Leftover Magic: Southwestern-ish Lasagna Roll-ups

[Disclaimer: still catching up on September’s meals… this one is from the middle of the month…]

This was just a rounding up of odd and ends that needed using… Tomatoes threatening to go soft, cabbage shamefully buried in the back of the produce drawer (discovered only when we couldn’t fit all the new produce in the bins), ground bison sadly still buried in the deep freeze from January and leftover bits from the weekend’s lasagna, plus a small amt of of corn that is too little for our big family and I had previously figured I’d throw in a soup or something (which I of course didn’t)… Oh and please forgive me on the name, I’m truly useless at these sorts of things… and I really was at a loss for a name, as I’m not used to naming my dishes (probably the second most cumbersome part of taking this blog on) and usually just take a name from whatever inspired it… Unfortunately, that wasn’t an option here… just slapped leftovers together and seasoned it to taste pleasant (though this got raves, even the girlie ate all of hers and bluejay asked for seconds–and my kids tend to give the evil eye to casseroles, so this is big deal–it really was tasty and very comfort food-ish)… I almost just called it Lasagna Roll-ups but figured it wasn’t just plain lasagna so that might be misleading…

Southwestern-ish Lasagna Roll-ups
1-1.25 lb ground bison
1/2 head of cabbage, shredded (leftover from the Mandarin Chicken)
3 romas, diced (I obsessively cut each one into 32 pieces, but do however you see fit)
1 c mexican stewed tomatoes (squeezed the tomatoes to break them up)
frozen corn (not sure how much as it was the end of the bag, at least a cup maybe 1.5)
1/2 c leftover salsa sauce (from the BB Lasagna)
8 2/3 softened lasagna noodles (soaked the BB Lasagna night)
1.5 tsp Southwestern Chipotle Mrs Dash
1/2 tsp ea: s/p, g/o pwd
1/4 tsp ea: celery seed, nutmeg

Brown the meat, stir in remaining and 1/4 c water and simmer 20 min or until most of the liquid is absorbed or mostly so… Use a slotted spoon to fill the noodles with drained filling…and roll them up lengthwise jellyroll-style and transfer to a baking dish (I placed them seam side down)…

cook it until it’s around this neighborhood of absorbsion or so…

then use a slotted spoon to add it to the softened noodles…

tuck the rolls in pan… (then top with sauce, forgot that pic)

Sauce
2 T ea: flour, oil
1.5 c milk
1/2 c ea: leftover filling from above and cottage cheese
1 c grated colby jack

Cook flour and oil together until well incorporated but still pale, whisk in milk slowly to avoid lumps. As it approaches a steady simmer add remaining and bring to a boil to thicken. Pour over the rolls (can line the base of the pan, under the rolls, with it too if you wish… and you don’t have to use all of it I suppose if you don’t want it so saucy, but creamy sauce equals comfort so I lay on…) and bake at 350 until warmed through or noodles are cooked if that is necessary…

[Note to self/spouse: Make this again! On purpose!]

Crockpot Deer Roast

This was soooo good, and absolutely couldn’t have been easier. And the Hubs even said “That roast was really good. No seriously, I think it’s one of the best I’ve ever had.” So gloaty, gloat, gloat. I mean, I personally didn’t think it was the best thing I’ve ever tasted or anything but it was pretty good w/o really doing anything–so that was awesome.

Crockpot Deer Roast
3 lb deer roast (mine was 3 lbs, but cut in two pieces) **
1/2 c ea: worchestershire, water
about 2T spicy brown mustard
1 lg onion, sliced

Layer sliced onion in bottom of crockpot and preheat it. Season your meat liberally (I used s/p, garlic powder) and in a hot skillet sear all sides in a bit of olive oil and butter. Lay meat on top of onions and whisk the others together until entirely incorporated and pour over the top. Cover and cook on low pretty much all day. [You of course could add your veggies to the pot if you wish…I often do just not this time.]

** If you are lazily-inclined, and not motivated to remove the silver skin, you can soak the meat in milk for an hour before searing. I did (per the Pops suggestion) and it worked great. And you certainly can just use regular beef but you’ll have to drain off fat so either add the cooking liquid after it’s cooked a couple hrs and you’ve drained it or plan on using one of those nifty gravy seperators–I don’t have one, so I loved using nice lean deer meat and skipping the hassle of gloving up to drain off the grease.

NB: I did not make accordian potatoes to go with it afterall, since the temp got up to 105 here I figured that would have be stupid. So I boiled ’em instead to make mashed (and didn’t mash for the kids)