Slow Cooker Turmeric Turkey Noodle Soup

I know I've said this numerous times, but I'm a soup-year-round kinda gal. But that doesn't stop me from appreciating, eating, and making even more soup during January, which has been designated National Soup Month.

25 Ways to Use Up your Thanksgiving Leftovers!

Thanksgiving week has finally arrived! I've had such a delicious time sharing Thanksgiving recipes and recipe roundups with you this month, and I hope that you've found some inspiration on the pages. I have a couple more recipes coming up between now and Thursday, so don't forget to check back!

Today I'm sharing some ideas for ways to use up those leftovers, because let's admit it—sometimes the leftovers are more enjoyable than the meal itself when it comes to Thanksgiving. If you're anything like me, you actually plan for leftovers by cooking a little extra of a few choice menu items. So, here's to a successful week of planning, prepping, cooking, and gathering. Happy Thanksgiving!

Turkey and Wild Rice Soup

When I was a kid, I used to pray that it wouldn't snow before my birthday. Since my birthday falls three days after Halloween, an evening of being able to wear costumes unhindered was automatically covered in that prayer. Sometimes my prayers were answered, sometimes they weren't. It was a crapshoot.

Fast-forward 30 years, and we're lucky if it snows before mid-January. Yes, there's usually one really big, foreboding blast during the first half of November that fools us into unearthing every spare pair of gloves, hat, and scarf we had packed away—but it fades into a distant memory long before lights start twinkling from every other house on the street. I can't remember our last white Christmas. And as far as I'm concerned, once Christmas is over, I'm done with snow. Oh how my younger, largest-snowy-hill-in-the-neighborhood-seeking self would be disappointed in me.

My point really being that it's now January 2nd, and instead of peering out the window to a white blanket that envelops our street in a hush, I see lawns mottled with patches of brown. But those gloves are definitely getting their use, as it is cold as all get-out. Which means that I pretty much want a big pot of soup simmering on the stove on a daily basis.

Herbed Turkey over Cornbread Waffles w/ Cranberry Sauce

I like Thanksgiving leftovers almost as much as I like the meal itself. It actually makes me a leeeetle bit frustrated if there's nothing left for later that night AND the next day. That is exactly why I make extra. Of everything. For example, even if I'm roasting a whole turkey, I put an extra breast in the crockpot. I always make a double batch of cranberry sauce. And one pie? Oh no, I make at least three pies or other dessert offerings—but mostly pie.

I know this sounds boring, but my absolute favorite way to eat leftover turkey is simply piled on white bread and sprinkled with salt for a sandwich that sticks both to the roof of my mouth and to the insides of my throat and chest as it goes down. I swear, but that's exactly the way I like it. Hanger ensues if I don't eat at least one of those sandwiches yearly.

But I also like more creatively re-purposed leftovers. For example, a Turkey Manhattan (an open-faced sandwich with turkey, mashed potatoes, and gravy) is probably second on the must-have Thanksgiving leftovers scale. I also always throw a couple of extra sweet potatoes in the oven alongside whatever is roasting for the sole purpose of eating these Cranberry-Barbecue Turkey Stuffed Sweet Potatoes later on. Turkey Tetrazzini and Cranberry Sauce Crumb Bars are a couple more of my family's favorite uses for leftovers.

Cranberry-Barbecue Turkey stuffed Sweet Potatoes {Thanksgiving Leftovers}

I always have tons of plans to make this dish or that dish with our Thanksgiving leftovers.  In my mind there are a few days worth of meals.  In reality, people get grouchy if I "take away" too much of their sandwich turkey.  And I get it.  I think that my favorite thing to do with leftover turkey is to pile it on white bread and sprinkle it with salt.  No more.  No less.  Turkey, salt, bread - thank you very much.

That said, I have a whole 'nother turkey or two's worth of things that I dream of one day doing with that leftover turkey.  The other leftovers go fairly fast as simple re-heats, as well...but it's always the turkey that disappears first.  So I set aside enough to make two "leftover" dishes with this year.  The first of which was this one.

This past Sunday, the #SundaySupper gang brought you a long list of turkey day leftover options.  I bookmarked and pinned a bunch.  But when I laid eyes on one by Brianne of Cupcakes & Kale Chips, it immediately ingrained itself on the top of the list in my head.  A dish that just HAD to be made.  And I'm here to tell you - so happy that I did!

I stuck to her basic method...just tweaked a teensy bit.  I left out the cheese. What!?  I know.  Weird for a cheeseslut to do such a thing, but I did.  I used this cranberry sauce.  I haven't yet blogged about the turkey or the stuffing I used...but let me tell you that cornbread stuffing WITH bacon (like I made this year) is THE PERFECT thing to top this stuffed potato off.  Those little smoky bits of bacon are the perfect compliment.

So, if you've got some leftovers that you want to use up - you should totally give this a go.  And heck, I think pulled pork in place of turkey would be a fabulous option, as well.  Thanks so much for this inspiration, Brianne!

Cranberry-Barbecue Turkey stuffed Sweet Potatoes

by Heather Schmitt-González

Prep Time: 10 minutes

Cook Time: 45-60 minutes

Keywords: roast entree sweet potatoes turkey cranberries Thanksgiving American fall

Ingredients (serves 2)

• 2 sweet potatoes
• melted butter or olive oil
• sea salt or kosher salt
• freshly ground black pepper
• ¼ c. leftover cranberry sauce
• ¼ c. barbecue sauce
• 1 c. leftover cooked turkey, shredded or chopped
• ¼ c. leftover cornbread stuffing

Instructions

Preheat oven to 450°F.

