Thanksgiving Leftover Turkey Salad

What You Need:

 

4 C lettuce, torn into bite size pieces
4 C watercress
12 oz. turkey, cut into strips
2 Gala apples, cored and cut into slices
1/2 C pecans, toasted
4 oz. blue cheese, crumbled
1/4 C olive oil
1/4 C cider vinegar
2 tsp. Dijon mustard
1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. pepper

How to Make It:

 

Place the torn lettuce into a large mixing bowl.

Add the watercress and toss.

Place the turkey and apples into the bowl.

Add the pecans and cheese and toss to thoroughly mix together.

In a separate bowl whisk the oil and vinegar together well.

Add the mustard and stir to incorporate.

Sprinkle in the salt and pepper and stir to combine.

Pour the dressing over the salad mixture and toss making sure all the salad ingredients are covered well.

Serve right away.

 

Serves 8

 

This salad can be made with leftover Thanksgiving turkey for a chance of pace from the normal turkey style leftovers.

Jazzing Up Leftovers

by Christine Steendahl

Most refrigerators are packed with leftovers. While a lot of us hate to let food go to waste, the only alternative is to reuse food we didn’t finish a few days ago and prepare dinner out of leftovers. While leftovers were once a tasty meal, sadly, to many family members they are no longer appealing. Fear not, with just a few tricks, you can create tasty meals once again simply by utilizing leftovers. Following are some hints.

Mix Your Leftover Meat Dishes with Fresh Pasta
One way to recreate a great meal from your leftovers is to blend it with fresh ingredients. In this example, pasta works good with many different beef and chicken dishes. Use thin spaghetti, wide noodles, wagon wheels, spirals, you name it with your meat leftovers. Add gravy, ketchup, tomato sauce or even chili to to turn an ordinary dish into an extraordinary dish.

Vegetable Dishes with Rice- Twice as Nice
If you have leftover vegetable dishes that you would like to reuse, one of the greatest ways to do so is to prepare it with rice. Whether you choose white or brown rice, you can prepare an awesome vegetable dish and make it into an entirely new meal. Usually with vegetables, you have little opportunity to reuse them as leftover before they become mushy. Try to keep them crisp and fresh.

Create Soups with Leftovers
If you are stuck with a few meals in your refrigerator and you don’t know exactly what to do with them, you can always toss them into a pot and prepare delicious soup. Whether it is chicken, turkey, hamburger meat or beef, making flavorful soup out of leftovers makes sense and also is quite great.

Preparing soups using leftover is extremely painless. You can pretty much add in any sliced meat and chopped vegetable into some broth or cream to create a great tasting soup. Even old bread can be useful.

Use Leftover Fruit for Fruit Smoothies
Generally, many houses will have a couple leftover apples, oranges or bananas in their refrigerator. While the odd piece of fruit is not necessarily a leftover, practically all fruit can be utilized to prepare delicious fruit smoothies. Fruit smoothies are easily prepared with some milk, yogurt, fruit and a blender. Not only are they healthy, but perfect for a treat or even breakfast. Fruit smoothies are ideal for leftover fruit or even slightly over ripen fruit. Mixed with many other ingredients, they still taste good and won’t go unused.

The next time you search deep into your refrigerator and see all the meals from the past week, don’t panic, use them to prepare new meals, soups and even savory desserts.

Author Resource – For delicious family friendly dinner recipes visit www.dinewithoutwhine.com

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Delicious Turkey and Apple Bake

Ingredients:

1/4 cup chopped onion
1Tbsp butter or margarine
2 (10.75 ounce) cans condensed cream of chicken soup, undiluted
3 cups cubed cooked turkey
1 large unpeeled tart apples, cubed
1/3 cup golden raisins
1 tsp lemon juice
1/4 tsp ground nutmeg
1 (9 inch) pie crust
 
Instructions:

Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Over medium heat melt butter in a saucepan.  Add onion and sauté until translucent. Mix in the soup, turkey, apples, raisins, lemon juice and nutmeg.  Be sure to mix all ingredients together well.  Heat until just heated through. In a large ungreased baking dish place soup mixture.  Roll out pie crust on a floured surface. Place rolled pie crust over top of soup mixture being sure to tuck sides of pie crust down sides of dish.  Cut slits in top of crust to allow steam to escape.  Place in oven for 30 to 35 minutes or until top is brown. 

