12 Ways to Use Leftover Parmesan Packets and Condiments from Restaurants (Good Tips for Those with New Year's Resolutions to Be Less Wasteful)

Today's post may seem out of character, but my eco-friendly heart realized that many of my take-out orders have included generous quantities of little packet of Parmesan. I feel guilty just throwing them in the garbage since that isn't an eco-friendly thing to do. I feel bad donating them to a food bank because I don't know if they would want them.  That's what led to today's crazy post -- 12 ways to use leftover Parmesan packets and condiments from restaurants!

Let's start by noticing that most Parmesan packets have expiration dates on them. If you have been throwing them into a cabinet or drawer, the first thing that you should do is to sift through them to toss expired ones and place the non-expired Parmesan packets into a pile. Once you do that, open them up and pour them into a measuring cup since most recipes that use grated Parmesan will list 1/4 cup, 1/2 cup, etc.  Of course, if you only one Parmesan packet, we have an idea to use up even the smallest quantities.

12 ways to use leftover Parmesan packets and condiments from restaurants

1. Add one of more packets to pasta coated in olive oil. This is an easy recipe - just make pasta, toss it in olive oil and then add one or more Parmesan packet.

2. Mix Parmesan from packets into the ricotta mixture for a lasagna.

3. Use Parmesan packets to make chicken parmesan or eggplant Parmesan.

4. Make homemade pesto.  This requires many additional ingredients. Our recipe uses 1/2 cup of freshly grated Parmesan, but we have substituted half of it with Parmesan from packets and it was still fabulous!

5. Serve Parmesan from packets with bread and olive oil for dipping.

6. Mix Parmesan from packets into meatballs.


7. Make a homemade risotto that uses Parmesan from packets.

8. Make Parmesan crusted chicken nuggets. We like to slice chicken extra thin, coat it in egg, add a light dusting of flour, and then a thick coating of Parmesan.

9. Toss cauliflower with butter or olive oil and Parmesan from Parmesan packets.

10. Sprinkle Parmesan packets onto pizza. 

11. Sprinkle Parmesan packets onto salads.

12. Coat crescent rolls with Parmesan from packets before baking them.


I hope these ideas help our eco-friendly readers to use up any leftover Parmesan packets that they have laying around!

This is not a sponsored post or affiliated with any brands.