A dozen ways to use up leftover hard boiled eggs

The Easter bunny's long gone, the last of (or at least, you hope the last of) the plastic Easter grass has been vacuumed up, and you've got a bunch of hard boiled eggs in the fridge, taunting you. "What are you gonna do with us, huh? Deviled eggs? How original!"

Here's a dozen ways to use up those little bum nuts (as the Aussies call them). And yeah, we'll start with the common deviled egg, but things get creative -- and maybe just a little weird -- as we progress through the list.

Cookies made with hard boiled eggs, anyone?



(The first one on the list is a 2015 update...)

Bacon Deviled Eggs - with sriracha and avocado!

Bacon fat in the yolk mixture? Pure paleo genius!

I first made these for my husband, because he hates traditional deviled eggs (the mustard, mostly) and LOVES bacon. I subbed 2 teaspoons of sriracha for the Frank’s. Once I tasted them, I made another batch for me with far less hot sauce (I’m a spice wimp), but a little bit of mustard. Either way, this will get made again in our house!
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If you're going to start with deviled eggs, you might as well start with a classic: here are Martha Stewart's creamy deviled eggs.

I do love deviled eggs, and I don't usually like to mess with the classic recipe. This variation is tempting me, though: deviled eggs with cream cheese and green onions, from Life's Ambrosia.

Salad is another great use for leftover hard boiled eggs. Of course you can add them to caesar salad, potato salad, or tuna salad. Here are a few more variations.

Spinach salad with ham and egg, from Martha Stewart

My very own bacon and egg salad with creamy balsamic dressing.

Simple salad Nicoise lettuce cups, also from Real Simple.

Pioneer Woman shares her recipe for avocado egg salad.

How about a sliced egg sandwich with herbed mayo? Via RealSimple.

The Low Carb Diner took Grandma's potato salad and remade it into cauliflower salad.

How about asparagus (another spring classic) with Greek yogurt, from A Couple Cooks.

These look intriguing: Chinese tea eggs, from Asian Supper.

And as promised: chocolate chip cookies made with hard boiled eggs, from The Girl Who Ate Everything.

Chocolate chip cookies not your thing? How about these Norwegian sugar cookies, via Rachel Ruff of the Denver Cooking Examiner. Yep, they're made with hard boiled eggs, too!

10-Minute French Dip

I love a good French dip, and this recipe makes it so easy, you can have one on the table in just minutes. Sure, it uses deli roast beef, but there are a few extra ingredients in the au jus that make this sandwich taste like the jus simmered for hours. It's one of my go-to meals when I need something quick and brainless.

A note about the bread... The classic bread for French dip is baguette, but you can use any sturdy, fairly thick bread. I’m using homemade honey wheat bread in the demo photos. It's not as authentic as a white French bread, but it does make the dish a bit healthier. Which is where I like to live!

10-Minute French Dip

Servings: 3

2 c. beef broth or stock
1 T. soy sauce (low sodium preferred)
1 garlic clove, crushed (or 1 t. granulated garlic)
1 bay leaf
1/2 t. dried rosemary
3 sandwich buns, or equivalent baguette
9 slices provolone
1 lb. deli roast beef

Preheat broiler, and place rack about 4" under heat.

Combine beef broth, soy sauce, garlic and herbs in a small sauce pan and bring to a simmer. Yes, just throw the bay leaf in there whole. You'll strain it out later. Keep this on low while you prepare the bread.

Slice the bread lengthways and and place it cut side up on a baking sheet. Top each piece of bread with slices of provolone to cover the cut surface of the bread. Broil this until the cheese is melted and bubbly, watching closely. This will only take about 2 minutes.

Remove the bread from the oven. Place matching bread pieces on each plate. Using tongs, pick up a few slices of roast beef and swish them in the broth, just to heat them a little. (You don’t want to overcook them, or they’ll get tough.) As you lift the beef out, tap the tongs on the side of the sauce pan to remove excess juice, then place the beef on one sandwich. Repeat for the other plates.

Pour the remaining broth through a strainer, into ramekins or other small bowls for dipping, and serve immediately.

