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Tuesday, January 25, 2022

Using Up Every Last Morsel of Holiday Treat Foods

Y'all know the saying -- waste not, want not. This is something that sticks in my mind. I actively try to not waste and to salvage what I can, whenever I can. I know that this is better for our finances and leaves more resources for the next person.

Due to our illness-interrupted holiday season, we are just now finishing off all of our edible treats. I know, most of you finished off goodies eons ago. But you may want to hear how we've creatively used some of our remaining treat foods

Here's what we're been using up:


There was less than a half-cup of eggnog left, plus it was over a week past the sell-by date. I used it in a batch of eggnog scones. Basically, eggnog scones are a regular scone recipe, with added sugar, nutmeg, and vanilla to bump up the eggnog flavor. The scones were delicious and prevented the waste of that last bit of eggnog.




My daughters made frosted sugar cookies just before Christmas. We finished the cookies but had a bunch of colored frosting leftover. Tired of not having some of my glass dishes and measuring cups, I decided to bake some scratch cupcakes and use up some of this frosting. 


I mixed the red, yellow and white to make a salmon color and used the chocolate frosting as is. I didn't have enough cupcakes to use the green frosting. I may freeze that to use for St. Patrick's Day or Easter. We've been enjoying the cupcakes, I have more of my glass dishes ready for use, and we didn't allow the frosting to linger long enough to grow mold or spoil.

We de-decked the halls Monday evening. I used more of the treats as part of our snack-y dinner just before putting decorations away. I had some pot stickers in the freezer leftover from New Year's Eve, as well as peppermint bark, holiday cookies, and spiced nuts to add to the buffet. I used a can of biscuit dough that had passed it's sell-by date to make broccoli, chicken, cheese mini pocket sandwiches. A large bag of frozen broccoli was nearly empty, leaving a large pile (close to a half-cup) of broccoli bits at the bottom of the bag. Those bits (plus a couple of chopped florets from a new bag) provided the broccoli for the sandwiches. I try to use all of what's in a bag of frozen vegetables, even the small bits that don't make a forkful on their own. The "cocktail" sausages are 2 all-beef hotdogs cut into quarters, leftover from last summer's cook-outs (kept in the freezer, of course). We had about 2 cups of cola at the bottom of the 2-liter bottle, leftover from our tree decorating party in December. So that went on the table, too. To round out the buffet, I added some carrot sticks, orange quarters, and pepperoni-pineapple mini kabobs.

What's left? Besides the green frosting, we still have some Christmas cookies, spiced nuts, Christmas candy, a half-dozen pot stickers, and about 1 cup of cola that I'll be repurposing in the coming weeks. 

So, this has been my effort to waste not, so that we will want not.

8 comments:

  1. You do such an amazing job using stuff up. It's very inspirational for me! Your snack-y meals also give me lots of ideas :)

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  2. It all looks very good and I'm sure everyone is enjoying the repurposed snacks. We are still eating Christmas sweets and enjoying them in their original form. Although, we are almost done with them, which is good, because I have a hard time resisting when sweets are around.

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    Replies
    1. Me, too, Live and Learn. It's always a good thing IMO when it all runs out.

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  3. Lili, what a great idea to use every item to it's fullest. It is a good money stretching idea. Every penny is counting these days. I have been reading all of your emails but haven't been able to respond for quite a while. I didn't know my google password and didn't realize that I could post as anonymous. I hope that you all are feeling better. Have a great day! Lona Pritchett

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    Replies
    1. Hi Lona,
      Oh, I understand with not remembering passwords. Very frustrating. But I'm glad that you figured a way to still comment.
      I agree, every penny is counting these days.
      I hope you're enjoying a good week, Lona!

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  4. It's a challenge to use up all those odds and ends of food--good job! I made a batch of your spiced nuts and we finally ate the rest of it this week (I have to limit myself or I could eat an entire batch at one sitting!). While we have moved beyond holiday food, there have been some items lingering in the fridge--I was proud of myself for realizing that I had buttermilk lurking in a back corner of my refrigerator, so I opted to make soda bread instead of yeast bread yesterday to go with our venison stew and was pleased that I got it used up before it went bad. Little victories ....

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    Replies
    1. Hi Kris,
      Good job on using the buttermilk! Making soda bread instead of yeast bread probably also added interest to the meal in addition to not wasting -- double win!
      I love those spiced nuts, too. I made 2 batches this year. I do give a lot of them to my son and daughter-in-law, so it's not like I'm eating all of them ;-) With my second batch, I added double the spices called for, and they were yummy.

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