Your belly is stuffed after a great turkey day with the family. And with all that shopping you may be doing, the last thing you want to do is plan another meal, right? Instead of just having another plate of turkey dinner using those leftovers, I have a few ways to repurpose the food into something totally different and great!
I’m going to show you how to reuse turkey, mashed potatoes, and cranberry sauce. {Don’t worry – it’s not all in the same dish!}
First, turkey.
{It’s worth noting :: even if you don’t have leftover turkey, I recommend going to the grocery store RIGHT NOW and buying a turkey. They are as cheap as they are going to get for the entire year, and you can use turkey in a TON of dishes!}
Turkey Salad
What you need ::
Turkey {dark and light pieces will do}
1/4 cup diced celery
1/4 cup red grapes
2 boiled eggs {diced}
1/4 cup toasted pecans
1/4 cup low fat mayo
paprika {a few shakes}
salt and pepper to taste
Directions ::
Chop up about 2 cups of turkey. Mix in boiled eggs, celery, grapes, and mayo. {You could also use greek yogurt.} Add a few shakes of paprika and salt and pepper to taste. Enjoy!
Cranberry Sauce Banana bread
{Okay, here’s the deal with banana bread. I make it all the time. These are the measurements below, but you can adjust this to what you have.}
What you need ::
3-4 very ripe bananas
1/2 cup applesauce {or butter}
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar
2 cups all purpose flour
1/2 cup cranberry sauce
2 eggs
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
optional items I also included :: handful of chopped pecans, 2 tablespoons of ground flaxseed
Directions ::
Mash bananas and combine with the leftover cranberry sauce. Mix together sugars and applesauce to make a nice cream. Add in flour, baking soda, vanilla, and eggs. Pour ingredients into a greased 9×5 inch pan. Bake at 350 degrees, for 45 minutes to 1 hour. Yum!!!
Mashed Potato Pancakes
What you need ::
3 cups mashed potatoes
1 egg
1/2 cup cheddar cheese
salt and pepper to taste
butter
optional :: chives
Directions ::
Combine the potatoes, egg, cheese, and salt and pepper in a bowl. Melt a few tablespoons of butter in a pan. Shape the potatoes in pancake sized circles and place on the melted butter in the pan. This should take about 3 minutes to cook on each side. The outside should be crispy and buttery…great combo for a breakfast side dish or even to compliment your turkey salad sandwich!
Do you have creative ways to reuse leftovers? Send us your ideas too!