Happy Tuesday!!

I am going to be doing a series of teasers on my Facebook Author Page today. I have a lot of projects going on!! And a lot of things to tease.

:)

But I wanted to share something that has absolutely nothing to do with books. It's not even in any kind of professional realm.

This is just me, being a housewife and having a tip I want to pass along! :)

Ok, so I really try to keep my grocery budget as small as I can. Which is hard with four kids and a husband. I mean, that is a lot of food.

And I'm not perfectly organic or anything, but I do my best to always give my kids fresh fruits and vegetables. I don't really believe in the canned stuff and they don't like applesauce.

I'm not even sure they've ever had canned fruit before.

Maybe Stella.

Anyway, because of that it's really, truly hard to keep my grocery total small.

Although, yesterday at Baker's, I saved $45!!!! That made me extremely happy!!! Plus, next time I go to get gas, I have .30 off a gallon!! Woot woot!

And then when I got home, I opened the trunk and a bottle of vodka crashed to the ground and shattered.

So... so much for saving money. Stupid vodka.

Don't worry, it was also on sale and only $16. I was mostly bummed out I wasted the sale. It's normally a $22 bottle. And it's Titos. And I love Titos.

Ahem.

Anyway.

I'll try to stop sounding like an alcoholic now.

But we also eat a lot of meat. We are by no means anywhere close to vegetarian. (Although I do REALLY try to make one vegetarian meal a week. That seems to help some.)

Here's a fun fact. Before I got married I was on this huge health kick. Which might surprise some, because I'm not by any means a tiny girl. But anyway, I was really into exercising, I lost forty pounds and I became a vegetarian.

And then I got married.

And Zach was all, wait, what? Well, I eat meat for every single meal, so..... And I caved. Not because he pressured me or I was all that weak willed. It was more like, before Zach I hadn't been all that impressed by steaks or hamburgers- even from restaurants. But Zach is like a culinary mastermind. And a grill master. So... that's what eventually wore me down.

Ok, so all that to say, we eat a lot of big pieces of meat. Usually on the weekend, Zach will smoke, or grill, or experiment with like a brisket, or roast, or pork butt or whatever.

And they make a fantastic meal.

But then.... we have leftovers.

And I am ALWAYS struggling with what to do with them. Sometimes I make tacos or bbq sandwiches or nachos. I try to be creative. And I REFUSE to let any of it go to waste.

My favorite, absolutely favorite left over meal to make is what I want to share with you! Because it is delicious and you could use any kind of meat, or go vegetarian- which we have definitely done when the cupboards are totally bare and I haven't been to the store in three weeks. We've also made these with lunch meat. And they are equally delicious.

It's like our version of making-do-stew.

Naan Pizzas.

They are fantastic.

And super easy to make!!

So like over this weekend, Zach grilled a Pork Butt. And it was amazing. And he used coffee as the rub... I cannot explain to you how delicious this was.

So sitting in my fridge now is this huge Tupperware of left overs. And like I said, we are going to eat it until it's gone. I won't waste it. Last night, I pulled out the Naan. You can find it in the bakery section of any grocery store- even Walmart- or we buy ours from Costco and keep it in the freezer. You get 8 total pieces of Naan from Costco for like $4. And that's what you pay for 2 of them at the grocery store. Plus, then they're always in my freezer for whenever I need them. And twenty minutes before I want to start making my meal I just set them out and let them defrost.

Ok, anyway!

Then for the sauce, I just use spaghetti sauce. This is a trick I picked up from Weight Watchers. I'm not sure if regular spaghetti sauce is leaner than pizza sauce, but we prefer the less is more in the thinner spaghetti sauce. I suppose you can use whatever you like. (Then I use the rest of the spaghetti sauce- because there will be a lot left over- and make spaghetti later in the weak.)

For the toppings, I really use whatever is in our house. Last night I added onions, fresh jalapenos, tomatoes, left-over pork butt, pepperjack cheese and some dots of cream cheese(If you've never had cream cheese on your pizza you need to go out right now and either find this and buy it or make it at home. Right this second. It is too yummy for words.). I baked it for about 15 minutes in the oven at 400 degrees and called it good.

They are seriously so good! And you can use whatever you like. I've put all kinds of peppers on there, whatever cheese I happen to have and even peas. But we like peas and corn on our pizza here. It's an easy way to sneak veggies to the kids. :) I've also used BBQ as the sauce instead of red sauce. And feta cheese crumbles instead of cream cheese. But that was just luck I happened to have those!

You can get as creative as you want!! And they are super easy and cheap to make because the only thing I ever invest in is the $4 naan and then the rest is always just pulling things from my refrigerator. Plus, it's an easy meal for that space filler meal- the one you always forget to plan for or that life gets in the way and you suddenly need something quick and easy!

And it's a great way to use left overs!! Plus my kids love them!!!

My mom was the left over queen. She could make an entirely different meal out of literally whatever we had the night before. I am not as creative.... Although it is a life goal of mine!!

So this is just one step in that direction and I hope it helps make your left-over journey a little bit more successful!! :)