Roasty risotto

Recently I've been trying to stretch our food budget without resorting to eating crap (something I will never ever compromise on - I will let my family starve before I allow ramen into our house, no matter how cheap it is). Some of my useful methods:

• Look through all the weekly ads, make a list of what's on sale, and stock up.
• Discount meat! We have an extra freezer, so if I see a good deal I grab it and save it for later.
• Freeze leftovers for lunches.
• Reuse leftovers in creative ways - for example, meat can be thrown into chili or a casserole.

Last night we had a crockpot roast for dinner (I usually don't buy these unless they're discounted or on sale - this one was BOGO). What little meat is left will be made into chili tomorrow, along with some pulled pork from the freezer from another past dinner. But what about the broth? I'd cooked the roast with carrots, potatoes, a packet of Lipton's onion soup/dip mix, and some water. Since I didn't make gravy, I had about 2-3 cups of liquid left. Sure, I could've thrown it away, but it was really flavorful. So, I used it for roasty risotto!

Usually I make my risotto with white wine and chicken stock. This time I used red wine to compliment the beef flavor. Once cooked, I mixed in a jar of mushrooms. I think a cheese like gruyere or provolone would've been best, but all I had on hand was Italian 5-cheese blend (mozzarella, Romano, provolone, Parmesan, and Asiago), so I mixed that in as well as an additional half cup or so of Parmesan. Yum!!