Your bagel order at the office can get a bit out of hand over the holidays. Everyone needs that extra tray of goodness sin the break room to make sure each employee can make it through the final hectic days before the holiday break.
There can be associated guilt connected with having to dump leftover stale bagels into the garbage bin at the end of the day – but you can only eat so many at home. You know the drill – there are dozens of ways to use up old, stale, or damaged bagels, including any or all of the following possibilities:
Breakfast bagels, bagel brunches, and mini bagel pizzas eventually lose their charm. You can slice them for baked bagel chips, dice them and spice them for croutons, freeze them to make bread pudding from later, or go all out with homemade gazpacho.
After a while, when your bagel inspiration has run dry and you are frantically digging through Pinterest to find new recipes to use up those old bagels, here’s an idea for you – why not feed them to the birds?
That’s right. While tearing bagels up and giving them to the ducks and geese isn’t a good idea (they can’t easily digest these bread products), sparrows, jays, cardinals, and mockingbirds do love bread and you can make the bagels even more attractive with a few extra ingredients.
Holiday Bird Bagel Recipe
- 6 day old bagels, sliced in half horizontally to make 12 rounds
- Cheap peanut butter – smear on lavishly
- Birdseed – the colorful kind. Drift on in big handfuls and pat down
- You can add raising, currants, dried berries, and so on.
- Hang bagels with strong from high branches. Expect to lose a few to squirrels.
This idea is perfect if you have children off for winter break who need a craft to do. Set them up at a big table covered with butcher paper and let them and their friends make as many birdfeeder bagels as they can.
Birds deserve a happy holiday as well, and this is a perfect way to ensure plenty of feathered friends come around to keep your yard looking festive all winter long. These treats are inexpensive and easy to make and can help supplement bird’s diets.
So grab a big plastic bag, and double check the break room before turning out the lights and leaving the office at the end of the day – you just might be able to keep your flock supplied all year round.