Meatloaf is a staple not only during holidays but ordinary days as well. It’s flavorful, nutritious, easy to make, and due to its size, it’s easy to feed the whole family with it. Meatloafs are also super versatile and can be paired with lots of different side dishes.
However, whenever I make it, I end up having leftovers. And I love it! Why? Because I love using leftover meatloaf in other dishes – due to how versatile it is, it’s a delicious base ingredient for an entirely new dish.
So in this post, I’m sharing a roundup of leftover meatloaf recipes you can try.
Leftover Meatloaf Recipes
There are lots of different ways to use leftover meatloaf, and the good thing about all of them, is that they are super quick and easy. Why? Because you already have the meat prepared, any dish that requires preparing meat from scratch can now be made much faster and easier. If a recipe calls for ground beef and preparing it from scratch, you can simply break down your meatloaf (or cut up slices of meatloaf), and you have a meal done in no time.
What To Do With Leftover Meatloaf
Meatloaf Stuffed Peppers
If you love stuffed bell peppers, you’ll love these meatloaf stuffed peppers as well! All you need are large green bell peppers, your leftover meatloaf (cubed), spaghetti sauce, rice (bonus points if you have that leftover as well – that makes the dish even quicker!), onion, and cheese. Preparation of the dish will take you about 25 minutes, which if you ask me is amazing, and it gets baked for about 15 minutes. So, your work will take you less than 10 minutes, and the whole dish is done in about 40. Perfect for those busy weeknight dinners when you’re tired and don’t want to spend hours in the kitchen!
Meatloaf Spaghetti
This has to be one of the best ways to use leftover meatloaf, as it’s so quick and easy, but ends up being delicious! Leftover meatloaf spaghetti just calls for leftover meatloaf, pasta sauce, spaghetti, and parmesan cheese. That’s it! Of course, you can make your pasta sauce from scratch, but if you want a super quick dinner that will take you no time, simply use jarred sauce, and you have a delicious pasta dish with minimum effort. You can even make this using leftover spaghetti noodles.
Meatloaf Chili
If you have a bit more time to spend (but not too much effort), and you want to turn your leftover meatloaf into a delicious and hearty meal, make this meatloaf chili. You can eat it as a chili with some sour cream and shredded cheese on top, or use it for Sloppy Joes! Both options are equally delicious. While this dish takes about an hour and 20 minutes to prepare, your actual prep time is only 20 minutes, so that’s still considered low effort if you ask me!
Meatloaf Empanadas
Leftover meatloaf in homemade empanadas is a leftover meatloaf recipe that probably didn’t come to mind when you were brainstorming what to do with leftover meatloaf, but once you try it, you’ll keep making it over and over again! The majority of the time it takes to prepare this dish goes to making your homemade empanada dough, but if you buy store-bought ones, you can even make this recipe quicker.
Meatloaf Grilled Cheese
If you’re looking for a leftover meatloaf sandwich, a meatloaf grilled cheese is the best thing you can make! It only calls for leftover meatloaf, margarine, bread, ketchup, mustard (both ketchup & mustard are optional), and of course, cheese.
It’s super quick and easy to make, and of course, super delicious. While meatloaf is definitely not the most traditional component of grilled cheese, if you have leftover meatloaf and you feel like making a sandwich of a sort, you need to try this.
