What Can You Make With Labor Day Leftovers? Shaunda’s Easy Ideas
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Beautiful Soul, Labor Day is over. The kitchen is quiet. And before anybody starts asking… “What’s for dinner?”
I need you to do something for me…
Open the refrigerator! Because yesterday already did half the work.
Before you buy more groceries, plan another dinner, or start pulling out pots and pans, let’s see what the cookout left us. My rule for Labor Day leftovers is simple:
Eat it again. Repurpose it. Or combine it.
Not every leftover needs to become a brand-new recipe. Sometimes the smartest dinner is simply figuring out how to make what you’ve already cooked work for one more meal.
Cook once. Celebrate. Eat twice. Now that’s a holiday plan I can get behind!
❤️ Why I make it this way
Why I plan for leftovers: I don’t think of leftovers as the accidental food sitting around after a gathering. They’re part of the plan. If I’m already taking the time to cook ribs, BBQ chicken, baked beans, mac and cheese, potato salad, and dessert for people I love, I’m perfectly happy for some of that work to feed us tomorrow, too!
That’s not boring. That’s efficient. And it means the day after a holiday can actually feel like the day after a holiday. No big grocery run. No elaborate dinner plan. No starting from zero.
Just open the refrigerator and see what was already handled yesterday.
I’ve already thought this through so you don’t have to.
💡 I’ve already thought this through…
Look in the refrigerator and ask:
Have enough for another complete plate?
Reheat it and eat it again.
Have plenty of one main but not enough sides?
Turn the meat into sandwiches, loaded potatoes, or bowls.
Have several small containers of different things?
Build a mix-and-match BBQ bowl.
Have only one or two servings left?
Congratulations. Somebody’s lunch is handled!
Have leftovers you’re not going to eat soon?
Freeze what freezes well rather than letting good food sit forgotten in the refrigerator.
The goal isn’t to prove how creative we can be with leftovers.
The goal is to get another good meal out of food we’ve already made.
Got leftover BBQ chicken?
This is probably my favorite Labor Day leftover because BBQ chicken gives us options. You can certainly warm it up and serve the original plate again. But if you’ve got plenty of chicken and only spoonfuls of yesterday’s sides left? Shred it.
Warm the chicken with a little extra BBQ sauce and pile it onto a soft bun. And if there’s leftover coleslaw in the refrigerator? Put that right on top.
Beautiful Soul… that’s dinner.
Tender shredded BBQ chicken + soft bun + cold, crunchy coleslaw gives you a completely different eating experience without requiring you to cook another main.
That’s why this is my first choice when yesterday’s BBQ chicken needs an encore.
Got leftover ribs?
Here’s my revolutionary culinary technique: Warm them up and eat them again!
“Eat. The. Same. Thing. Again.”
I’m so serious. If yesterday’s ribs were tender, smoky, saucy, and delicious, why are we assigning ourselves homework? Reheat them carefully so they stay moist, add a little extra BBQ sauce if they need it, and rebuild the plate. “Girl. Warm up those ribs!”
If you don’t have enough ribs left to feed everyone, that’s when I’d consider pulling the remaining meat from the bones and stretching it into another meal.
Use the meat in a BBQ bowl. Pile it onto a loaded baked potato. Make a sandwich. But don’t repurpose food simply for the sake of saying you repurposed it!
🥄 Shaunda says: A leftover doesn’t need a makeover just because it’s Tuesday. Some foods are just as good—or better—the second time around. If you’ve got enough to make yesterday’s plate again, make yesterday’s plate again!
Dinner solved.
Got a little bit of everything?
Now we’re getting into my favorite kind of refrigerator math! One scoop of baked beans. A little mac and cheese. Some cabbage. Half a container of BBQ chicken. Not enough of anything to call it dinner… Until we put it together!
Make a “clean out the cookout” BBQ Bowl
Start with rice if you have it—or make a little if you need something to stretch the meal. Then add whatever Labor Day left behind: BBQ chicken or pulled rib meat. Baked beans. Mac and cheese. Cabbage or vegetables. Coleslaw, if you like that hot-and-cold contrast. A little BBQ sauce.
There are no rules here! This isn’t a recipe, as much as it is permission to stop staring at six tiny containers like none of them contains dinner. Together, they might.
Need something to hold all those leftovers?
Enter: The baked potato. A baked potato can become the landing place for whatever isn’t quite enough to stand alone. Try it with leftover:
BBQ chicken
Pulled rib meat
Baked beans
Cheese or mac and cheese
Cabbage
Coleslaw
BBQ sauce
And no, you don’t need all of those on the same potato, LOL! Pick the combination that sounds good and use the potato to stretch those smaller portions into something that feels like an actual meal.
That’s my Make-It-Your-Way at its most practical.
What about the leftover sides?
This is where I take inventory before doing anything else. Potato salad, macaroni salad, coleslaw, baked beans, cabbage, mac and cheese—most of these don’t need a clever transformation.
They need something to go beside them. If you’ve still got a good assortment, rebuild the cookout plate. If only a couple remain, use those sides to complete one of your repurposed mains.
- That leftover coleslaw? Put it on a BBQ chicken sandwich for cool, crunchy contrast.
- Those baked beans? Add them to a BBQ bowl or spoon them over a loaded baked potato.
- That mac and cheese? “Beautiful Soul, warm it up!” Mac and cheese has always been a meal all by itself. We are not making mac-and-cheese fritters because the Internet told us leftovers require a craft project.
And what should you do with leftover dessert?
This is perhaps the easiest decision in the entire Library.
- Leftover peach cobbler? Warm it and serve it with vanilla ice cream.
- Leftover apple pie? Same instructions. Warm it up and add ice cream.
- Leftover pig pickin’ cake? Keep it chilled and cut another slice.
- Leftover red Kool-Aid pie? Back to the refrigerator she goes until somebody is ready for dessert.
- Leftover banana pudding? First of all: “Congratulations!” Second: Grab a spoon. Some desserts do not require repurposing. They require finishing.
Before you eat the leftovers: check them first
Refrigerate perishable cookout food promptly after serving, and don’t keep food that has been sitting out too long—especially in hot outdoor temperatures.
For refrigerated cooked leftovers, a good general rule is to use them within 3 to 4 days, and reheat cooked leftovers thoroughly before eating. If you know you won’t get to something within that window, freeze suitable leftovers sooner rather than later.
And when in doubt about whether something was stored safely? I live in Las Vegas, and I’m the first to tell you: dinner is not worth gambling over!
👩🏾🍳 Make-it-your-way
Here’s the part I really want you to remember: You don’t have to turn leftovers into something new.
You have choices.
- Eat it again when you have enough for another plate.
- Repurpose it when one leftover can become the foundation of something easy.
- Combine it when you’ve got little bits of several dishes.
- Freeze it when you know you’re not going to eat it in time.
- And sometimes? Call it lunch.
The best leftover strategy is the one that keeps perfectly good food from going to waste without creating another day’s worth of work for you.
Explore Shaunda’s Labor Day holiday kitchen
And now, we really have followed the Labor Day meal from planning all the way through the refrigerator the next day!
Want even more options? Browse my complete Labor Day recipe collection → for more soul food cookout favorites!
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