christian witches seem to profess to doing.

Jesus covers this in Luke 4; however, most who chose to worship other "idols" look at the bible as not being the inspired word of God, but look on it as a book written by fallible men doing the best they could. My thoughts on this are God is God and if He chose to publish His story He made history work out to have in the story what He wanted told.

The River Church

Today we visited the River Church. It was my BFF Jan's birthday and we spent the morning together and then went to lunch. There are so many church plants popping up all over Asheville and I am such a church geek. I used to read about all different kinds of churches when I was on staff at Covenant. But because I was on staff and had to be there every Sunday, I couldn't go check them out, but now I do have that opportunity.

We enjoy the Underground. I love to hear Kevin speak. He is a very talented teacher and you can tell he is anointed; however, we haven't really connected there. Most of the women (not all, but most) are at a totally different life stage than I am and most of the guys are at a different life stage than Mike. We have some really good friends that we met at Covenant and we were all at the same stage in life. It's hard to socialize with people that have little kids because Brooklyn always ends up entertaining them (and she resents that). She likes us having friends that have kids her age.

Likes about the River:

They are reaching outside to others. They are doing bedrolls for the homeless. They are sending money to Nicaragua to buy a wheelchair for a woman that has cerebral palsy.

They communicate well. They send a newsletter out via email. Their website is informative. They have a new visitor packet.

They are friendly. We were welcomed by several different people and not just the pastor.

For what they are doing I liked the way they did music. They didn't have people bring in instruments and try to put together a band.

Dislikes:

They don't start on time. Sunday is the biggest day we get to spend as a family and with friends. I work. My time is valuable. I don't mean to sound arrogant, but I do think that my time should be valued and if you are going to start at 10:30 then you should start then.

The preaching style was more Baptist. This is just a personal preference for me - I like a more conversational style of message.

The way they do music. Wow, a like and dislike. I just like a band to worship with; however, I do think it works for what they are doing.

Just my perception.

Christmas

Mike was sick all night on Christmas Eve. He woke up yesterday morning way too early. He did last for us to open presents. My mom came down for breakfast & presents and then I took Brooklyn to her dads. When I got back, Mike was asleep.

He has lost about 12 pounds this week and his eyes are dark. Emotionally it is getting harder for him. I think too he is having a hard time with friends that aren't calling. Their lives move forward while his is on hold. He tries to sound cheerful when Kristin calls but she is starting to read through his fake courage.

He got me a beautiful black diamond cocktail ring (Kristin helped him pick it out - thanks!). And chocolate truffles. But he slept all day. I would love for us to have one weekend back in the apartment (that is where it all began and it was wonderful).

He also got me a stand mixer and a food processor. I guess that means I will have to cook more!

Brooklyn got some video games, but was most excited over her ring, necklace and her keyboard. The ring is too small and will have to be sized. The keyboard is being returned for an upgrade that doesn't take batteries, but she was so excited to get it. She is beautiful. She's turning into a great young woman. She's learning to sew and loves to cook. One day some guy is going to be very lucky...but not for a very long time.

She read us the Christmas story on Christmas Eve out of Luke. I wonder if an angel came to me if I too would be terrified?

Christmas in the Tahoe

We had a wonderful time with Kristin (Mike's daughter) & Curtis last Sunday (12/21). We meet them in Winston Salem for brunch at the Village Tavern (yum). I had the crab cake benedict and it was wonderfully prepared. The crab meat was lump and the filling was just enough to hold it together. The egg was perfectly poached. Our server Karen was very attentive. It was a wonderful meal.

Then we went to HH Gregg. In the Tahoe, we put some seats down and we exchanged Christmas presents. Talk about Redneck! It was just nice to all be together.

Then we went in HH Gregg and watched Mike & Curtis drool over the BOSE surround sound systems.

MELDS, update

It's been a while, I know. I have no excuse really. I guess I just check my facebook daily so I get behind on blogging.

Mike's MELD score has dropped to 16 which is great. He still is sick and a normal MELD is 9. He has good days and bad days. We appreciate your prayers.

One thing I've learned through this is that life goes on even when it is on HOLD.