Christmas Dinner Tips

Every family has its favorite dishes for the holidays, traditions that have been passed down year after year.  Maybe it is time to spice things up and introduce some new recipes or at least make some variations to some favorites.  It’s a good idea to incorporate family favorites from your spouse’s family (if you can get them to share the recipes), especially if you can’t get together with that side of the family. Here are a few different ideas to help you find your own groove this holiday season.

Appetizers – Why not have a few appetizers set out, so people can snack while dinner is finishing up?  Set out some healthy things to munch on, like fruit and veggies or cheese and crackers.  It’s easy to set up a nice tray; even just a foil lined pizza pan covered in clear plastic with Christmas designs on it can dress up the table.

Side Dishes – Tired of the same old stuffing or mashed potatoes?  Try some souped up stuffing.  Take some precooked chicken (or left over turkey from Thanksgiving), picked off the bone and then mix that with your favorite cream soup (chicken, mushroom or celery) and some sour cream, top with stuffing, add a little water and bake according to the directions on the stuffing box.

Other side dishes can feature different vegetables, noodles or potatoes. You could also have some fruit side dishes, like baked apples.  If it’s a family gathering where everyone brings a different dish, then try out that recipe you’ve been wanting to make but haven’t.

Main Dishes – While a ham or turkey may be traditional for Christmas dinner, how about a roast?  It’s simple to cook a nice, moist roast using a slow cooker.  Place the meat in the slow cooker, add some broth or au jus, some favorite spices and let it cook while you are enjoying the family.  Add some vegetables; simply select ones that cook well in the slow cooker and there is one less dish to make.

Desserts – Everybody loves desserts, especially at the holidays. We tend to overindulge in them.  Try to find some desserts that are still delicious, yet a little less filling. Gelatin, especially if you make red or green, is always a hit around the holidays. Add fruit or make it into squares or even fun shapes with cookie cutters.

Instead of having very heavy desserts try having an angel food cake. Adding red and green candy or sugar sprinkles gives it a festive look.  Have a variety of bite-size desserts, such as mints, chocolate covered nuts or peanut butter balls.  This will give guests a variety and help curb the need to overindulge as well.

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Quick and Cool Meals—don’t slave over a Hot Stove When the Weather is Hot

When it gets warm outside, no one wants to stay in the kitchen.  Also, the heat diminishes the appetite for heavy foods.  Give that stove a rest and turn to lighter meals that are quick and easy.

During the spring and summer, farmer’s markets and grocery stores are teeming with fresh fruits and vegetables.  Fruits and veggies are simple yet healthy foods.  Most need little preparation to make them yummy.

Use these items to fashion meals for your family.  Very little prep time is involved and everyone gets a cool treat.  Use spices to add zest to the meal instead of heavy sauces and marinades.

Salads are big when the weather is warm.  Lettuce comes in a variety of shapes and tastes.  It can be used as a base or as a part of the salad.

If lettuce is an integral part of your salad, don’t drown the taste with too much salad dressing.  Purchase or make your own oil and vinegar dressing for salads.  Oil and vinegar gives a light taste and you can add spices to the dressing for different flavors.

Lettuce can also be a platform from which to build another type of salad.  Macaroni, chicken, turkey, shrimp, and potato salads are popular meal ideas when it gets hot.  The salads include meat, vegetables, and starch for a complete meal.

Most meats can be purchased already cooked.  For potato salad, you can buy it from the store or boil the potatoes yourself.  If you choose to boil them, make sure that you boil enough for several salads.

Macaroni salad is a lunch (with fruit) or dinner (alone) choice that is filling.  Begin by boiling the macaroni, depending on the size of your family, six to eight cups of macaroni should be enough for a large salad.  While the macaroni cooks, chop up boiled eggs and drain two cans of chunk tuna in water.  Boiled eggs are another food that can be prepared in advance and stored in the refrigerator
until you need them.

If you like onions, mince a half to a whole medium onion.  Set all of these things aside.  When the macaroni is cooled, add the chopped eggs, onions, tuna, and relish to the macaroni.  Finally, add a cup of mayonnaise (can use light or fat free) and half a cup of mustard to the bowl.  Mix thoroughly and chill.

Good meals don’t have to be made in a hot kitchen using the oven.  Ingredients for quick meals are as close as your grocery store and take little time to prepare.  Your family will be happy, healthy, and asking for more.

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