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Robin Shreeves

Sometimes you have to throw out the cookies

Going against her 'don’t waste food' mantra, our food blogger throws away a mountain of Christmas cookies.

Tue, Jan 03 2012 at 9:07 PM EST
 19

Christmas cookies in the garbage can Christmas cookies in the garbage can. (Photo: Robin Shreeves)
We went to my sister-in-law’s house for Christmas. I baked four different kinds of treats for the dessert tray — orange shortbread cookies, pecan bars, rugalech and brownies. Other people brought cookies, miniature pies, whole pies and more. There were about 30 people at the house for dinner and about 500 cookies. At the end of the night, there were a lot of leftover cookies.
 
I took the leftover cookies that I'd made plus many of the other cookies home with me, knowing that on New Year's Day, I would be having a lunch at my house after church. My oldest son was being confirmed that day, and friends and family would be coming back to the house to celebrate. A good friend put the cookies in some extra space in her freezer for me, and I grabbed them the night before the celebration.
 
Aside from a quarter-sheet cake that I ordered, the only desserts on New Year's Day were the cookies. Still, when everyone left, there were leftover cookies — mountains of them. We ate some of them on Monday; it was the kids' last day of winter break.
 
With Tuesday came school and the realization that the holiday eating had to end. I sent the boys off to school with healthy lunches and a small piece of leftover cake. When they left, I was faced with all those cookies.
 
I work from home. I have no office to take leftover cookies to. My husband works from home, too. My friends and neighbors all have their own glut of leftover holiday sweets to contend with. I had to make the hard choice. I froze a few of each kind of cookie for some time in the future and tossed the rest in the trashcan.
 
Before I threw them away, I searched for ideas for leftover cookies. I could turn them into piecrust, but then I’d have a pie to eat. I could crumble them up as an ice cream topping, but then I’d be eating ice cream sundaes. I could crumble them, add butter and make a cobbler topping out of them, but then I’d ... you get the general picture. Any recipe that uses leftover cookies creates a different sugary dessert.
 
Considering that this past Friday I wrote about food waste and yesterday I gave you a recipe that makes use of odds and ends of cheese, it felt pretty hypocritical to chuck all those cookies. Still, it had to be done.
 
I certainly can’t have all those cookies in the house, taunting me all day long. I don’t want the boys to come home from school and choose cookies over healthier snacks.
 
I could see only two ways to get rid of the cookies — eat them or toss them. The trashcan was the wiser choice in this instance.
 
I don’t usually have that many cookies left after the holidays. Hopefully, it won’t happen again. But sometimes, you just have to throw away the cookies for the greater good of your family’s health.
 
Would you throw away the cookies?
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Related Topics: Christmas, Food, Healthy Eating, Waste

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anonymous
carolyn 01/11/2012 11:46 AM

At my kids school they often had teacher breakfasts and parent coffees. Maybe someone could start a tradition of a teache/staff appreciation coffee and serve these as a small thank you for a job well done or for that parent coffee get together. Just pull them out of the freezer and rock and roll. I never have time to bake like that so I would have done that instead as I just can't bear to waste such lovely food.

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anonymous
ER 01/07/2012 13:46 PM

Freeze and give to a food bank. People who have nothing to eat will appreciate cookies.

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anonymous
Callie 01/07/2012 08:16 AM

Homemade cookies should definitely be saved or shared, but I have no misgivings about throwing away commercial cookies with GMOs etc. Sometimes this stuff is given to me and I toss it because I don't want my chickens eating it(compost) and I don't think I should be pushing that crap onto homeless people. I threw away some "soft soap" someone gave me this year too. Even my dog deserves better.

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anonymous
Debbie 01/06/2012 23:25 PM

We took them to a 4-H meeting and I sent the left overs home with other kids. I only let my kids eat treats Friday night and Saturday. They don't get treats during the week because it effects their schoolwork.

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anonymous
ktech 01/06/2012 22:23 PM

I would have donated them to a homeless shelter.. or church.. etc. OR put it in the compost heap.

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anonymous
greytoes99 01/07/2012 01:12 AM

I thought the same thing. A soup kitchen, food bank, shelter of some kind or some combo of these.