You might also like:
Homemade Whole Wheat Bread
Quick Easy Lunch: Tex Mex Plate
Crockpot Chicken Tacos

Quick easy lunch: Tex-Mex plate

I've worked from home since my kids were in preschool, and they're both in college now. If you think about all the days they were at school and the days since they left, that's a lot of lunches for one at home! And if you're not planning for that, the natural tendency is to gravitate to what's easy and comforting. Which I did. I ate a lot of mac and cheese! Corn chips with cheese dip also passed for lunch some days.

But once I started trying to cut white flour, sugar, and other super-processed foods out of my diet, I needed a new plan.

Whether you work at home or are just spending a lazy (or busy) weekend at home, being able to throw together a meal out of what you have on hand is a necessary skill if you're going to eat healthier. Since my old mac and cheese days, I've gotten pretty good at improvised lunches: opening the fridge and saying, "What do I have to work with here?"

Today was a good example. Looking in the fridge, the first leftover I spotted was a small container of black beans, left over from improvising on salsa verde chicken a couple nights ago. So I started with that.

Okay, what goes with black beans? Hey, there are a few leftover bell pepper chunks from the roasted vegetables we made Friday. And there's some leftover rice. (Converted rice, cooked in chicken broth. Still a white food, but a little lower glycemic than Minute Rice cooked in water.) It would be good to have a little protein with that... what's in the meat drawer? Canadian bacon; that'll work. So, black beans and rice, sounds sort of Tex-Mex... let's grab some salsa. And some sour cream, to make it creamy. Hmm, yogurt would be a little healthier; I'll use that instead.

So after a short pre-heat of my handy 8" non-stick skillet, I diced up a couple slices of Canadian bacon and threw that in the pan. While it was heating through, I sliced up the leftover peppers then added them to the pan.

Next I added two heaping spoonfuls of black beans and the same amount of rice. Part of making lunch quick and easy is not messing with measuring cups! Learn to just kind of wing it. Sure you might make a few mistakes along the way, but you might also have some accidental triumphs!

The "spoonful" here is not a teaspoon and not a huge serving spoon; it's the spoon size in between those.
Next was the salsa. I used two or three spoonfuls, but that's something you could modify according to your taste. Actually, all of this you could modify according to your taste! That's the beauty of it.

A quick stir to get everything mingling nicely, and about a minute on the heat to get everything heated through. Lastly, I sprinkled some shredded cheese on top. I like a cheddar-jack mix, but again, whatever cheese you like is okey-doke. Just leave it alone till the cheese is melted. If you put a lid on the pan, it will melt a little quicker, but even if you don't it'll just be a minute or two.

Once the cheese was nice and melty, I just slid it all out of the frying pan onto my plate, like you would an omelette. Topped it with some sour cream -- negating my earlier, healthier choice, but oh well -- and, for the sake of a prettier photo, a few sprinkles of parsley. Chives or green onions would be more in keeping with the Tex-Mexness of this dish, but I don't have those on hand. I do keep chopped parsley in my freezer, though. (Try it; it's so handy!)

Yummy, satisfying, quick and easy, and pretty healthy to boot!

Here's the recipe -- such as it is -- all in one place:

Easy Tex-Mex Plate

- 2 to 4 slices Canadian bacon, diced (or whatever leftover cooked meat you have on hand; chicken and pork would be great, too.)
- some leftover cooked bell pepper, diced
- 2 rounded spoonfuls of black beans
- 2 rounded spoonfuls of cooked rice
- 2 to 3 rounded spoonfuls of salsa
- 1 spoonful of plain Greek yogurt or sour cream
- a handful or so of shredded cheese
- optional: sour cream, Greek yogurt, chives and/or green onions for garnish

Preheat a small frying pan over medium heat. Add the ingredients, up to and including the yogurt, in the order listed; stir gently. Once all is heated through, top with shredded cheese and keep on heat till cheese is melted. Slide onto a place and garnish if desired. Enjoy!

Serves 1.

Do you have an easy, improvised lunch recipe? Do tell!