Thanksgiving kicks off the holiday season with a huge meal and loads of leftovers. With frequent parties and gatherings, leftovers from holiday events seem to linger through January. Instead of throwing out the leftover queso dip or cranberry sauce, use this guide to help re-invent party fare into family meals. This can save money, jump start dinner cooking, and reduce waste.

Made-over Leftovers

Dips and Chips

Try taking leftover dips and turning them into soups, spreads, risotto, and more. For leftover cheese dip, making a broccoli cheese soup is as simple as sautéing veggies (onion, garlic, broccoli), adding stock, and stirring in the leftovers and voila. If you have spinach and artichoke dip on hand, try making a simple risotto with onion and Arborio rice and mixing in the leftover dip at the end. If ranch dip is lingering in your fridge, try using it as a sandwich spread, salad dressing, or mix in for flavorful mashed potatoes.

Meats, Poultry, and More

With double digit weights for turkeys there are bound to be leftovers. After carving the meat from the bird use the carcass to make a rich soup. With leftover carvings, try making turkey tettrazini, a turkey salad or toss with bbq sauce, simmer over low heat in a sauce pan and use for bbq turkey sliders on your leftover dinner rolls. Ham can make great bean soups (throw in the whole bone for added flavor), casseroles, and classic grilled ham and cheese sandwiches.

Beef tenderloin can make breakfast steak and eggs or shred and toss with taco seasoning and use for tacos, enchiladas or nachos.

Breads and Muffins

Bread pudding is a simple solution that can use all of your sugar free breads and muffins. Simply chop them all up and place in 8 x 8 baking sheet. Cover with a mixture of 4 eggs, ½ cup cream, 3 tablespoons of Splenda and seasoning for your bread flavor (e.g. 1 teaspoon vanilla, lemon zest, or cinnamon etc). Bake at 350° for about 30 minutes and voila, leftover bread pudding or French toast casserole depending on which meal you are looking serve. Try serving with sugar free maple syrup or top with melted sugar free Hershey’s chocolate as a sauce.

Leftover Final Thoughts

Cool quickly, spread soups, and hot dishes across smaller containers to cool quickly and avoid lingering in the temperature danger zone.

Write a date on all of your leftovers to ensure you use them in a timely manner and they do not sit too long.

Freeze things you cannot use in the next couple days and revisit them within a few weeks to ensure they maintain quality - meats and poultry are great options.

Reheat leftovers to 165° throughout or bring soups and liquids to a rolling boil.

For more details on leftover safety visit the USDA’s Food Safety and Inspection Service website.