Getting the Most Out of Your Easter Dinner Leftovers

Happy Monday, Friends!  I trust you had a blessed Easter yesterday!  We had a special day celebrating our risen Savior!

After our church’s on-line service, I fixed a Roast Chicken dinner for my husband and me – quite different than it would normally have been, but it was good!  However, we have a good deal of leftovers to deal with!

I figured I wasn’t the only one trying to make good use of the food and the time it took to prepare it (why does it take three hours to make and 15 minutes to eat?!).  How about you?  Did you find that ham that you baked yesterday was enough to feed the large crowd you thought would be sitting around your table?  Maybe you’re wondering what are you going to do with all that meat?

Or you have way too many deviled eggs because you made as many as you usually do on holidays, and you’re shaking your head in disgust at your excess.

Maybe your fridge is full of mashed potatoes, jello salad and cake and you’re sure your family won’t be willing to eat this same meal for a week.  What do you do?  We typically eat the leftovers of a holiday meal one time.  After that, I try to be creative with the rest of the leftovers.

You might be tempted to just dump what’s left, but let me offer a few simple suggestions so you’ll not let much food go to waste, especially during these days in which we all are trying to use all our groceries wisely.

Let’s open the fridge and have a look inside.

• If you have slices of ham...
  • Fill freezer bags with meal-sized portions.  Mark them with a Sharpie with the number of slices and the words, HAM SLICES.
    
  • Dice up some of the ham and place one cup each into freezer bags.  Freeze and save for uses in omelets, as pizza topping, Soup beans or in soup.
    • Another delicious use of chopped ham: Cheese/Ham Flips
      Mix chopped up ham and shredded cheese. You can determine the ratio of those two ingredients.  Sprinkle over one half of a flattened out canned biscuit.  Fold the biscuit in half and crimp edges.  Bake.  Serve warm with honey for dipping!
      Yum!  These were favorites of my girls when they were home.  They’re great for breakfast!
• If you have leftover roasted chicken…
  • Use meat for roasted chicken sandwiches or chicken salad.
  • Cut meat off the bone.  Reserve freezer bags full.  Mark with a Sharpie!!
    • Use meat for soups, pot pies, or quesadillas.
  • Make Chicken stock.  Place the carcass in a crock pot with an onion, carrots, celery, rosemary, and thyme.  Cook on high for 4-5 hours.  Cool.  Strain.  Discard vegetables.  Pour stock into freezer bags, lay flat and place into a container. Freeze.  When they are frozen, place them inside a large freezer bag.  (I do this precautionary measure in case a bag leaks.  Ask me how I know this can happen!

• If you have vegetables – green beans, carrots, roasted potatoes….
  •  Freeze in freezer bags.  Save to put into a big pot of vegetable soup.
• If you have mashed potatoes…
  • Make Potato Cakes.
  • Use them to top a Shepherd’s Pie.
• If you have sweet potatoes…
  • Make Sweet potato pancakes
• If you have deviled eggs…
  • Make egg salad.  Spread it over toast in the morning for a different kind of breakfast.
  • Use the egg salad for sandwiches for lunch.
  • Add the eggs to potato salad.
• If you have cake…
  • Slice it and put it in the freezer with a couple slices per bag.  What a nice thing to have individual servings of dessert on hand!
  • Cube it up and make it the base for an English trifle.

Do you have other items left that I haven’t covered?  Oh, the jello salad.  If you have extra jello, it can last 7-10 days.  After that, it’s bye-bye jello! 

Refresh your meals with those delicious leftovers!