6 Leftover Makeover Hacks to Make Your Meals Stretch!

The best recipes aren’t the ones that require fancy kitchen gadgets. At So Yummy, our favorite recipes use quality ingredients and a dash of creativity. Usually, the most important part is adding in a little bit of TLC. When you’re going down the grocery store aisles or ordering inventory online, we highly recommend stocking up on Glad® Flex’n Seal™ Food Storage Quart Bags.

These bags are perfect for marinating hefty amounts of meat overnight or even storing large portions of leftovers because they’re made to stretch and stretch, so you can stuff and stuff and still get a tight seal. Quality goes a long way in the kitchen. Try out these recipes and see for yourself!

Doughnut Bread Pudding

 

Complexity: Easy
Time: 1 ½ hours
Servings: 8-12

 

Ingredients: 

• ½ dozen glazed doughnuts
• ½ dozen chocolate cake doughnuts
• 3 eggs
• 3 egg yolks
• 2 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 tsp lemon zest
• 3 cups half-and-half
• Butter, for greasing

 

Directions: 

1. Preheat oven to 325º F. Cut your doughnuts into 2-inch pieces (or each doughnut into eighths). You can do this with an apple cutter or scissors. Place the doughnut pieces on a lined baking sheet and place in the oven for 15-20 minutes. This will dry the pieces out so that they’ll soak up even more of the custard. Allow to cool.
2. While the pieces cool, make the custard. Whisk the eggs, yolks, vanilla, and salt. Fold in the lemon zest separately with a spatula because sometimes lemon zest gets tangled up in your whisk. Stream in the half-and-half (if you don’t have half-and-half you can make your own by mixing 1 ½ cups of cream and 1 ½ cups of whole milk) and mix until completely smooth.
3. Drop the doughnut pieces into a Glad® Flex’n Seal™ bag and pour the custard over the pieces. Allow to soak for 5 minutes before pouring into a buttered 9×9 casserole dish. Continue to let soak for about 30 minutes or until the custard is mostly soaked up.
4. Bake for 45-50 minutes or until golden brown and a toothpick inserted comes out clean.
5. Dust with powdered sugar and serve with whipped cream!

 

Cookie Butter Cups

 

Complexity: Medium
Time: 1 hour
Servings: 12

 

Ingredients: 

• 25-30 cookies of choice
• ½ cup sweetened condensed milk
• ¼ cup milk/ half-and-half
• 2 tbsp melted coconut oil/ butter
• Salt
• 2 cups semisweet chocolate chips
• 1 tsp coconut oil, or melted butter

 

Directions:

1. Place your cookies into a Glad® Flex’n Seal™ bag, seal, and whack the bag with a rolling pin or mallet until the cookies are crumbled. There should be about 2 cups of crumbs total.
2. Add the crumbs to a food processor or blender. Add in the sweetened condensed milk, milk, coconut oil, and salt. Process until completely smooth. Let sit for a few minutes in the processor, if it starts to separate, process in powdered sugar (or cornstarch!) a tsp at a time to bind it back together. (It really only separates if you use flourless/gluten free cookies.)
3. Once the cookie butter is made, fill a muffin tin with cupcake liners. Melt your chocolate chips and coconut oil until completely liquid and smooth. Fill the liners with chocolate, add a spoonful of cookie butter, and then cover with chocolate and set in the fridge.
4. This recipe only uses, depending on how enthusiastically you spoon in the cookie butter, ¼ cup to a ½ cup of cookie butter, so put the rest in a jar and save for snacking!
5. Once the cups are completely solid, enjoy!

 

Lemon Buttermilk Chicken

Complexity: Medium
Time: 24 hours
Servings: 6-8

 

Ingredients:

• 4 lemons
• 1 bunch sage
• 1 bunch rosemary
• 1 bunch thyme
• 6 cloves garlic, halved
• 1 tbsp black peppercorns
• 1 whole chicken
• 1 tbsp of salt
• 1 quart buttermilk
• 2 sweet potatoes
• 2 potatoes
• 2 cups brussel sprouts
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• Pinch of salt
• 1 tsp pepper
• 1 tsp thyme

 

Directions:

