Creative Ways to Reuse Leftover PARTY FOOD! (Soda, Chips, Cake, Veggie Trays, and More!)

Mar 3, 2020 | Costco, Entertain, Food, Freeze, Meal Prep Made Easy, Party, Playing Hostess, Reuse, Video

If you've known me for 30 seconds or longer, you know we LOVE to host parties and entertain at our house. Food, family, friends and fun—what's not to love? But, when the party is over… what the heck are you supposed to do with all that leftover party food!?

Learn how to repurpose that leftover party food and don't let a morsel go to waste with Fun Cheap or Free!

We've learned how to entertain and feed a crowd without breaking the bank, but a lingering challenge we face when throwing a party is what to do with all those leftover party foods? Today we are sharing several clever ways to reuse party food so you can eat them again and again, in different ways, without wasting a single morsel!

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Thursday is New Video Day over on my YouTube channel, so today's tips are coming to you in video form. Be sure to subscribe to my channel, that's really where a lot of attention and focus is going lately since y'all have voted to see more videos! (Ask and ye shall receive, eh?)

Now, onto the tips!

Watch the video online, or click and watch below:

See? SO. STINKING. MANY ways to reuse food! Hopefully that gives you some confidence to get creative, and try some for yourself. Here are some links and resources to the ideas and recipes I mention in the video:

Repurpose that leftover party food with these hacks and don't let a bite go to waste with Fun Cheap or Free!

LEFTOVER PARTY FOODS TO REPURPOSE

Don't let a single thing go to waste! Use these tips and tricks to repurpose and reuse that leftover party food without having to eat the same thing over and over again.

REPURPOSE LEFTOVER PARTY SANDWICHES

Sandwiches may seem like a simple leftover, but who wants to eat sandwiches day after day, just trying to use them up before they go bad!? Not us! Here's how we get creative and use them in different ways.

There are SO many to reuse those handy little sandwich trays without wasting a single bit.

HOW TO REUSE VEGGIE TRAYS

Reuse that leftover veggie tray and make something delicious with Fun Cheap or Free!

Veggie trays are great for a party because they are affordable and they offer a variety of healthy snacks for all your guests to munch on. Well, guess what… they make GREAT leftover party foods, too! Here's what you can do with all those leftover veggies.

There are so many options when it comes to leftover veggie trays. Incorporate them into your meals for the week and save on your grocery budget.

REUSE LEFTOVER PARTY CHIPS

Party chips may be one of the easiest things to repurpose and not let go to waste. You can simply put them into your kids' lunch boxes or save them as a snack… OR you can take those giant bags of leftover party chips and repurpose them into something even better! Here's how we do it.

  • Incorporate Them Into Recipes – There are SO MANY RECIPES that call for potato chips! Just google “recipes that use potato chips”, or go to Allrecipes.com and do an ingredient search.
  • Make “Walking Tacos” – You can make them right in the mini bags of chips, or put some chips in the bottom of a bowl. Top with anything you would normally put on a taco and eat like a delicious…chippy…taco bowl. Just trust me on this!

Cooking with chips is SO yum. Seriously, try it!

SAVE THE LEFTOVER CAKE

Repurpose your leftover party food with these yummy ideas from Fun Cheap or Free!

Ahh, cake… the pennacle of the birthday party! As delicious as that cake is, what on earth are you supposed to do when you have half a cake left after everyone has gone?? Here are a couple of tips to get it off your counter and out of sight without wasting that yummy deliciousness.

  • Freeze It – Cut into individual portions first, so you aren't committed to the whole thing when it comes time to thaw.
  • Make Cake Pops – Since you already have a frosted cake, just blend it together. Add a little bit of flour to get them stiff enough to roll into balls.

These tricks will help you divvy out that leftover cake in a perfectly respectable way. Sometimes we all need a little something sweet, right?

WAYS TO REUSE SODA

So, your party is over and you have a bunch of half empty two liter sodas. Don't throw those babies away! We've got a way to reuse those, too.

  • Bake a Cake – All you need is 12 oz of soda and one boxed cake mix. That's IT! Mix together, and bake as directed. If you use light soda (like Sprite), use a light cake mix like vanilla or yellow. Dark soda (like Coke), use chocolate or a dark mix. Easy peasy! (But HERE's a recipe in case you're nervous.)

This trick will elevate that cake to the next level, we promise!

LEFTOVER PARTY FRUIT

Reuse your leftover party food with these delicious hacks from Fun Cheap or Free!

We love when there is leftover fruit after a party because there's so much you can do with it! Eat it as a snack or use one of these hacks to repurpose into something new.

Alright! Next time you have a party, don't let a single crumb go to waste. Use up your leftover party food like a pro!


Those are some of our ideas, what are yours?? Be sure to share below, and good luck at your next partaaaaay!

Find creative ways to reuse leftover party food without wasting a bit from Fun Cheap or Free!

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7 Comments

  1. Melinda

    Awesome tip! I really like the soda pop one, that’s a super smart tip! (I would just add; to save the trays all the food came in for perhaps making your own food tray to bring to your next pot luck).

    Reply
  2. Becky

    Wow! Really great tips, I usually end up just trying to eat the leftovers but inevitably get tired of them and a lot gets thrown out. I feel like there should be an emphasis in the video that you actually have to eat from and shop from your freezer after doing this!? It’s hard to change your mindset sometimes and instead of looking around my own pantry/freezer (hello #shelftember!?) I always forget to do that step and forget about things tucked deep in the freezer! These (truly inspired) tips only work if you remember to bust them out of the freezer and use them! Thanks Jordan!

    Reply
  3. Ashley Ziegler

    This is BRILLIANT! 🙂 I’m totally saving this idea for later!! Thanks Jordan!! 🙂

    Reply
  4. Jukie

    I freeze tomatoes and use them when cooking spaghetti, chili, pizzas, roasting on top of asparagus etc.., great for cooking

    Reply
  5. Ja

    Great ideas! Sometimes we end up with leftovers from church events when we help with clean up. Freezing sandwiches is so easy!
    Good idea with the chips because they are gluten free and so am I. I am going to use that one!

    Reply
  6. Percy

    “In this ever-changing city, it has become the norm to see historical buildings reused as something other than their intended purpose Surely this isn”t a bad thing, unless you think Jane Jacobs was trolling us with that “new ideas need old buildings quip. One reason that The Playhouse survived this long was precisely because of adaptive reuse. If you contend that this is boring or banal (a breath of stale air), that”s a privileged position to be in, given that Hamilton”s go-to real estate solutions for many years (still the dominant mode, arguably) were either to let things rot while you watched your real estate holding grow in value or knock down what wasn”t immediately useful to you, or which required more creative imagination than you were prepared to invest in the city.

    Reply
  7. nicolina

    “In this ever-changing city, it has become the norm to see historical buildings reused as something other than their intended purpose Surely this isn”t a bad thing, unless you think Jane Jacobs was trolling us with that “new ideas need old buildings quip. One reason that The Playhouse survived this long was precisely because of adaptive reuse. If you contend that this is boring or banal (a breath of stale air), that”s a privileged position to be in, given that Hamilton”s go-to real estate solutions for many years (still the dominant mode, arguably) were either to let things rot while you watched your real estate holding grow in value or knock down what wasn”t immediately useful to you, or which required more creative imagination than you were prepared to invest in the city.

    Reply

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