Makeover Your Leftovers: Beef Sirloin Tip Roast Turned Breakfast

Welcome to the second edition of my Beef Sirloin Tip Roast Leftover plan! As I mentioned in my last post, it’s easy to get bored with eating the same old leftovers meal after meal and so we’ve learned to get creative. It’s also easy to get stuck in the mentality that something like a beef roast can only be eaten for dinner, or maybe lunch – not to mention the mentality that breakfast should be limited to eggs, toast, cereal, etc. That’s why today I’m sharing a super simple, yet filling, Whole30 approved breakfast idea using leftovers!

This isn’t rocket science, obviously. But if you’re anything like me, it’s easy to overlook something like this when you’re standing in front of the refrigerator trying to come up with something to eat for breakfast. And beef roast with vegetables should be eaten for dinner, not breakfast – am I right? Let me give you a tip: throw that thinking out the window. One of the best things you can do for your body is feed it good, nutritious food – whether it’s a traditional “breakfast” food or not. If you want a grilled chicken salad for breakfast, eat it! Not feeling bacon and eggs? How about a bowl of chili with diced avocado on top? You’re much better off eating something nontraditional but filling enough to keep you satiated until lunch than if you ate a bowl of cereal and then snacked all morning.

Not only was this a delicious breakfast, it only took me approximately ten minutes to make. I tossed the potatoes and onions in a hot skillet (you could even throw the carrots in if you wanted – I chose not to), and while they were cooking I heated slices of roast beef in another skillet and scrambled two eggs in the same skillet as the beef – not only did this save me dishes, but the residual seasoning from the beef gave the eggs an additional pop of flavor that blended the entire meal together. No muss, no fuss!

Have I mentioned how much I love leftovers?

Makeover Your Leftovers: Beef Sirloin Tip Roast Turned Lunch

It’s no secret that I love leftovers. For one thing, it’s the easiest and most efficient way to use up what’s left of the previous night’s dinner – wrap up your leftovers and take them for lunch the next day! Plus, some of my favorite foods are best made in large batches, such as chili, beef stew, meatloaf…it’s pretty hard to cook just one serving of something when you’re cooking from scratch, unless you’re making eggs or a single piece or chicken or fish. But in my personal opinion, if you’re going to go ahead and cook you might as well make enough to use for a couple of meals, right?

The thing is, sometimes eating the same exact leftovers gets pretty dry. A steaming bowl of chili is delicious two or three times, but by the fourth or fifth serving? I find myself wanting something else. Same goes for meatloaf, or pork tenderloin. While I don’t always have the creativity to come up with new ways to eat the same old thing, this is where my husband is particularly gifted. He would be an excellent candidate for the Leftovers edition of Chopped – he can look at a refrigerator full of odds and ends and come up with some creative meal that has me scratching my head and thinking, “where did this come from?”

And so it goes with the Beef Sirloin Tip Roast we made for dinner the other night. We had a surprising amount of beef left over, and Kevin almost immediately knew what he was going to make for lunch the next day. Introducing – grilled roast beef and cheese sandwiches!

Of course the picture doesn’t do it justice, and although the bread is gluten free this meal is definitely not paleo or Whole30 approved. It is, however, a great way of using up leftover roast beef and a nice change from simply eating the same old meat and vegetables three days in a row. It’s also super simple; and paired with steaming bowls of homemade split pea and ham soup it was a perfect cold weather meal.

Technically this meal doesn’t even justify a recipe, but I’ll walk you through our steps just for posterity. First, set a small skillet to medium-high heat. While the pan is heating up, butter two slices of gluten free bread (tip: using mayonnaise to grill the bread is even better, but we didn’t have any made). Then, microwave a few slices of roast beef just enough to warm the meat but not cook it. Once the skillet is hot, lay one slice of bread butter or mayo side down in the pan, then layer some sliced or shredded cheese, the roast beef, some more cheese, and the other slice of bread, butter side up. (To kick your sandwich up another notch, add some sliced tomato and avocado.) Grill on one side for 2-3 minutes until golden brown, then very carefully flip the sandwich to the other side. Grill until golden brown and the cheese is melted.

