Leftover Sloppy Joe Meat Makes For An Excellent Quesadilla Filling

Could there be an easier meal than sloppy Joes? All you need to get a batch of these classic hot sandwiches on the table for lunch or dinner is some ground beef, a few seasonings, and some burger buns. But there is one meal that's even easier than the Joes themselves: Repurposing the leftover sloppy Joe meat to make an excellent batch of quesadillas.

If you're a busy parent, or just a busy person with no time to make dinner from scratch every night, readying all your ingredients at once is one of the best ways to meal prep, and using up leftovers counts. In fact, a batch of sloppy Joe meat can make at least two dinners in almost record time. All you need to do is make a little extra sloppy Joe filling so you have some to use the next day, and add a few quesadilla ingredients to your grocery shopping list. Assembling the quesadillas is incredibly easy, and it's a great way to get your family to eat part of last night's dinner again without no complaints.

Sloppy Joe filling and quesadillas can even have a lot of seasonings in common, like cumin, paprika, garlic and chili powder. So a little extra sloppy Joe meat can easily be used for quesadillas, either exactly the way you made the it for dinner the first night, or you can add a couple of extra spices to make it a little more Mexican-inspired.

If your recipe for sloppy Joe is pretty traditional, that is, made simply with garlic, ketchup, and Worcestershire sauce, try adding chili powder, cumin, oregano and cayenne to give it a more Tex-Mex taste as you warm up the leftover filling. At this point you can sauté any additional veggies you like with the meat, like hot chilis. If you have one handy, you can also add a couple of shakes of powder from a taco seasoning kit, which will work well with the existing flavors.

Once you get the flavor of the meat and veggies to where you want it, or if you like the taste of the original sloppy Joe as-is, spread it out on tortillas and top with grated cheese. Then, cook the quesadillas either on the stove or on a sheet pan in the oven until they are crispy and brown on the outside, and the cheese is melted.

If you really want to be a meal-prepping pro by turning sloppy Joe meat into a second — or even third — meal, you can take it one step further and make a batch of quesadillas to go in the freezer. All you have to do is assemble all of the ingredients cold inside the tortillas, then freeze them before they're cooked.

To freeze quesadillas, stuff each tortilla with the leftover sloppy Joe meat, cheese, and sautéed veggies that have been cooled down, then spread the quesadillas out on a sheet pan and put them in the freezer for a few hours until they are frozen through. Canned beans make a great ingredient here as well. When the quesadillas are fully frozen, you can pack them up in air-tight freezer bags with a label and date. Later, place them on a sheet pan with some parchment paper in the oven to cook, flipping halfway through so that you toast both sides for the crunchiest quesadilla ever, and you'll be good to go. Frozen quesadillas will stay fresh in the freezer for up to two months, which is plenty of time before you're in the mood to make another round of sloppy Joes.