One Recipe Two Meals: How to Make Dinner Easier This Week

After a weekend away, Monday rolled around and there wasn’t much food in the house.

There was also absolutely no enthusiasm on my part for heading straight back out to the supermarket.

Thankfully, I’m a big believer in keeping a few basics in the freezer and pantry for exactly these moments. I nearly always have mince in the freezer because, growing up, I watched my mum turn the simplest ingredients into the most delicious family meals.

A quick look through the kitchen uncovered a combination of beef and pork mince, half a bottle of tomato passata, an onion, a couple of potatoes, some slightly questionable carrots and — rather surprisingly — a few lasagne sheets hiding in the pantry.

That was enough.

Instead of making one dinner, I decided to make a large batch of meat sauce and turn it into two completely different family meals:

• a homemade lasagne
• a meat and vegetable pie

It didn’t take much more effort than cooking one meal, but it meant dinner was essentially sorted for two nights.

And after being away for the weekend, that second night without having to think about dinner gave me exactly the breathing space I needed to unpack, tackle the washing and finally get myself to the supermarket.

Why I Love Cooking One Recipe for Two Meals

I’ve always loved this way of cooking.

It’s not necessarily traditional batch cooking where you make six containers of exactly the same meal. Instead, I make a generous amount of one base recipe and then change it enough that we don’t feel as though we’re eating the same dinner two nights in a row.

It’s such a simple way to make life easier.

It can help you:

• use ingredients you already have
• reduce food waste
• save money
• spend less time cooking
• get ahead for another night
• make those busy weeks feel a little more manageable

And sometimes it’s actually quite satisfying to look at an almost-empty fridge and work out what you can create from it.

Start With One Good Meat Sauce

The secret to these two meals is making enough meat sauce from the beginning.

I used a combination of beef and pork mince because that’s what I had in the freezer, but you certainly don’t need to do the same. Use whatever mince you normally use for your lasagne.

The important part is simply making more than you need for the first meal.

Before assembling the lasagne, set aside enough of the meat mixture to become the base of your second dinner.

Do this BEFORE you start building the lasagne.

Otherwise you may become a little enthusiastic with your layers and discover that your clever one-recipe-two-meals plan has suddenly become one recipe, one enormous lasagne. 😂

Meal One: Easy Homemade Lasagne

The first dinner was an easy homemade lasagne.

There is something about lasagne that always feels like proper comfort food, yet most of the ingredients are things I tend to have tucked away in the pantry, fridge or freezer.

For this one, I used my meat sauce, the lasagne sheets I’d discovered in the pantry and a simple béchamel sauce.

And in the spirit of making life as easy as possible, I made the béchamel in the microwave.

It worked brilliantly.

No standing over the stove constantly stirring, and one less saucepan to deal with afterwards. That’s the kind of shortcut I’m very happy to embrace.

What to Serve With Lasagne

Depending on what you have available, you can serve your lasagne with:

• a simple green salad
• garlic bread
• herb bread
• steamed vegetables

Or just serve a generous piece of lasagne on its own.

On a night when the whole point is avoiding a trip to the supermarket, I don’t think we need to start worrying because there isn’t a perfectly dressed side salad sitting beside it!

Meal Two: Turn the Leftover Meat Sauce Into a Pie

The following night, that reserved meat sauce became something completely different.

A meat and vegetable pie.

This is where you can really make use of whatever happens to be hanging around in the fridge.

I added potato, carrot and frozen peas to mine, which turned the remaining sauce into a much heartier pie filling.

And yes, those slightly questionable carrots were absolutely fine once I’d given them a trim!

Use Whatever Vegetables You Have

There really aren’t many rules here.

The idea is to stretch the meat sauce and create a filling that feels different from the previous night’s lasagne.

Depending on what you have, you could add:

• potato
• sweet potato
• carrot
• peas
• corn
• pumpkin
• zucchini
• spinach

It’s a great opportunity to use those odd vegetables that aren’t quite enough to make anything on their own.

Add the firmer vegetables first and give them enough time to soften. More delicate vegetables such as peas or spinach can go in towards the end.

Add a Little Extra Liquid and Flavour

Because you’re adding vegetables to a fairly thick meat sauce, you’ll probably need some additional liquid.

I had some chicken stock left in the fridge, so that’s what I used.

You could also use beef stock, water, a little red wine or some extra passata or tomato sauce.

Again, use what you have.

You can also change the flavour completely. A little curry powder added to the meat and vegetables would turn it into a lovely curried pie filling.

That’s what I like about this sort of cooking. You’re not starting again with a completely new recipe — you’re simply taking what you’ve already made and sending it in a different direction.

Turn It Into an Easy Puff Pastry Pie

Once the vegetables are tender and the sauce has reduced to a nice thick consistency, your filling is ready.

At this point, you don’t even have to make a pie.

You could spoon the meat and vegetable mixture over toast, serve it with mashed potato or even pop it into individual dishes.

But luckily for us, I nearly always have puff pastry in the freezer.

So pie it was.

Add your filling to a pie dish, top it with puff pastry and brush the top with egg wash if you have an egg available.

No egg?

A little melted butter will also help give the pastry a lovely golden finish.

Bake at 180°C for approximately 20 minutes, then reduce the oven to 160°C and cook for another 20 minutes or until the pastry is puffed and beautifully golden.

And suddenly, last night’s lasagne sauce doesn’t feel like leftovers at all.

One Night of Cooking, an Easier Second Night

This is probably my favourite part of the whole idea.

You’re not necessarily saving yourself from cooking altogether on the second night, but you’ve already done the time-consuming part.

The meat is cooked.

The onion has been chopped.

The sauce has been made.

Most importantly, you’ve already answered that eternal question:

What’s for dinner?

Adding some vegetables and pastry the following night feels very manageable when the bulk of the work has already been done.

Both Meals Are Great for the Freezer Too

If you want to get even further ahead, both meals are also great options for the freezer.

You can make the lasagne ahead, portion leftovers for another night or prepare your pie filling and freeze it ready to top with pastry later.

I love having homemade meals tucked away in the freezer for busy days.

Even now that life can be a little more flexible, there are still plenty of days when I’ve been out, I’m working on something at home or I simply don’t feel like starting dinner from scratch.

Opening the freezer and finding something I’ve already made always feels like a little gift from my more organised self.

Make Your Recipes Work a Little Harder

I think we’re sometimes so accustomed to following a recipe from beginning to end that we forget how useful it can be to look at one part of a meal and ask:

What else could I make with this?

A big batch of meat sauce doesn’t have to mean eating spaghetti bolognese three nights in a row.

It can become lasagne one night and a pie the next.

The same principle can work with roast chicken, pulled pork, slow-cooked beef and all sorts of other family favourites.

It saves money and reduces waste, but for me the biggest benefit is simply making everyday life easier.

And on that Monday after a weekend away, two comforting homemade dinners made from what I could find in the kitchen — including those carrots — felt like a very good result indeed.

If you love an easy, comforting pie for dinner, you might also enjoy my Apricot Chicken Pie — another delicious family meal that’s perfect for making ahead.