Thanksgiving Leftovers

The day after Thanksgiving, you make the turkey sandwich with stuffing, mashed potatoes, gravy and cranberry sauce. It's amazing. The next day, you make the same thing. It's slightly less exciting, but still good. By the third day, you want nothing to do with any of it, and still have a refrigerator full of leftovers.

We hosted 20 people for Thanksgiving. Never mind the fact that I had never hosted Thanksgiving before and we don't have a dining room table. It all came together and was great to have a crowd. In my true fashion, I was worried there wouldn't be enough food and prepared enough for twice as many people. And wine for four times as many. Needless to say, we had a lot of leftovers.

Here are a few ideas for repurposing all that delicious food without going out of your mind with boredom.

Stuffing Muffins
recipe from Budget Bytes

Ingredients:
3-4 cups leftover stuffing
1/4-1/2 cup chopped ham or turkey
1/4 cup chopped spinach (fresh or frozen)
6 eggs
1/4 cup milk or cream
Salt and pepper

Directions:
Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
Prepare a standard sized muffin tin with butter or cooking spray.
Mix together stuffing, meat and spinach. Spoon into each muffin cup.
Whisk together eggs, milk, salt and pepper.
Pour egg mixture over stuffing.
Bake about 25 minutes until eggs are puffed and set.

Mashed Potato Croquettes

Ingredients:
2 cups (or so) leftover mashed potatoes
1 egg
1/4 cup cheese (cheddar or parmesan)
1/4 cup flour
Oil, for frying

Directions:
Mix together mashed potatoes, egg and cheese. Add a little flour if your mixture seems too wet.
Portion into small patties and dredge in flour.
Heat oil in a frying pan over medium low-medium heat.
Cook croquettes for about 3 minutes a side until golden brown. Don't try to flip them too early, or they will fall apart.

Thanksgiving Casserole
This is essentially that leftover sandwich in casserole form, but you can stick it in the freezer to bring out when your delicious Thanksgiving is just a memory.

In a prepared casserole dish, layer stuffing, turkey, gravy, vegetables, and mashed potatoes. Freeze.
To reheat, bake at 350 for 1-1 1/2 hours, covered.

Turkey Soup
A classic, for when you are really done. Use whatever quantities you have.

Leftover cooked turkey
Chicken or turkey broth
Carrots
Onion
Leftover green beans

Simmer for about 20 minutes and top with parsley.

Comments

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