Frugal Meatless Meals: Stretching Meat

This week’s edition of Frugal Meatless Meals isn’t actually meatless, but I thought it might be nice to give a couple examples of how I stretch meat over several meals. I’ve had a few readers comment saying that they’d like to serve meatless meals, but have trouble getting their families on board. My standard advice is to just use less meat. Here are two recipes that do just that, without sacrificing taste.

Bacon Carbonara (adapted from Cooking During Stolen Moments)
Serves 5

Ingredients:
1/2 lb bacon, diced
1 onion, diced
3 Roma tomatoes, seeded and diced
2 big handfuls baby spinach
4 cloves garlic, diced
1/2 tsp crushed red pepper flakes
1/2 cup heavy cream
1/2 – 1 cup parmesan cheese
2 eggs, lightly beaten
1 tsp black pepper
Pinch of salt
1/2 lb pasta

Directions:
Cook the diced bacon in a large saucepan. Once done to desired crispness, remove with a slotted spoon and set aside. Drain all but two tbsp of the grease from the pan. Add onion, garlic, and red pepper flakes. Cook for 5 minutes over medium heat while cooking the pasta according to package directions. Add cream and cook about 3 minutes, just until sauce starts to boil. Stir in parmesan cheese. Slowly pour in beaten eggs while whisking continuously. Immediately remove from heat and add pasta, pepper, bacon, spinach, and tomatoes. Stir until combined and warmed through. Serve with bread and a green salad.

Brazilian Black Beans and Rice (adapted from Great Dinners With Less Meat)
Serves 6

Ingredients:
1/2 lb ground hot sausage or hot Italian sausage
1 tbsp olive oil
1 large onion, chopped
5 cloves garlic, minced
4 1/2 cups (or 3 cans) black beans, undrained
2 bay leaves
4 tsp white vinegar
4 tsp cornstarch
Pinch red pepper flakes (I used about 1 or 1 1/2 tsp)
1-2 navel oranges, peeled and sliced into chunks
Salt
1 cup rice
1 cup coconut milk
1 cup water

Directions:
Cook the sausage in oil until well-browned. If using Italian sausage, chop into 1-inch pieces for quicker cooking. Set aside on paper towels. Place the onions and garlic in the remaining oil and cook over low heat, stirring, until onions are translucent. Add beans, bay leaves, vinegar mixed with cornstarch, red pepper flakes, and sausage. Cook uncovered over low heat, stirring frequently, for 15 minutes or until heated through, and add salt as needed. While beans are cooking, cook rice in coconut milk and water. Serve beans with coconut rice and orange slices.

For more meatless meals, please check out the rest of my Frugal Meatless Meals series. You should also visit Meatless Monday’s recipe archive.

This post is linked to Tasty Tuesday and Tempt My Tummy Tuesday.