1. Cut your lemons into 2-inch sections and place into your Glad® Flex’n Seal™ bag. If you don’t want to waste whole lemons, just use the peel and save the lemons for juice! Place your herb bunches in with the lemons (a “bunch” to us was about 3 sprigs of each herb, you can use as much or as little as you want!). Add the garlic, we used halved cloves, you can cut them up in any method or even use roasted garlic for extra flavor.
2. Before adding your chicken, pat it completely dry. For bonus points, cover it in salt and dry brine overnight. Discard any innards or bags of giblets. Add the chicken to the bag with the peppercorns and salt, then pour the buttermilk over and seal the bag. Place the bag in a large bowl or dish and place in the refrigerator overnight to marinade.
3. The next day, before you take the chicken out of the bag, let the dish and the bag of chicken come to room temperature for about 45 minutes. Preheat the oven to 425º F.
4. Cut your sweet potatoes and potatoes into 2-inch cubes, slice your brussel sprouts in half. You can use whatever vegetables you like. We went with these because they roast well and absorb the chicken juices. Toss the veggies with olive oil, salt, pepper, and thyme. Place the veggies into a cast iron skillet or roasting pan. Place the chicken directly on top of the veggies. DO NOT PAT THE CHICKEN DRY. The buttermilk caramelizes and makes the skin super crispy.
5. Roast the chicken for 20-25 minutes and check. Once it looks browned all over, reduce the temperature to 400º F and continue cooking for 50-60 minutes or until the internal temperature is at least 165º F when a thermometer is inserted to the thickest part of the chicken. Cooking time depends on the weight of your chicken.
6. Remove from the oven and let the chicken rest on a cutting board for 10-15 minutes. If you feel like the veggies aren’t as crispy as you want, place them onto a wire rack rimmed baking sheet and roast for an additional 15-20 minutes.
7. Carve up the chicken and serve with the veggies!

 

Super Tender Oven Ribs

 

Complexity: Easy 
Time: 4 hours
Servings: 6-8

 

Ingredients:

• 3 racks of baby back ribs
• 2 tbsp rib rub
• 2 cups plain tomato sauce
• 1 cup brown sugar
• ½ cup apple cider vinegar
• 1 tsp garlic powder
• 1 tsp cayenne pepper
• 1 tsp onion powder
• Pinch of salt
• ¼ cup molasses
• 1 tsp liquid smoke

 

Directions:

1. Pat your ribs dry and remove the silverskin. Cover the ribs in the rib rub of choice, roll up the ribs, and place into a Glad® Flex’n Seal™ bag to tenderize for at least 30 minutes.
2. Preheat oven to 275º F. While the ribs tenderize and the oven preheats, make the sauce. Combine tomato sauce, brown sugar, apple cider vinegar, garlic powder, cayenne pepper, onion powder, salt, molasses, and liquid smoke in a saucepan over medium heat and reduce for 15 minutes, stirring constantly.
3. Place each rack of ribs on its own piece of foil. Brush the ribs down with the sauce and wrap the ribs tightly in foil. Place the foil packaged ribs onto a baking sheet and roast in the oven for 3 hours.
4. Take the ribs out of the oven, remove the foil, brush with any remaining sauce and place in a 425º F for 5 minutes to caramelize.
   Let cool for 5 minutes or so, serve and enjoy!

 

Butternut Squash Soup

 

Complexity: Easy
Time: 1 hour 
Servings: 8-10

 

Ingredients: 

• 2 roasted butternut squashes, halved lengthwise
• ¼ cup herb butter
• 4 bay leaves
• 2 cups broth
• 1 cup heavy cream
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 tsp pepper
• Cayenne pepper, pepitas, sour cream, for garnish

 

Directions: 

1. Take your leftover squashes and spread the herb butter over them. For the herb butter, we added 1 tsp each of thyme, rosemary, sage, black pepper, and garlic powder to 1 softened stick of butter. You can use whatever herbs you want. Add a bay leaf to the cavity of the squash. Place the squashes into a Glad® Flex’n Seal™ bag and seal, but leave a corner open.
2. Microwave the bag of squash at 50% power for 3-5 minutes, this steams the squash while making sure it completely absorbs the herb butter and bay leaf essence. Carefully remove from the microwave, it will be hot. Let cool, and then scoop the flesh out of the squash.
3. Place the flesh into a blender and add the cream, salt, and pepper. We used low sodium turkey bone broth, you can use whatever broth you want, but we recommend using less salt if it’s not low sodium. Blend on high until completely smooth.
4. Serve immediately and garnish with a sprinkling of cayenne pepper, a drizzle of sour cream, and some pepitas for crunch

 

Caprese Quiche

 

Complexity: Easy
Time: 2 hour
Servings: 6-8

 

Ingredients:

• 2 containers cherry tomatoes/ San Marzano tomatoes
• 1 package basil
• 1 package tiny low moisture mozzarella balls
• 1 prebaked pie crust
• 8 eggs
• 1 cup cream

 

Directions: 

1. Slice and core all of your tomatoes, we used a mix of cherry and tiny San Marzano tomatoes. Salt them and place them in a colander in a bowl to remove any excess moisture, which will take about 45 minutes to an hour.
2. Rinse and slice your basil before adding it to a bowl with the mozzarella balls and dried tomatoes. Whisk the eggs, cream, salt, and pepper until combined in a separate container.
3. Layer the caprese salad into the pie shell, making sure to weigh down the basil with the other ingredients otherwise it will float to the top. Once everything is layered, pour in the egg mixture and bake at 350º F for 45-50 minutes or until the top is browned and a toothpick inserted comes out clean.
4. Slice and serve with a drizzle of balsamic glaze!