As a frugal mama, I keep a pretty sparse fridge when it comes to drinks. Milk and water (and Yankee Bill’s Coors Light) are the order of the day at our house! However, when we have a party I do pick up some drinks suitable for guests.
For the kids I’ll make up a pitcher of lemonade-or if I’m feeling flush I might buy the Aldi’s brand of pouch drinks (aka “wanna-be Capri Sun”). For the adults I’ll buy soda-but I go with the more frugal 2 liter bottles and then provide plastic cups.
Photo by Walmink
That saves me money-but I am frequently left with several mostly empty bottles of pop. I don’t let the kids drink anything with caffeine, so what am I to do with the leftover cola? Or any other flavor for that matter. I just can’t stand the thought of throwing it out.
Never fear-here are links to 13 fantastic and frugal recipe to use up leftover soda:
4. Cola Can Chicken on a Throne
11. Pistachio Pudding Sprite Cake (Watergate Cake)
12. Korean BBQ Ribs using Sprite (mild profanity)
So how do YOU use up leftover soda~or is such a thing unheard of at your house!
Cola, particularly Coke (the brand) has a multitude of uses. Not the least of which is cleaning an auto windshield. I keep a 16 oz bottle in the car for just that purpose in the winter, works better than any windshield cleaner on the market. On the subject of using left over soda, or flat soda, again Coke (the brand) is a great tenderizer for those frugal meat cuts. It also makes a really delish bbq sauce along with dregs of other items that might be hanging out in the fridge (lemon juice, worchestershire, garlic, italian dressing and a few more) Lemon lime soda can be used to add a twist to cakes and cookies as well as jello (the brand) it adds those bubbles and kids love it. Also, club soda gives a little fizz as well if you use the hand mixer when adding these to jello(brand) you can make a pretty layered dessert. Root Beer doesn’t have a chance here for left overs and creme soda, forget it but the others seem to have found good use.
I often use soda as the “cold” liquid in jello. It certainly changes it up a bit!
Assuming you are using soda with sugar, and eeewwww, who would want to drink the chemical cocktail in diet soda??? Anyhoo, if you have left over soda, or beer for that matter, you can dilute it and feed it to your garden or houseplants. Be sure you have diluted it, the measurements don’t really matter, just don’t pour it undiluted on your plants. The phosphoric acids and sugars are good for your greenery, much better than it is for you. 🙂
Wretha
I make a killer pulled pork with ginger ale!
Just thought of another one…Pour Root Beer over a ham and cook it in the crock pot. Yummy!
If there was ever any left over soda at my house, I’d make the chocolate cola cake. It sounds yummy.
when we have leftover open soda, i put it in a solo cup and freeze it. then i can have a slurpee when the mood strikes!
2 PARTS COLA + 1 PART MILK = TASTES LIKE MY CHILDHOOD!
It is like a healthy-ish version of an icecream float!
Non-cola sodas make pretty and tastey fruited jello rings
And yeah, soda is so acidic it can clean just about anything!
Thanks for the tips. I was really looking to use up the soda without ingesting it–like the tip for plants–but some of the recipes sound intriguing as well.
Fofolle-glad you enjoyed the soda tips!