Christmas dinner may take hours to prepare – but one of the great things about it is that there’s always lots left over… and that means quick and easy baby food for days to come!
Of course, the usual food safety rules still apply when using leftover food from your Christmas meal to make food for your baby. Once cooked, the food should be properly refrigerated in order to be safe enough to be used again.
Any food left sitting at room temperature for more than two hours is NOT safe for use in your baby food recipes.
Can I freeze baby food made from my leftover Christmas dinner if it contains ingredients that were previously frozen?
A common scenario is that we store the ingredients for our Christmas dinner in the freezer, thaw them, then cook them. So can you then make baby food with those same ingredients and freeze them again?
Yes – but just remember that the cooked food should have been refrigerated promptly after your Christmas meal (as described above). Likewise, the baby food you prepared from the leftovers should be transferred to the freezer as quickly as possible. It can be kept for up to one month.
Here are some ideas for using up those Holiday leftovers…
- Chop them up and mix them into a homemade sauce
- Make Bubble and Squeak – a British dish that’s super-simple to prepare!
- Whip up some Turkey and Bean Patties
- Make some easy-to-eat Potato Pancakes – great for breakfast or lunch
- Check out our Chicken Baby Food Recipes, many of which use cooked chicken – just substitute leftover turkey in its place!
- Throw leftover veggies in the blender with some cream cheese and make a simple dip or spread.
And don’t forget to check out our Christmas Baby Food page, which looks at which ingredients are safe to use… and which are not!