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Amazing Ideas for your Leftover Thanksgiving Turkey!
If you’ve slaved away for hours on a huge bird for Thanksgiving, there’s no reason that the extra meat has to go to waste. It’s inevitable-99% of the time, you’ll have leftover turkey after everyone’s had their fill. Although you can simply heat up the meat in the microwave, that isn’t very interesting or tasty. You’ve spent a lot of time and money cooking the Perfect Thanksgiving Turkey. Don’t let the leftovers go to waste!
Turkey Salad
One of the tastiest things you can d with your leftover turkey is make a turkey salad. This is a great way to stretch the leftover meat as well. You can use the recipe for any turkey or chicken salad recipe which isn’t much more than Mayonnaise and a few extra additives (it depends on your specific recipe). You can then use the turkey salad in sandwiches, or on top of toast. Add some cheese, and you’ll have a wonderful lunch!
Substituting Turkey in your Recipes instead of Chicken – Turkey Potpie
Another great use for leftover turkey is potpie. You can make pot pie with whatever vegetables you have leftover from Thanksgiving as well. Although most people like to use chicken or beef, turkey holds up well in a potpie and can be delicious with the same recipe you use for chicken potpie. In fact, turkey works well in place of chicken in most recipes. You can try turkey a la king, turkey casserole, turkey and rice, and any of your other family chicken recipes. I always look forward to using some of my leftover turkey for Turkey & Dumplings!
Freezing your Turkey
Dоn’t forget that you don’t have to eat all of your leftovers right after Thanksgiving. if you have a ton of leftovers, you can get tired of having turkey rather quickly, and the heavy rich foods associated with Thanksgiving are not always very healthy for your body. Why not spread out the leftovers all year? Thanksgiving turkey and other leftovers can be frozen in convenient packs, meaning that all you have to do when you want a taste of November is heat up the meal. Instead of freezing all of the together, all of the corn together etc, make up plates with single meals. These are great to take with you to work as lunch or to heat up for a child that doesn’t like what you’ve made for dinner. Use your frozen meals in about six months if you choose this option.
Cook extra on Purpose
And hey, no one’s saying that you can’t cook a larger Thanksgiving turkey on purpose! If you like the leftovers that you can make from a turkey or if you want to freeze a number of extra Thanksgiving meals, try cooking a bird twice the size than you’ll actually need for Thanklessness while you’re already taking the time to prepare the larger meal.
Give Turkey away to Others
At the very least, don’t throw your leftover turkey away! Regulations prevent you form donating the meat to the food bank, but if you know of a family in need in your area, then you can offer the leftovers to them, mentioning that you have more than you can use before it spoils. Thanksgiving is a time of sharing the food you have with others, after all, so you can help keep in the spirit with your leftover Thanksgiving turkey.
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