“Half a loaf,” they say, “is better than none.”  But it’s hard for me to cheer when I have half a challah left after Shabbat, doomed to sit on the counter, uneaten until it’s inedible, or tossed into the back of a freezer and forgotten until the pre-Passover clean up and then burned with the chametz.

We’ve been trying especially hard, recently, not to waste food – but when it comes to leftover challah, the challenge is twofold: For one thing, there are four people in my family and 15 slices in the average bakery loaf; you do the math. For another, halakha (Jewish law) requires that two full, un-sliced loaves appear at both the Friday night meal and again on Saturday as a reminder of the double portion of manna that fell from heaven before Shabbat when the Israelites were wandering in the desert. A lovely tradition – but it means the bread left over from supper can’t just be used up at the next day’s lunch.

That’s just one of the many reasons I bake my own challah: I can shape each loaf to the exact size I’ll actually need on a given Shabbat, depending on whether we’re expecting guests. And when I’m too tired/hot/lazy/cranky to bake, I now buy small challah rolls at the bakery, rather than full braids. Yeah, the little round breads look kind of lonely on the big challah board, but honestly, one slice of challah is really enough for each of us.

But even those anti-waste measures aren’t fail-safe – and there are many folks, I know, for whom it just isn’t Shabbos dinner without large, glossy loaves poking their noses out from under a silken challah cover. For all of us, then, I’ve been thinking about delicious ways to use up leftover challah.

Of course, there’s always French toast (and if you think it’s good plain, just try slicing the bread only half as thick as you normally do, making a sandwich of two slices with a nice spackling of Nutella, and then dipping THAT into the milk-and-egg mixture before placing it in the frying pan. There IS a God!)

But when brunch company comes, whoever’s stuck alone in the kitchen flipping the French toast misses all the best jokes and juiciest gossip, so on those Sunday mornings, I like to do a savory bread strata instead. My latest favorite is an adaptation of a recipe that recently ran in House Beautiful. Check out the recipe recipe here. I use 2 cups of sliced mushrooms and 2 cups of minced baby spinach leaves, both sautéed with the caramelized onions, for the vegetable component, along with 5-7 ounces (depending on package size) of crumbled soft goat cheese.

If there’s just a slice or two of challah left, strata’s not an option – but that’s okay, too, if you sandwich creatively. Because of its eggy texture and sweet-ish flavor, challah’s not right for every sandwich, but try it with brie and apricot preserves, or roast turkey with pumpkin butter (which is not butter at all, but fruit spread, and is pareve). Or, do what I did for breakfast this morning: just toast the challah and spread thinly with goat’s milk butter (available at health-food and gourmet stores and absolutely marvelous). With a drizzle of the rich, dark buckwheat honey I get from Andrew at the greenmarket in New York’s Union Square… well, it’s like manna from heaven.