An Easter feast is a beautiful way to celebrate the holiday! More often than not, we tend to find ourselves with a mountain of leftovers after a holiday meal. Here are some clever ways to repurpose your leftover ham, hard-boiled eggs, peeps, rolls/buns, and Easter candy!
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If you've spent any amount of time on our Shelf Cooking site, you know USING YOUR LEFTOVERS is one of the key principles we preach! Avoid wasting precious food (not to mention the money you spent on it!) by finding ways to incorporate leftovers into your weekly plan. Trust us, it doesn't have to mean you re-microwave the same meal for the next night. We are PROS at creatively repurposing food you've got on hand into fun inventive recipes that your family won't grumble about!
Better yet, let US show you how with our Shelf Cooking Meal Plan Subscription! We even specifically tailor the post-holiday week to incorporate holiday meal leftovers!
REPURPOSING LEFTOVER EASTER HAM
If you went traditional for your Easter holiday feast, the future might look full of ham sandwiches for you. And if that's what your family loves, win-win!
If your family is more likely to let the leftovers sit in the fridge until it's time to throw them out however, we challenge you to give one of these recipe ideas a try! There are plenty of ways to get creative and incorporate leftover ham into new dinner items throughout the week!
- Ham Fried Rice: Dice up the ham and add it to a homemade fried rice. In a skillet, combine cooked rice with veggies like diced carrots, peas, onions. Add a couple of cracked eggs, some soy sauce, and ham. If you're really feeling wild, toss in some pineapple bits or chunks for a Hawaiian flare!
- Omelets! You can pretty much throw in everything but the kitchen sink into a nice omelet, including ham, cheese, and any other leftover veggies!
- Split Pea Soup: Mmmm, a thick creamy favorite that can sit in your crock pot all day!
- Chef or Cobb Salad: Filling enough to be dinner! Loads of fresh veggies combined with savory cubed ham and creamy cheese. Perfect for when you don't want to cook.
- Hawaiian Pizza: Add ham and pineapple to a pizza or flatbread and your family will be thrilled!
- We have 21 more ideas for leftover ham here!
LEFTOVER ROLLS OR BUNS
- Bread pudding: Leftover rolls will be the perfect base for a nice easy homemade bread pudding dessert!
- Sliders: Put a little spin on a mini sandwich by cutting leftover rolls, biscuits or buns in half to create the perfect size slider.
- Homemade Breadcrumbs: Breadcrumbs can be used in any meatball or meatloaf recipe, as a topping on pasta dishes or in a variety of other ways. Simply make your own by cubing your rolls so that they can fit into a food processor. Process until crumbly, spread out onto a lined baking sheet and bake at 300 degrees for 10 minutes. Stir and continue baking until they are dry and crispy. Store in airtight container at room temperature for up to 1 month.
- Homemade Croutons: Dice up your rolls or buns into 1″ cubes. Toss them in any oil and seasonings you like. Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper and spread out the bread cubes. Bake at 375 degrees until crispy, usually about 15-20 minutes. Flip over half way through!
- French Toast: Who said you needed traditional bread for French toast? You can dip ANY shape bread into an eggy mixture and pan-fry into crispy cinnamon-y goodness! Don't be afraid of funky-shaped French toast by using strips of rolls instead!
- Breakfast sandwich: slice your buns or rolls in half and fill with a fried egg, slice of cheese and breakfast meat of choice for a filling breakfast sandwich!
LEFTOVER PEEPS & EASTER CANDY
Obviously many candies don't need any repurposing. (I'm looking at you, robin's egg Whoppers!) Candy can just be enjoyed as……well, CANDY! However sometimes that abundance of Peeps will just sit in the pantry until it's got a nice hardened crust and is properly dropped off into the trash can. If you're looking for a way to use up some of the Easter candies that your family won't go through as quickly, here are some ideas:
- Peep S'mores: Just like a regular s'more, with a bright bunny Peep in place of a plain marshmallow!
- Peep Popcorn Balls: Again, you can replace the marshmallows in these recipes with colorful peeps. However we suggest using all Peeps of one same color in each batch. Otherwise rather than a pink or blue popcorn ball, it will be a lovely shade of brown.
- Peep Rice Krispie Treats: You get the idea. Same as above!
- Chocolate Egg Cookies: Crush up mini Cadbury eggs to use in place of chocolate chips in a batch of chocolate chip cookies!
- Bunny Mix: Whip up a batch of trail mix using whatever you have on hand! Easter M&Ms, pretzels, goldfish crackers, animal crackers, peanuts, etc.
LEFTOVER HARD-BOILED EGGS
You and your kids enjoyed dying hard-boiled eggs, and now you might be left with a carton full after the big egg hunt is over! (P.S. We have another great post with 4 must-try hacks for making the perfect hard-boiled eggs!) A hard-boiled egg is a protein packed snack by itself, but if that's not your jam then here are a few more ways to use them up!
- Egg Salad: This is probably the most obvious answer, because who doesn't like a good egg salad sandwich!
- Avocado Toast Topping: Do you like avocado toast? Try adding protein by shredding up a hard boiled egg in a cheese grater and sprinkling it on top of your avocado toast!
- Cobb Salad Topper: Have a giant salad for dinner, loaded with veggies, crumbled egg, diced up ham, croutons and your favorite yummy dressing!
- Pickled Eggs: A tasty twist on plain eggs! There are several recipes you can find that meet your taste preferences, and one of our personal favorites is using beet juice with the vinegar to turn them a bright pink color!
- Devilled Eggs: You are already halfway there to this classic appetizer!
Tell us how YOU love to make use of the last of your Easter feast! Does your family have any special recipes or traditions? We'd love to hear them in the comments below!
If you are looking for more great ways to learn to love leftovers and repurpose life a Shelf Cooking Pro, check out these other posts:
- Part of loving leftovers is knowing how to reheat them properly.
- 10 Genius Ways to Use Leftover Stuffing!
- Join the Shelf Cooking Community with our Meal Plan Subscription here!
Wishing you and your family a Happy Easter!