One of the best things about a Thanksgiving meal is the leftovers. Seriously. I've told you that I am basically famous in my family for not letting food go to waste, and Thanksgiving is pretty much my Superbowl. When I build meal plans for clients, I even include leftovers so they get the most bang for their buck after buying high quality ingredients for the recipes I include. Every once in awhile I talk to someone who says, "We hate leftovers, I just toss whatever is left," and so I have developed some Leftover Guidelines to help convert them. ; ) Here's what I know.
Leftovers make new dishes faster and more delicious. Have you ever wondered why restaurants will have a soup of the day, and why steakhouses always have potato soup on the menu? It's because they might not always sell all the baked potatoes they have prepared, and soup is an excellent way to make them delicious. They don't have to spend the time actually cooking the potatoes, because that part is already done! Carrots that have already been washed, peeled, and chopped are ready to toss into a broth or stir fry. If you cook double the amount of ground beef you need, you only have one mess to clean up, and you've saved time later for another dish.
Using your leftovers will save you money. You aren't throwing perfectly edible food in the trashcan, so you're getting your money's worth that way, for one thing. Also, in the second level of leftover use, you can even save money by using scraps for things like broth. If you wash the veggies before you peel and chop them, you can boil those inedible scraps like broccoli stems, carrot peels, garlic peels, green bean tips, herb stems, and celery bases in water, then remove the solids and use that homemade veggie broth in all kinds of recipes for added flavor and nutrition without even going to the grocery store. Make a big pot of it and freeze it in one-use sized containers and you'll always have it ready for soup or rice or risotto.
For those who hate leftovers, be creative. Your family is much more likely to be open to leftovers if they don't actually know that's what they are eating. Don't recreate the same meal as the original-- turn it into something else. From your original meal of chicken, mashed potatoes, and green beans, use the leftover chicken in tacos or quesadillas by adding taco seasoning, a can of rinsed black beans and a little salsa to a saucepan to reheat it. (And mashed potatoes can be added to stuffing ingredients for stuffed bell peppers, or added to a chicken soup or chili to make it a little more hearty.) The further from the original, the less it feels like leftovers.
So, using these guidelines, you can use leftover turkey as filling for enchiladas, turkey pot pie, or paninis. Use your leftover veggies in your pot pie, or make a soup. Bonus points if you saved your turkey bones and veggies scraps and made a turkey broth to use for your soup base! ; ) Leftover Thanksgiving dressing basically always tastes like what it is, so pack it well and toss it in the freezer. When it sounds good to you again, pull it out and serve it with a grocery store rotisserie chicken.
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