Beef Sirloin Tip Roast with Carrots and Potatoes

In an effort to live a more intentional life, Kevin and I decided we would start paying more attention to the the quality of our food and where it comes from. To keep a long story short, this led us to sign up for a meat CSA from a local farm. This particular CSA runs from January to May, with six bi-weekly shipments of “pork, beef, goat, lamb, local sustainably raised chicken and honey.” They have three different size shares; a “sampler share” of 2-3 pounds; a “lovers share” of 5-8 pounds, and the “family share” of 9-14 pounds. After much discussion with the husband we decided to sign up for the “lovers share”, mostly because this is the first time we’ve done a CSA and we weren’t really sure what to expect. I immediately began dreaming of all the high quality local meat we’d have on hand and all the new recipes I’d be able to try with all the meat we were going to get.

We picked up our first share last week and I have to be perfectly honest with you: I was a little bit underwhelmed. I should have taken a picture, but of course I didn’t think about it until just now. Anyway, in our first share we received:

– one pound sliced bacon

– ound 3.5 pound beef sirloin tip roast

– two bone-in pork loin chops

– one half chicken

I have to give the farm credit – the lovers share is supposed to be 5 to 8 pounds of meat and we did receive just about 8 pounds total. I guess I just thought in my head that it would be…more. With the bones in the pork chops and the chicken we’re really only getting closer to 5 pounds of usable meat; and the way that Kevin and I eat protein in this house, our “lovers share” will feed us for approximately five meals. Still, I am glad we signed up and I’m excited to see what we receive in future shipments.

And I did appreciate getting a beef sirloin tip roast, because it’s something I’ve never used before and so I immediately started looking up recipes. I’m pretty impressed with the way things turned out, if I do say so myself! After perusing some good recipes for inspiration, this is what we came up with:

First, we created a rub for our roast. We were feeling a little spicy, so our rub consisted of garlic powder, onion powder, smoked paprika, thyme, oregano, salt, pepper, and some cayenne pepper for an extra kick. We mixed our spices with some olive oil to create a nice “paste”, and rubbed it all over our roast. Once that was done, we let it sit for about 30 minutes so the meat could marinate in all that goodness.

While the oven was preheating, we seared the roast in a hot cast iron skillet to seal in the juices. Once that was done, we set the roast on a bed of carrots, baby potatoes, and onion wedges tossed with olive oil and a little bit of salt and pepper, and roasted it in the oven at 350 for about an hour and fifteen minutes. We like our beef cooked medium rare, so we aimed for a temperature of about 135 degrees before we took the roast out to rest for another 15 minutes or so.

As it turns out our timing was perfect and we ended up with a beautiful warm red center to the meat, with the end pieces a little more well done. We intentionally left the vegetables simple – with only the barest hint of salt and pepper – because we ended up with a nice spicy “au jus” at the bottom of the pan to pour over everything once we plated up our meal. The end result had a nice kick of heat, but if you prefer things a little less spicy simply reduce or omit the cayenne pepper.

Assuming you clean your bowls as you go, this meal turned out to be a great one pot Whole30 dinner that required very little clean up! Not to mention we have delicious leftovers for the next couple of days – stay turned for a couple creative ways to use them up!

Beef Sirloin Tip Roast with Carrots and Potatoes

prep time: 30 minutes

cook time: 75 minutes plus 15 minutes resting

serves: 6 (or 2 with lots of leftovers!)

INGREDIENTS:

3.5 pound sirloin tip roast

1 bag carrots, sliced (or 1 bag baby carrots)

1 bag baby potatoes

2 whole onions, chopped into wedges

olive oil

salt and pepper, to taste

1 Tbsp garlic powder

1 Tbsp onion powder

1 Tbsp smoked paprika

1/2 Tbsp thyme

1/2 tbsp oregano

2 tsp cayenne pepper (or to taste)

TO DO:

Preheat oven to 350.

In a small bowl, mix your spices with about 1/8 – 1/4 cup olive oil. In a bowl (or a gallon sized ziplock bag for less mess), combine the roast and the spice-oil mixture, rub thoroughly. Let sit for 30 minutes.

Meanwhile, chop your vegetables and toss with olive oil, salt, and pepper. Pour into the bottom of a roasting pan.

In a cast iron or heavy skillet, heat approximately 2 tbsp of olive oil. Sear the roast on all sides (about 1-2 min per side) and set the roast on top of the vegetables. Roast in the oven for 75 minutes (for medium rare), remove, and let rest for an additional 15-20 minutes or until internal temperature is about 145 degrees. Slice and serve with vegetables.

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