Syndicated column from week of December 31, 2012. 

Many folks in this part of the country celebrate New Year’s Day with a dinner that includes some sort of pork and sauerkraut. Some folks have a pot of black eyed peas or Hopping Johns and cornbread. Some folks eat Chinese food. Some folks just have a glass of tomato juice and promise that next year, they will take it easy on New Year’s Eve.

If you are one of the pork and sauerkraut group, you might end up with some leftovers and I have got a way to use them up. You see, I can’t fix a meal with exact portions and serving sizes to save my life. I always end up with a big pan full of extra food at the end of a meal.

My family does not mind eating the exact meal a second time, but by time we get to the fourth and fifth meal, they begin to complain. So I have learned to change up the leftovers into a new meal to avoid hearing complaints.

This recipe is written for bratwurst, since my family likes that German sausage, but you can use any sort of pork or sausage that your family likes. For the week after New Year’s I will be tossing in some extra bits of pork roast along with the bratwurst.

Bratwurst Casserole

1 lb. bratwurst links
1 lb. sauerkraut
1 c. rye bread, cubed
3 T. butter

Grill or brown the bratwurst. Slice into one inch chunks. Spread sauerkraut in bottom of a 9×13 inch baking dish. Layer bratwurst over sauerkraut. Top with bread cubes. Drizzle with butter. Place in preheated 350 degree oven and bake for 30 minutes.

Approximate Nutritional Information: Servings Per Recipe: 10, Amount Per Serving: Calories: 179, Total Fat: 12g, Cholesterol: 35mg, Sodium: 574mg, Total Carbs: 10g, Protein: 7g.

Make It a Meal: serve with salad or green vegetable on the side to round out your menu.

Variation: As mentioned, substitute the New Year’s Dinner pork for bratwurst. If you have some potatoes left over, too, you can toss them in the mix with the sauerkraut. Or, save the potatoes and dice them up for hash browns to go with your eggs.

If you don’t have a full pound of the ingredients listed, since you are working with leftovers, just use equal portions of pork and kraut in your casserole dish. Remember, at this point, we are trying to use up food we already have and not create more food.

Besides, using basic ingredients in a second dish is a great way to stretch your grocery budget. And if I am right, many folks need a little help with the budget as they recover from Christmas excesses. Keeping that in mind, if you don’t have rye bread on hand, use wheat or white or whatever is in the bread box. In fact, if you have  some of the Christmas stuffing mix left in the cupboard, that makes a wonderful topping on this casserole.

As in years past, one of our goals is to be more budget conscious and economy minded at my house. So, I am looking at casseroles and soups as a way to stretch out the groceries. The biggest part of my plan right now is to use leftovers creatively, so that when I serve them a second or third time, the food seems like a new dish!

Noel Lizotte is breaking free of corporate stress with convenience cooking! This recipe is similar to ones printed in her cookbook Apron Free Cooking which is available on the website www.apronfreecooking.com. 

Interested in one of the books pictured above? You can purchase on Amazon here.