Fine Line

Brooklyn's school requires parents come for a three way conference (Parent, child, teacher) in order for the child to receive their report card. They get graded not only on Math, Reading, etc., but Math quizzes, Math notebook, Math Homework, Problem Solving, Science Notebook, Science Quizzes, etc.

My quandary is when you have a child doing eighth grade problem solving do you get wigged out because they aren't doing their math homework. Or they have an A in Math Quizzes do you get upset that they made a 17 and a 64 on math homework - because of hurrying. They obviously get how to do the work.

What about when in Math they set a goal to eat all their lunch. I had a hard time making that connection.

Being in a non-traditional environment she gets to do many more hands on projects. She spent a few days at the Outer Banks doing experiments and they have done other field trips that are off the hook. My fear is when she gets back to a traditional setting for high school she will have a hard time adjusting. Homework isn't counted as a separate grade.

Parenting, I thought would get easier; however, it isn't. I guess to prepare her for the future it is important that she learns if you can make a 100 in a class you should do everything to make that 100 (like go to Study Hall at 7:30 on Thursday mornings.)

But I guess I have to walk that fine line of positive reinforcement for working on 8th grade problems while encouraging doing her best work in all of it.

If you had told me

that in less than a year:

I would lose my job, get a new job, get a promotion, my air & heat would go out in my car, Mike would need a liver transplant, we would rent out our downstairs apartment and that my mom would have macular pucker and need surgery...I wouldn't have believed you.

If you had told me that this verse and John 10:10 would relate to my life so heavily this year. I wouldn't have believed you.

My prayer for my friends is that you will have abundant life through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Frankie Bones

Mike & I went to Frankie Bones for lunch today.

I had the Seafood Benedict and he had an omelet with four cheeses, ham, mushroom & broccoli. Our meal was about $25, it was prepared well and was nicely presented. The flavors all went well together and nothing was overpowering. I was pleased.

The restaurant is very tastefully decorated in a speakeasy theme. It reminded me of an old New York restaurant (Sardi's). Mike said it reminded him of Chicago.

We will definitely go back.

Highlands Community Church

This morning we went with Jeff & Jan to check out Highlands Christian Church. Honestly, my preconceived notion was that it would be annoying with the kids allowed to be in service. I have a hard time concentrating.

We did not have a hard time finding parking and found across the street there is parking that probably not too many people are aware of. We were greeted at the door by two greeters, but really those were the only people that even spoke to us.

It's really dark in the worship area. The heat (it's an older building) was hot, so we moved to a cooler location. Yes, the kids after they started working on their packets were moving about, but they weren't really loud. Well a couple were talking, but it wasn't as bad as I suspected.

It's always hard for me to worship the first time in a new place. I enjoyed the music, but it was more to listen to for me than worship with. Their videos are freakin' funny. They did a great job explaining gel (with one L) groups...but made me think they were saying jail groups, serving, foster parenting and volunteering. It was a great infomercial which I guess helped you understand the church. He didn't really preach this morning.

They did children's time which was very traditional and I felt the woman doing it really probably talked above the children's heads. They aren't going to understand going to the chocolate lounge with a friend and how that relates to God if you pray first (there was more to the story, but I don't think I can do it justice).

They explained why children worship with their parents (intergenerational) and why their gel groups aren't segregated. Why they don't have a single's ministry, etc. I understand you don't have a building, it's hard to correlate all of those things when your space is limited, etc. So how do you talk about the hard topics if children are always there? How do you have a PG or PG-13 service when you have 5-year-olds in the room. Frankly, I don't want my child exposed to certain topics (although now she is at age 11 being exposed) but I feel they are necessary to talk about at church.

The statistic of emotional affairs via the internet, porn via the internet, loveless marriage, and singles marrying for the wrong reason is staggering. How do you ever go deeper and touch on any of these topics if children are always present?

I'm sure parents who love being surrounded by their children 24/7 will love this type of ministry. I love my child, but think she learns much better on a level of her own with her peers (or maybe she should just go to work with me every day and learn the way I do..sarcasm).

That's just my 2c. My perception!