Leftover Lovin': Easter Edition - Supermom Shuffles Cooking

Easter dinner table with ham, devilled eggs, bread, cake and lots of other goodies for Easter

Easter is upon us! And with Easter, comes that huge family meal that everyone loves. But what happens when you are left with tons of leftovers? You don’t want all the wonderful food to go to waste, but there’s SO much of it – what do you do? I’m not a huge fan of leftovers myself, so I like to re-make my leftovers into something new and different. So, before you eat ham sandwiches for the next week, try some of these ideas to give your leftovers some lovin’. This is Leftover Lovin’: Easter Edition!

Leftover Lovin’: Easter Edition – So Much Ham

There are SO many things you can do with leftover ham. And don’t get me wrong, it DOES make a delicious ham sandwich. You can’t go wrong with a good ham sandwich, ever. BUT, there are so many MORE things you can do with all that leftover ham (or any leftover meat you have!)

Breakfasts:

Think omlettes, quiches, fritattas or ham biscuits. It’s hard to go wrong with any of those choices. Here’s the links to a few recipes I found to use up the ham for breakfasts:

Ham Quiche from Chelsey’s Messy Apron is delicious. Cheese? Eggs? Ham? Flaky buttery crust? Get in the oven, pronto!

I like to have these ham biscuits for breakfast and snacks. This is very similar to the recipe my Grandma uses for biscuits and they are a staple at all holiday events in our family. It’s kind of like a biscuit meets a yeast roll and its so, so delicous!

This ham strata from Lil Luna (it’s just a fancy baked omelet with bread!) is amazing. Plus, it calls for bread, so if you have leftover bread too, it’s perfect!! Stale bread is even better!

It definitely doesn’t have to be a fancy recipe though. My all time favorite breakfast any day is just to sauté a little ham with butter, throw in whisked up eggs and make a ham and egg scramble. Top it with a little cheese and put some jelly toast on the side, and you are set to go. It’s my favorite! (You could definitely throw in any leftover veggies you have. I’m not doing that cause I’m a super Plain Jane with food and it’s perfection all on it’s own.)

Lunches and Dinners:

The ideas for lunches and dinners are nearly endless! Try panini sandwiches, soups, pastas, ham salad, a salad topper, pizza topping, or ham and cheese homemade hot pockets! Just to name a few ideas!!

I found this idea a few weeks ago, and though I’ve not had it yet, I can’t see where you could even conceivably go wrong with Ham and Pea Pasta Carbonara from Self Proclaimed Foodie’s blog. This is the first thing I’m making with our leftover ham this year!

I love to make these Ham and Cheese Hot Pockets by A Mind “Full” Mom. Bonus, you can freeze these for another time if you are all “hammed” out.

Ham is also fantastic in soups. I love to throw into potato or bean soup especially. If you have some fresh corn, I’d highly recommend trying this Corn and Ham Chowder from House of Yumm.

Freeze:

Another option for your leftovers is to simply freeze the ham for a later date. I’d go ahead and slice it up and separate the slices with parchment paper. Then, wrap the ham (separated with parchment paper slices) in plastic wrap really tightly, and then put the wrapped ham bundle in a freezer bag. Make sure you label it so you know when it will go bad.

Also, don’t you dare throw that ham bone away. If you aren’t going to immediately make a pot of pinto beans then at least freeze the ham bone and use it in your NEXT pot of pinto beans or soup. Don’t you even consider throwing that ham bone away!

Leftover Lovin’: Potatoes

Mashed potatoes in a blue bowl with garlic and a potato masher in the background

Leftover mashed potatoes are just never as good as the original fresh mashed potatoes. You can totally heat them up, but it’s just not the same. Try making them over into potato cakes, twice baked potato casserole, mashed potato flatbread, mashed potato rolls or even gnocchi! I’ve never tried mashed potato flatbread, but I’m intrigued and I’m trying it the very next time I have leftovers! Here is a recipe I found for it on Happy Foods Tube.

Roasted Potatoes are delicious too. If you have some leftover roasted potatoes try throwing them into an omelet (Potatoes in an omelet are really common in Spain. And I have to say the people of Spain really nailed that idea! Potatoes in an omelet are DELICIOUS!). Also try using the leftover roasted potatoes as a simple breakfast hash, soup addition, or a whole new dinner with peppers, onions and smoked sausage. This Kielbasa, Peppers and Potato Hash from Mom On Timeout looks delicious!

Leftover Lovin’: Vegetables

You can make delicious soup with leftover vegetables! Put them on a baking sheet lined with foil and roast/broil them in the oven for just a few minutes. Or simply warm them with some chicken broth in a pot. Throw them in the blender with some warm chicken stock, and boom – Creamy Vegetable Soup. Any veggie combo will work here! (Be careful blending hot foods!)

The veggies also make a delicious addition the breakfast bakes and omelets from the breakfast section above in this post!

Leftover roasted veggies are delicious on sandwiches, or sprinkled on top of salads as well!

Little of Everything Leftover?

If you haven’t turned the bits and pieces into something yet, walk on the wild side and try this: Easter Leftover Eggrolls!

This is an idea I’ve seen, and haven’t had a chance to try yet. I actually saw it on a post for Thanksgiving leftovers but I can’t see why this wouldn’t work for Easter leftovers just as well! I also can’t see how you could go wrong and this be anything but delicious!

Bread

Plain bread and rolls can be used for bread pudding, cinnamon toast, or my favorite – croutons for salad!

Here’s how you can make homemade croutons for yourself. You’ll never buy them again! I follow Gimme Some Oven’s recipe for Homemade Croutons and they are perfect every time!

Deviled Eggs

Under penalty of law, I can’t do anything to re-make deviled eggs. These are my husband’s favorite thing on the planet, and as such, there shall be no altering of the perfect deviled eggs. But if I WAS going to do anything with them (which I’m not – we don’t want deviled egg psycho husband to come out), I’d make egg salad sandwiches. Or I’d just slap the deviled eggs on a ham sandwich. But I wouldn’t know, there are rarely leftover deviled eggs at our house for any amount of time.

Dessert

Cake

Do you have way too much cake leftover? Maybe send some home with everyone. Is it a cake that would freeze well? These are my first two choices when I have too much leftover cake.

Another idea is to totally make it over and put it in little mason jars for individual trifles. Simply cut the cake up into pieces and put some cool whip or whipped cream in layers with the cake and with some fruit and enjoy a trifle. Fresh dessert again! Throw the trifle in mason jars for grab and go treats all week.

Candy

I have to say – there isn’t usually a ton of leftover Easter candy at our house. Mainly because I love candy and eat most of it in sight. But on a whim, I searched in Pinterest to see if there are ideas for leftover Easter candy. HOLY REESE CUPS, BATMAN! I was floored at how creative you can be with leftover candy.

My word! Throw them in cookies like they are chocolate chips, put them in brownies or blondies, mix them with Rice Krispy treats or make a pie crust or cheesecake crust out of them! The possibilities were nearly endless! I will have to consider leaving Easter candy behind to try these recipes this year… I make no promises.

Suggested Kitchen Equipment:

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Leftover Lovin’: Easter Edition – Beating the Overwhelm

A fridge full of leftovers can be totally overwhelming if you don’t have a plan of attack. Instead of being overwhelmed by all of the food, and burning out on all the leftovers, try some of these new ideas and recipes and totally turn all of your Easter leftovers into something new and fun this week. I can’t wait to see what you come up with!

Leftover Lovin’: Easter Edition