AFTER THANKSGIVING

After Thanksgiving families who celebrate with a turkey meal, are usually overwhelmed with a lot of leftovers. When my nest was full, and the kids were home they loved turkey leftovers the next day. HD and I did not. I used to remove all the meat from the bird right after the meal and freeze it, according to general instructions (leaving enough out for the kids to feast on).

Don't throw your leftovers away. They really make good dishes that will surprise your family and friends. I came up with dishes two, three and four for the leftovers;over the years. The stew was made the day after Thanksgiving, this year, by our son-in-law.

TURKEY STEW: Onions, carrots, celery, cubed left over turkey, potatoes,sliced zucchini, salt and pepper. After the vegetables cooked, egg noodles were added and simmered in the soup. Talk about a one pot meal! HD is vegetarian, so some soup was set aside for him before the turkey was added.
HD and I laced our soup with hot sauce... it was delicious. The rest had it as is. Sorry we didn't stop to take pictures!

TURKEY FRIED RICE: This was a family favorite when the kids were young.
Follow any fried rice recipe. I used leftover rice, stir fried scallions, grated ginger, garlic, 1 large tablespoon hoisin sauce and soy sauce to taste, stir fried left over turkey,snow peas.
Just before serving I would add Chinese bean sprouts and a couple of scrambled eggs.
I've even made this with half noodles, half rice and it always got rave reviews.
I used to do this over 15 years ago so no pictures here either!

TURKEY KEEMA/MINCE: Ever put your leftover turkey into the Cuisinart and minced it?
It tastes so great in cutlets, Shepherd's Pie, keema kababs.
There's something about that roast turkey that lends an additional flavor to any dish one would normally use mince in.

AND A NEW BRAINWAVE: STUFFING UPMA!

Stuffing upma you say? Never heard of such a thing! Well, just read on patiently.

If you buy the box of cornbread stuffing with herbs and spices for the stuffing, like we do, here's a new idea for you...
We've been making our stuffing outside the turkey for the sake of the vegetarians in our family; following package directions.
This year I froze the leftover stuffing and then took it out tonight. After thawing the stuffing in the microwave, I heated some olive oil, added sliced green onions, cubed tomato, green chillies, karipata (curry leaves), and fresh coriander to it. After sauteing it lightly, I added the stuffing and mixed everything gently.
It made great bread upma!
Now I'm planning on getting a couple of extra boxes of stuffing and keeping it on hand, just for this quick new dish.

Good luck with those leftovers! Frozen immediately, they are great for another meal.