Here’s to hoping everyone had a fantastic mother’s day!  

Our double event was very nice-usual drama, but that’s to be expected with families.

As usual, I have enough leftovers that I could’ve had twice the people and still had food to survive on for another week.

My motto:  Better too much that not enough

Leftovers are not much of an issue.  My crowd ate about 1/2 of one veggie tray.  I bought two!  it’s okay.  

Here are some things to do with leftover veggies:

Bag, tag and freeze the ones that are appropriate.  Things like broccoli and carrots would do best with a minute or two of a blanching in salted water.  The ones you probably won’t want to freeze are the very high water content ones such as celery, onions and mushrooms.

Eat as healthy snacks with hummus (to which I also had about 1/2 of a Costco size tub left) or your favorite dip.

Roast and serve as a side dish.  

Stir-fry and add either the leftover proteins and use a sauce of chicken stock, soy sauce and garlic/ginger thickened with a corn starch slurry.

Got carrots?  besides roasting/freezing/stir-frying, candy them.  Grate them, add raisins, cranberries or apples and toss with some fat-free mayo for a quick salad.  Make some carrot muffins or quick bread.  Swap out 1/2 the AP flour for wheat or oat for a bit healthier take on the treat.  Lower the sugar content by a 1/3 and you’ll really be going healthy!

We were lucky-we only had a couple of turkey burgers left, so since hubz had closing shift the next two nights-they made a perfect start for one of his two meals.

Too many chips or tortilla chips left?  Don’t worry they last if well sealed.  Crush them up and use as coating for oven-fried chicken or fish.  Crush them up and use the crumbs as a filler for meatloaf instead of the usual bread or cracker crumbs.  

I thought with 4 teens over and a bunch of younger adults that besides everyone eating the anniversary cake, I was sure the biscotti and chocolate chip/cranberry/coconut cookie bars I made would vanish.  No such luck!  I made extra biscotti to take to my dad who just loves them.  I have enough left for me to enjoy a low-fat/low-cal treat.  Hubz loves the cookie bars, but I froze half.  There was a 1/4 of a cake left, which I promptly sent home with the anniversary celebrants.

I bought a 4 lb box of berries to serve with dessert, but our daughter-in-law’s mother very kindly surprised us with one of those beautiful edible fruit vases-so that was used instead.

Now I know most people would not know what to do with 4 lbs of strawberries when there’s only 2 living in the house.  

Not me-I’m a berry fanatic.  Besides, they‘re full of fiber and vitamin C.  

Everyone may now share-if you had leftovers, what creative things did you do with them so they wouldn’t go to waste?