Use up your gluten free leftovers

Don’t Throw It Out! 5 Ways to use Gluten free Mistakes and Leftovers

Every gluten free cook has her or his share of gluten free baking disasters. The burned pies, the rock hard meatloaf, the burned pot with stuck on vegetables, door stop bread and hockey puck biscuits top the list of culinary disasters.

Here are some ideas to help you use up your extras, be they disasters or leftovers lurking in the back of your refrigerator.

Tip #1  How to use up Gluten Free Bread

Gluten free disasters usually involve bread baking of some kind. When your bread machine or oven turns out rock hard, heavy biscuits or bread do yourself a favor and don’t throw it out!

You can turn any bread, even the heavy ones, into gluten free bread crumbs, croutons, or cubes to be used for bread pudding or stuffing. Use your food processor to reduce your bread to crumbs and lightly toast in the oven. Bread cubes can be tossed with olive oil or melted butter given a nice shake of seasonings and then toasted.

If you have leftover muffins, cakes, brownies or cookies and your freezer has eaten way too many already, take the extra ones sitting out on your counter and do the same thing. Turn them into crumbs or cube up for bread pudding.

Sweet crumbs are exactly what you need to make desserts like Apple Betty, Blueberry Grunt, Fruit fritters, pie crusts or steamed fruit puddings. Cubes make great fillers for a Trifle or Sweet bread pudding.

To save them for longer storage, just pour into a freezer zip type bag and place in your freezer. Make sure to label. Savory bread crumbs and sweet bread crumbs look the same in the freezer.

Tip # 2 Leftover Cooked Grains

No matter how hard you try, you always end up with leftover rice or grits or gluten free oatmeal. Reheated, they aren’t that appetizing. Let’s see what else we can do with them.

You can moisten your meatloaf or hamburgers with leftover oatmeal or rice.
You can add up to 1/4 cup to your bread batters to use them up.

You can turn cold rice into a new meal of oriental fried rice.
You can add up to 1/2 cup into your pancake, waffle or muffin batters.
Wild rice is really good in waffles.

You can add leftover vegetables and meat, form them into patties about the size of breakfast sausage and fry them in a little olive oil until brown. Serve with a sauce.

Tip #3 Fruit Syrup From the Can

Use it to replace some of the water when you make a gelatin dessert. Adds a lot of flavor.

Use cornstarch to thicken the syrup. Warm up to serve over pancakes and waffles or leave cold and pour over ice cream or a fresh fruit tart.

Whirl up the fruit syrup with cold milk and ice cubes to make a frosty drink.

Tip #4 Make your Frozen Dinners

They used to be called TV dinners when I was young. Compartment plates with a full meal including dessert in one ready to heat spot.

Make your own with leftovers by using parchment paper or foil to make small spaces to place your leftover portions in a disposable foil pie plate. Cover, label and freeze to eat at another time. Even I run out of ideas for leftovers and this saves throwing the food out when everyone gets tired of it.

Tip # 5 Use that Turkey and Ham to the last.

After you have carved your turkey, taken off all the meat and are ready to throw away the bones, Don’t! Place those bones into a large stock pot, add water to cover, throw in chopped onions, celery and carrots and bring to a boil. Simmer for one hour. Allow to cool for 20 minutes, then strain the broth and remove the  meat from the bones. Now you throw them away. Use the stock right away to make soup or freeze in containers for use later.

For your leftover ham, place the number of slices that will make a meal for your family and freeze them. Take the chunks of ham that cannot be sliced, the ones close to the bone and towards the end of the ham, and pulse them in your food processor into ground. Freeze this in 2 cup portions and use for ham salad sandwiches, or to make ham balls. Freeze the bone and save for making bean soup in your slow cooker.

Tip #6 Freeze those Bits and Pieces

Take any bits and pieces of meat or vegetables and place in a special container in your freezer just for soup. When you have enough, take out your homemade stock and frozen tidbits and whip up the best soup you will ever make.

Tip #7 Leftover Pie Crust

Use leftover pie un baked pie crust and cut into small shapes. Bake and immediately sprinkle with a cinnamon sugar mixture. Or bake, leave plain, and eat with cheese, sliced meat, or chicken or ham salad for a quick lunch.

So get baking!

Team Gluten Free Farm Girl

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