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.