After spending the day with your friends and family enjoying delicious food, your bellies are full and so is your refrigerator. It’s likely that after a big holiday like Easter, you will have too many leftovers. So, what do you do with them if you are sick of eating traditional pineapple ham, candied yams, cheese potatoes, steamed asparagus, hard boiled eggs, and croissant rolls? Well, you can always spice things up a bit and transform your leftovers into something different. This is one of the best parts about cooking in the first place, reusing ingredients, and for what Sandra Lee would call “round two recipes!” Here are my favorite leftover recipes which use traditional Easter Holiday menu items.
If you are like me, you love brunch, and there is nothing better than eggs! I like quiche, fancy scrambles, skillets, soufflés, hard boiled, deviled, sunny side up, and poached. I mean, scramble some up and add them to asian stir fry and I’m in heaven. Which is why I would start my round two leftover recipes with breakfast the very next day. If you have a huge crowd to feed, you could use all your ingredients to make a huge feast, or just scale things back to however many people you have.
Ham & Cheese Potato Strata
Use your leftover “cheesy potato” dishes like potatoes au gratin, cheese mashed potatoes, cheese whiz potatoes, and cheesy twice baked potatoes to create a strata. Depending on what the original main ingredient is, you will determine how many eggs you should use. I like my stratas to be light and fluffy, so I would take things like au gratin potatoes and ham, and put them in the food processor to break things down, then whip in eggs and cream. If you have the time, beat egg whites, yolks, and whipping cream separately and then fold them into the mixture. Spray a baking dish and spoon mixture in. Depending on how large the dish is, cook at 350 degrees for about 45 minutes. Serve with chipotle spiced ketchup and cilantro lime sour cream.
Sweet Potato Bread Pudding
This recipe is as sweet as your candied yams and is definitely not low calorie! Things will work better if you leave your croissants out to dry overnight or use ones that are a few days old. First, puree candied yams. If your marshmallows are hard on top or you have fruit in your dish, warm it up first and then puree. Add in eggs, vanilla, nutmeg, and cream. Spray baking dish, pour mixture over stale bread chunks, and top with pecans. Bake at 350 degrees for about 45 minutes to an hour, or until a toothpick comes out clean. Top with leftover pineapple sauce and crème fraiche. To prepare compote, rinse pineapple of ham juice and heat in saucepan. Next, add sugar, lemon, and water. Then, simmer and mash. Let reduce and cool slightly.
Ham, Asparagus and Deviled Egg Salad
This recipe works best if your asparagus was not cooked to a pulp and has a bit of a snap still. Cut cold asparagus into quarters and roughly chop deviled eggs. Mix in a bowl and add light caesar dressing, bacon bites, and chopped lettuce. To complete, add chilled sautéed onions, monster cheese cubes, and diced ham. Serve with rustic large crouton sticks.
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