First of all you must be asking, when is earth day? This year it is Monday April 22, 2013. While it is not a holiday it is still a day to gently remind yourself and other’s how our everyday habits can really affect our environment.
With some help from our friends at Nature’s Own, Close to Home has come up with some uses of those bread loaf heels that are often put in the trash. Also what to do with the loaf that gets a little to hard and you end up throwing that away.
In honor of Earth Day we are going to share a few ideas of what to do with left over bread and share a recipe for an amazing afternoon snack sure to put a smile, like this one,on your child’s face.
SOLUTION #1: You can bring these scraps to the duck pond for an activity. (I often put these pieces along with ones that got a little moldy into a freezer bag in the freezer for those spontaneous trips).
- For the sandwich bread pieces you can toast them in the toaster or oven to dry them out some, not burnt, then place into a food processor and pulse to a crumb consistency.
- For the large chunks of crusty bread, that probably naturally hardened up, you can simply use a box grater to get crumbs or slice and place into the food processor as well.
- Store the crumbs in a plastic bag or container to use in your favorite recipes. The crumbs will stay fresh for about a week outside the fridge. In the fridge they may get soggy but can be used in any recipe that calls for bread crumbs as a filler not used as a coating, ie. Meatballs, meatloaf.
SOLUTION #3 Make Gooey Peanut Butter S’Mores for an after school snack.
- 2 heels of Nature’s Own 100% Whole Wheat Bread 2 to 3 tablespoons of creamy peanut butter and Nutella (make your own ratio combo)
- 1⁄2 (1.55 oz) milk chocolate bar If too much chocolate skip this or the nutella but not both!!
- 2 large marshmallows, cut in half (we used smaller ones left over from Easter and just sprinkled a few on.
- Adjust over rack to about 8 inches from broiler unit. Preheat broiler
- Lightly toast bread heels in toaster. Place on small baking sheet. Cool
slightly. (placed on foil lined pans helps with clean up)
- Spread Crust-sides of both bread heels evenly with peanut butter Nutella mixture.
spreading edges. - Place chocolate bar on 1 bread heel and marshmallow halves on other
heel. We also experimented with banana.
- Broil 1 to 1-1/2 minutes just until marshmallows begin to brown. Remove
from over and cool about 2 minutes before closing sandwich. Don’t go answer the door here it will burn. 
It done correctly it will ooze out like this!! The kids won’t even notice you used the heals as they are now inside the sandwich!!
- Cook’s Note: Be sure to adjust over rack position as directed. Marshmallows will burn if they are too close to the broiler. Watch marshmallows carefully while broiling.
This was a huge hit with my kids. We even thought of adding some bananas to the mixture. They actually fought over the raisin bread which was a little surprising. If you have allergies I am sure any other nut butter would work just as well.
Check out all of Nature’s Own great bread products. I recently tried their toasters and loved them with a little cream cheese. What Nature’s Own Product do you like the best?
Head over to the Giveaway from Nature’s Own HERE> Thanks to the folks at Natures Own I was provided samples in exchange for an honest review. All the opinions expressed were my own.
What do you do with left over bread? What does earth day mean to your kids?
I love the s’mores idea and I think my kids would also. Luckily we don’t waste much bread at home as it can be expensive, I like the wide pan really wheaty varieties. The heel never goes to waste, its my favorite part for toast with jam!
I love Nutella.
I do this with grilled cheese use the ends–I love the smores, but I’d have to skip the Nutella allergic
my mouth is watering now! And I am suppose to be on a diet here lol! Thanks for the idea though my kids are gonna love it
That raisin bread looks so yummy, love the smores idea… thank you
Those look like fun sandwich ideas! Nature’s Own Bread is my #1 go to bread when I need to make sandwiches. I wish they considered making a gluten free option for my youngest. Thanks for the great review-Amy
Great idea! We love Nature’s Own bread, my kids even like their Whole Wheat bread. We use the heels to wipe up grease from the pan and put it out for the birds. It’s kind of like homemade suet, they love it!
These look so yummy! My daughter loves peanut butter with Nutella sandwiches, so I know she’d love this!
This bread looks amazing! You are making me hungry lol.
Love these ideas! What a great, resourceful post!
Earth Day is April 22nd every year. 🙂 I know this because it’s my best friend’s birthday, and we always tell her happy “b’earth’day.” LOL. These are great ideas for using the extra heels and hardened bits of bread. I love feeding the ducks! I also sometimes use them to make homemade croutons. Your images of Nature’s Own bread look good. I might have to go get some myself.
Tara
http://my-second-chances.blogspot.com
Looks AMAZING! I love smores so this would be amazing 🙂 just not good for my diet hahaha
YUM!!! Looks so good 🙂
OMG Oatmeal Toasters?? Those look amazing.
Those gooey sandwiches look SO yummy but oh so fattening. I guess that’s probably why they’re good. LOL
Dee Mauser
http://www.bellasavvy.net
omg those look so delicious! I’m so hungry now lol. Thanks for sharing!
this is my favorite bread
Ok, I want a smore sandwich right now! This looks amazing!
croutons are a great idea, I just don’t have enough left over bread for all these great ideas and we buy a lot of bread:)
that is a great way to give to the environment. the birds must love it:) thanks for sharing your great idea