 

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anonymous
Caitlin 01/06/2012 18:50 PM

If you can only think of two alternatives- eat them or toss them - then I don't think you thought very hard.

You froze some of them, why not all of them?

Why not offering them on your local Freecycle? Lots of people take food through Freecycle - I gave away my fridge and cupboard contents just before a long distance move.

I hope at least that by "trash can" you actually meant "compost heap" or "worm farm".

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anonymous
carrie 01/06/2012 12:37 PM

I did throw away the cookies!
Last year I put them in the freezer and they were still there on Halloween so I threw them out then.
This year I figured,why wait...

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rshreeves
rshreeves 01/05/2012 15:58 PM

I've posed the giving them to the birds question to a wildlife conservation gardening friend of mine, and she's working on getting me some answers about that. I'll have them for you hopefully sometime next week.

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Tarrant
Tarrant 01/05/2012 19:15 PM

My partner reminded me that after a failed batch of Chex Mix went outside last year, we had raccoons who wanted to come inside. That combined with some bizarre "increased number of coyote sightings" in the area (We live in the Chicago suburbs--which aren't very suburban at all-so not a place we would expect coyotes. Then again we didn't expect the large population of skunks either.) means plan make like Snow White and scatter crumbs for the wildlife seem unfeasible.

I do pine for FL where.... More

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anonymous
Angela Sanchez 01/04/2012 19:05 PM

Top 5 better than trash places for cookies- 1. Give to neighbors, they're close, you don't have to get in the car to take them somewhere, like a shelter, which is next on my list. 2. Shelter or food pantry. 3. Freezer til next big event and you can share. 4. Your local fire station. Hey, fire fighters need those extra calories to keep up their energy! 5. Compost if you can't find anyone to take them!

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anonymous
JJ @ 84thand3rd.com 01/04/2012 17:06 PM

No way would I toss them - I've frozen cookies for years! Straight in a ziplock bag - maybe with a bit of parchment/wax paper between them. Into the back of the freezer where they are there for Easter but just a bit too hard to reach everyday. Perfect for pretty much any kind of cookie and generally no need to un-thaw for more than 10 mins!

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anonymous
jeffprellwitz 01/04/2012 16:02 PM

Why is there no discussion about composting? This is a good alternative - right behind, don't make so many cookies, give them to shelters and freezing them.

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anonymous
Elfriede Rucker 01/04/2012 15:42 PM

Why not crumble them up and throw them out for the birds. I am sure they would love a little Christmas cheer also.

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anonymous
Christa 01/04/2012 14:54 PM

It is not really a difficult choice. You and I don't certainly have to be stuck with gazillion leftover cookies, but before they 'hit' the trash can, why not make up a few small trays and take them to the local shelters. There are many homeless people, probably starving and I would not feel guilty despite the fact, that earlier on I shared my sentiments about the 'Dash Diet'. But in this case, I would not consider myself a hypocrite. I also would take along a few healthy items, desperatly.... More

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Tarrant
Tarrant 01/05/2012 10:19 AM

Our local shelters have a myriad of rules about home baked goods and also foods of low nutritional value. The food bank won't even take boxes of things like hamburger helper, cereals with added sugar, non high fiber crackers.

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anonymous
larissa 01/04/2012 14:27 PM

I do it too. sometimes I just think that no one needs that many cookies. I feel bad, but really, even giving them away just fills someone else up with sugary junk.

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Tarrant
Tarrant 01/04/2012 11:36 AM

How did you know we faced this too? There's a plate of peppermint sugar cookies on the counter. It taunts us. My partner asked if I could throw them into a smoothie today. I don't like these particular cookies in the first place. Pushing them on the underweight 21-year-old isn't working. I did suggest they might be able to go into an ice cream--but again I wouldn't eat it. Trashing them might be the best option. Would it be wrong to toss them out for the birds and city critters?

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anonymous
Lisa @ Snappy Gourmet 01/04/2012 11:02 AM

I am throwing out my cookies and all sorts of holiday junk this morning! Better in the garbage than everyone eating it!

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