Thanksgiving sides are delicious! They can include stuffing (called dressing when not stuffed in the bird), green beans, carrots, brussels sprouts, cauliflower, and potatoes, along with cranberry sauce. It's what we ate. Although we lacked a crowd dining with us, I wouldn't dream of omitting the Turkey stuffing. This year instead of toasting bread and making a pan of cornbread which would make more stuffing than we desire, I used a box of Stove Top Turkey flavored stuffing combined with a box of Stove Top Cornbread stuffing as a starter then added small amounts of grilled sausage, ham, onion, celery, mushrooms, walnuts, hot pepper flakes and dried sage to it. It came out homemade because all you get in a box of Stove Top are the croutons and seasonings. We still had plenty of stuffing! I know just what to do with our Thanksgiving leftovers:Turkey Pot Pie - Inspired by the recipe off the back of the stuffing box which uses premade and frozen ingredients. We can use our homemade leftovers to make a different meal without really having to cook again!:
Ingredients - already cooked:
2 cups of leftover stuffing - Mine has tons of onion, celery and sausage.
2 cups of turkey, diced (also works with chicken)
1 cup of cauliflower or broccoli, diced
1/2 cup of green beans, bitesize
1/2 cup of carrots, sliced
2 cups leftover gravy
Directions:
Mix the vegetables and gravy in a baking dish. Top with the stuffing. Either reheat it in the oven or microwave. If reheating in the oven, brush the bottom of the dish with cooking spray or butter. Because your food is already cooked, it should only take about 15 minutes to reheat in the oven and less time to reheat in the microwave.
Eyeball the amounts of the ingredients. The above is a guide for making 4 servings. Use more gravy if needed, or other vegetable leftovers if you made them. {During the rest of the year, it works well with either leftover chicken or 3 cans of white chicken chunks, a box of stovetop stuffing, and a 14 oz bag of frozen mixed vegetables. If using boxed stuffing, grill and toss in some diced onions and celery.}
You can also prepare the dish for one. Measure out according to appetite and what fits into your bowl, then reheat the single portion in a microwave in about 3 minutes.
Another leftover we had on Thanksgiving was a bit of an experiment. It's a cherry tart on a digestive biscuit and applesauce crust (as opposed to a gram cracker crust). It has a cinnamon, strudel topping with bourbon-soaked pecans, a few white chocolate chips, dark chocolate chips, and walnuts tossed on top for good measure. (No added sugar in the crust or crumb topping and just enough butter in the topping to get a crumb texture). The only reason I made it was to use a jar of cherries I've had in my pantry for 1 1/2 years. It had to go! I baked it in the oven for about 20 minutes. The tart was sweet from the cherries yet not too sweet to make you feel sick after eating it. Like a healthy cherry Pop Tart!
Do you have a favorite recipe for using your Thanksgiving leftovers?
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