About making dinners

Yes, I'm cooking dinners. Most every night, in fact. I've decided that I need to be a little bit smarter in my strategy with 2 kids in tow. Well, one in tow...one in whatever area I try to have her entertain herself. Currently it's the jungle mat activity thing. Anyway, dinner. Besides limiting my trips to the grocery store, I'm also trying to do some carry over cooking. Basically make or buy one thing to incorporate into 2 meals that week. I'm horrible with leftovers. I don't eat them. Thankfully Rick loves leftovers. But even with his love of them, I still feel like there is a lot of waste. So here was my strategy last week:
I made the 13 bean soup the other night. You know, the one in the bag with the recipe on the back. I followed the recipe and we had that as a side dish with crock pot pork roast one night (I'll have to try to figure out how I made the gravy for this and post the recipe, it turned out really good). Then the next night I added ground beef and some taco seasoning to the bean soup, which had taken on a refried bean consistency. I served this over white rice to turn it into a Mexican dish of sorts. The next night I used the gravy from the pork roast to serve over pasta. Looking back, I should have shredded the remainder pork roast and turned that into pulled pork sandwiches, but instead I just stored it for regular sandwiches during the week.
Rick brought home a head of cabbage and tons of cauliflower leftover from a dinner he put on with his cooking crew for a charity dinner. With the cabbage, I made cole slaw as a side to the pork roast and beans, and then braised the rest another night with corned beef. Cole slaw makes for a great addition to kaiser rolls and corned beef sandwiches, with dijon. I roasted the cauliflower one night with olive oil and garlic as a side dish with the pasta and gravy, and made the rest into a gratin last night with some roasted chicken.
So I'm trying to be creative with the leftovers, save some money and cut down on time spent at the grocery store and in the kitchen. I was really happy with last week's meal plan. If only I can continue to figure out how to do this on a consistent basis.
On a sort of related topic, my Aunt Lynette gave us some Napa Style Truffle Salt for Christmas (in addition to some other wonderful salts and rubs from Napa Style that I haven't opened yet, and which I'm ashamed that I still haven't properly thanked her for) and can I tell you that I am addicted to this stuff. If you like truffles (of the mushroom variety) you will not be able to get enough of this stuff. I've added it to mushroom risotto, the cauliflower gratin, chicken, seasoned rubs, etc. It's a must have pantry item for sure.