So your kitchen is stuffed with ingredients, but somehow there’s not a treat in sight. Not to worry—check out these recipes for inspiration on how to conjure dessert from thin air. It might feel a little like magic.
With thanks to the featured food blogs that provided links and images for this round up!
Clear out the kitchen oatmeal cookies
I have pushed this recipe to the brink and, somehow, no matter what I put in the bowl it turns out delicious. I have made it with marshmallows, extra frosting, cereal, halva, broken crackers and beyond. As you prepare it, just make adjustments based on what you’re using up. I often omit the white sugar and salt because I add so many extras that are already sweet or salty. When I added a cup and a half of frosting from ridiculously over frosted birthday cake, I halved the amount of butter in the recipe. If the cookie dough seems dry, I add an egg. Truly though, even if you’re guessing your way through, you can’t go wrong.
Dried fruit and nut bars
These bars from Pint Sized Baker were born in a fit of exhaustion, when blogger Karyn Granrud threw a bunch of dried fruit and nuts into the blender and stumbled her way to these easy bars. Consider her recipe a guideline and work with what you have. I’m guessing you could sneak a little chocolate or other treats into these too. And, hey, you don’t even need to make them bars. You could also roll them into balls. She has guidance on both styles.
Hot Chocolate Stirrers
If you have a bunch of small amounts of goodies, particularly sprinkles, marshmallows or chocolate chips (and other dessert chips), consider making these hot chocolate stirrers from My Morning Mocha. The greater variety of items you need to use up, the more options your hot cocoa drinkers will have!
Frozen banana ice cream
You know those bananas you frozen for banana bread that never happened? Get them out of the freezer and blend them with whatever sounds good and you’ll have homemade ice cream. My list of potential additions includes yogurt, nut butters, nutella, chocolate candy, maybe a splash of coconut milk? Add too much liquid and you might end up with smoothies, which would also be delicious!
Everything cookies
Here’s another take on everything cookies! While the recipe at the top of this post is more oatmeal cookie style, this one is more of a chocolate chip base. You cannot go wrong!
No-bake truffles
And here’s another blend and roll recipe that is hard to get wrong. You just need enough ingredients to hold things together (dried fruit, nut butters) and, ideally, something nice to roll everything in at the end (coconut flakes? cocoa powder? cinnamon and sugar?)
Overripe banana cookies
Here’s another (quick!) use for those bananas you aren’t getting to. Mix them with oats and whatever else you’d like and bake. That’s it. The ones pictured here were mixed with leftover trail mix. Like many of the recipes here, nut butters, chocolate chips (and other chips), coconut flakes, forgotten desserty spices, and beyond would be at home in these cookies.
