Leftover Cranberry Sauce Cream Cheese

Combining leftover cranberry sauce with cream cheese, chopped walnuts, and honey makes an easy, no-frills breakfast spread. And is a clever way to repurpose Thanksgiving leftovers!

I love the challenge of repurposing Thanksgiving leftovers. For me, it’s more exciting than actually eating Thanksgiving dinner. For days beforehand, my brain buzzes with anticipation. Possible leftover Thanksgiving breakfasts, lunches, and dinners cycle through my mind as I cross-reference with items currently in my fridge and pantry.

Leftover cranberry sauce typically gets turned into some sort of dessert. But I figured why not make it the star of breakfast?

This is a super easy breakfast idea. Because you deserve a break after slaving away on that Thanksgiving meal. All you need are four ingredients to create Leftover Cranberry Sauce Cream Cheese:

• Cream cheese
• Leftover cranberry sauce
• Walnut pieces
• Honey

Any leftover cranberry sauce will do so I’m not providing a recipe for the sauce here. I can’t speak to whether or not the canned jellied stuff would work – I used some homemade cranberry sauce that my mother-in-law provided.

The walnut pieces add a nice textural bite and a little bit of honey sweeten things up.

All you need now is a breakfast carb of your choice to slather this fantastically easy leftover cranberry spread on. I opted for bagels this morning, but English muffins or some cinnamon swirl toast would also make excellent choices.

You might also consider these solid breakfast options:

Ranchero Eggs

Chorizo Breakfast Tacos with Apple Radish Slaw

Creamy Goat Cheese Bagel Spread

Leftover Cranberry Sauce Cream Cheese

Combining leftover cranberry sauce with cream cheese, chopped walnuts, and honey makes an easy, no-frills breakfast spread. And is a clever way to repurpose Thanksgiving leftovers!

Print Recipe Pin Recipe

Prep Time 5 mins

Course Breakfast

Equipment

• Hand mixer

Ingredients

  

• 1 package cream cheese (8 ounces)
• 1/2 cup leftover cranberry sauce
• 1/4 cup shelled walnut pieces
• 1/2 tsp honey*

Instructions

 

• Let the package of cream cheese come to room temperature.
• Buzz 1/4 cup of walnut pieces in a food processor for 5-7 seconds (or finely chop with a knife). You want walnut pieces that resemble tiny pebbles to add texture.
• Add the room temperature cream cheese, finely chopped walnuts, 1/2 cup leftover cranberry sauce, and 1/2 teaspoon of honey to a bowl.
• Combine with a hand mixer on medium speed. This should take around 45 seconds.
• That's it! Spread over a fresh bagel or English muffin.

Notes

*If you think the leftover cranberry sauce cream cheese spread is sweet enough you can leave out the honey. Instead of honey, you could also you an equal amount of agave nectar.  

Keyword cranberry sauce, cream cheese, thanksgiving leftovers