Eating While Broke : Open-Faced Beef Sandwiches

I didn't take all the photos I usually take for this one.  I was running low on time, and it's pretty simple and self-explanatory anyway.  This is a favorite meal of mine.  I used to eat these at a local restaurant back home in WV when I was a kid.  I think you can get them at Bob Evans too.  The best thing about fixing them at home is that you can use any meat, and it's a great way to use up leftovers.  We make this using leftover meatloaf, leftover turkey at Thanksgiving, leftover ham, pretty much anything.  And it all tastes great.

For this one I had a can of beef that we heated on the stovetop.

We also had a loaf of store-bought bread (this is rare because we usually make homemade).

We boiled and mashed some potatoes.

I made some homemade gravy using all-purpose flour, drippings from the beef, canned milk, water, and browning sauce.

All that went together to make open-faced beef sandwiches!  For anyone not familiar with this, you take the bread and put the beef (or other meat that you might use) on it.  You cut the sandwich in half, leaving an empty spot between the two pieces.  You put the mashed potatoes here and then cover it all with gravy.  Yum!

You can see additional posts in the 2009 "Eating While Broke" series by clicking the following links:

Spinach Frittata

Mexican Rice

Rice Pudding

Meatloaf

Scalloped Potatoes

Recipes from 2008 can be found at the following links:

Lasagna

Chicken BBQ Pizza, Salad, and Dessert

Enchiladas