Wednesday, October 20, 2010

Recycling Hamburger/ Hot Dog Buns

Hello, all my fabulous bloggy friends!! I have been really trying to reign in our food budget lately. This is getting harder to do now that my kid's (and their friends) are getting bigger and eating more. One of the things I have been working on is to use up rather than throw out leftovers or unused bits of food. It's been going fairly well, except that our household can not seem to judge the bun to meat ratio. There is always the rogue person (me) who has their hot dog or hamburger without a bun. It always cracks me up when I send Dear Hubby to the store to buy hot dog/hamburger buns (He is usually the one who initiates the whole let's grill hamburgers tonight scenario), and he comes back with a 12 pack of buns for 8 hamburgers or hot dogs. In his mind the bigger package is always the better option!

I sometimes use the leftover buns to make "hoagie" sandwiches for the kid's lunches. If I give it a fancy name, maybe they won't realize they are eating lunch meat and cheese on a hamburger bun! I have also layered pizza sauce, pepperoni, and mozarella cheese on a hot dog bun, broiled it and called it a Pizza Dog (see it's all in the name!). My favorite way to use up leftover buns is to turn them into garlic bread, or if I'm feeling fancy (and I have cheese to use up) garlic cheese bread.


It's very simple:
  • Split the buns and lay the halves in a single layer on an ungreased cookie sheet
  • Spread softened butter on the bun halves.
  • Sprinkle lightly (or heavily, if your a garlic lover) with garlic powder.
  • Broil in the oven for 5 - 7 minutes (if you are going to make cheese bread go for the lesser amount of time). Watch bread closely so it doesn't burn!
  • If you want to make garlic cheese bread. Sprinkle Mozzarella (or a combination of Parmesan and Mozzarella) cheese on top of the toasted buns.
  • Broil for a few more minutes until the cheese is bubbly.
  • I have also mixed 1/2 cup softened butter with 1 teaspoon minced garlic and 1 teaspoon parsley flakes and spread that on the bun halves in place of garlic powder. It is very yummy, too.
They make a great addition to soup or spaghetti night. Best of all they don't end up in the trash!

7 comments:

  1. Great ideas! I tend to just freeze my buns and pull them out to thaw as I need them. I don't usually use hotdog or hamburger buns that often, though.

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  2. Great ideas! Since there are only 2 of us we ALWAYS have leftover buns. My mom used to turn them into garlic bread for us as kids, but I need to try your garlic cheese bread!

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  3. Thanks for the comment and for following me! :) BTW, I love the Aesop quote on your sidebar about gratitude.

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  4. Ms. Oomph,
    You have a fabulous blog! Aesop's quote is there to remind me to appreciate what I have, not reflect on what I want!

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  5. I actually don't mind using hamburger/hot dog buns for plain old sandwiches. Ham & cheese, bologna, chicken salad, whatever. We'll even throw the buns in the toaster to warm and toast them up a little bit. I do like your idea of garlic cheese bread!!!

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  6. My mom used to make something called "Cheese Bun Quickies": she would lightly scrape out some of the bun to make a depression, then mixed a can of tomato soup with grated cheddar cheese and the scooped out bread, and added some chopped green onion and pepper. Then she baked them in the oven until the cheese melted and the buns were toasted. We loved them!

    My husband uses any extra buns these days for sandwiches, so we don't get many leftovers.

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  7. Laura,
    I like the idea of Cheese Bun Quickies!They would be delicious with soup.

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