Poke sweet potatoes all over with a fork. Lightly rub sweet potatoes with melted butter or olive oil and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Set on a parchment or foil-lined baking sheet and slide into preheated oven; bake for ~45 minutes, or until cooked through.

In the meantime, combine the cranberry sauce and barbecue sauce in a small saucepan over medium-high heat and bring to a boil. Reduce heat to low and allow to simmer for a minute or two, just to combine the flavors and textures of the two sauces. Stir the turkey into the sauce and let bubble for a couple more minutes to heat the turkey through.

Slice the potatoes lengthwise, leaving ~½" on the bottom uncut. Set them back on the baking sheet or in a baking dish and spread them open; rake your fork through the insides and mash it up a bit . Divide the turkey mixture evenly among the potatoes and then top with the stuffing. Slide back into oven for 5 minutes or so, just to heat the stuffing through and get a little color on it.

Enjoy!

adapted from Cupcakes & Kale Chips

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Cranberry Sauce Crumb Bars

I don't know about you, but I cook extra of everything at Thanksgiving for the sole purpose of having leftovers.  I consider leftovers as essential as the meal itself.

It's funny how Thanksgiving is a process.  A month to two months in advance I start snatching up food magazines featuring beautifully burnished turkeys, jewel-toned cranberry sauce,  fluffy dinner rolls, and plethora of winter squash in its many shapes and colors of Autumn from the shelves.  Then I pull out my "Thanksgiving box".  Yes, I have a box.  Within that box lies years of October/November back issues of magazines.  It also contains books centered around Thanksgiving.  And a binder packed full of both tried-and-true recipes and stray clippings of ones that may one day make it to the table.  There are even some old school art projects and crafts like hand-turkeys, toilet-paper-roll pilgrims, and construction paper headdresses.  I love that box.

So I comb through the recipes and form a haphazard stack of what I might want to see on my table that particular year.  Next comes a sheet of notebook paper.  It gets labels: Turkey and Gravy, Sides (which include potatoes, sweet potatoes, other veggie, applesauce, cranberry sauce, and stuffing...oh, and salad which I always forget and add on at the last minute, but more about that tomorrow), Breads, Desserts, Drinks, and Leftovers.  Then that haphazard pile I mentioned?  It gets combed through and matched up.  Sometimes a few lines on the paper are left blank...so I can fill them in later with something I've seen on a blog or pinterest or a website or tv...you get get my drift.  But the recipes that did make that years list?  They get paper-clipped to the sheet of notebook paper (or stacked under it if they're in a magazine or book).

Next comes the timeline.  I won't go into specifics...it changes with the menu.  But yes, I write it all out on another sheet of paper.  The week is a madhouse.  A flurry of knives and baggies and brines and stove-time.  A week of telling the family to fend for themselves...I mean, come on, I'm preparing for a feast people!

And then the day comes.  Husband carrying in long table from garage.  Kids playing board games and begging for "just a little bowl" of applesauce.  The master of timing working her magic in the kitchen {ahem}.  Football on the tube.  And finally - enjoying the meal with my loved ones.  Thanksgiving IS my favorite holiday.

But after all that work, there's no way in holy heck that it should all end with that one meal.  Oh no.  Leftovers better follow or this girl gets grouchy.  I want a cold turkey sandwich scattered with salt as a midnight snack that night.  I want a Turkey Manhattan for lunch the next day.  I want a turkey pot pie.  I want a colorful, towering leftover sandwich for dinner the next night.  I want sweet potato burritos for breakfast the day after.  And I definitely want to pry the bowl of cold cranberry sauce from my cranberry sauce-obsessed daughter's hands turn the leftover cranberry sauce into these amazing, jammy bars that double as dessert and breakfast.

Don't you?

Cranberry Sauce Crumb Bars

by Heather Schmitt-González

Prep Time: 10-15 minutes

Cook Time: 65 minutes (divided)

Keywords: bake dessert vegetarian soy-free cranberries Thanksgiving bars American fall winter

Ingredients (2 dozen)

• 1 1/4 cups rolled oats
• 1 cup unbleached all-purpose flour
• 3/4 cup firmly packed brown sugar
• 2/3 cup whole wheat flour
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoons fine sea salt
• 13 tablespoons  cold, unsalted butter, cut into smallish cubes (+ some soft butter for pan)
• 1 cup toasted, coarsely chopped pecans
• 1 1/2 cups homemade cranberry sauce

Instructions

Preheat oven to 350° F. Place rack in center. Line a 13x9 baking pan with foil, letting it hang over both edges, and butter the foil and pan.

Stir together the oats, both flours, brown sugar, cinnamon, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in a large bowl. Work in the butter with your fingertips until well combined and crumbly. You could also do this in a mixer, using the paddle attachment. Toss in the pecans. Press half of the crumb mixture firmly into the bottom of the prepared pan.

Bake for ~20 minutes, or until the mixture starts turning golden. Remove from oven and spread the cranberry sauce over the bottom layer. Sprinkle the remaining crumb mixture over the top, pressing gently, just to help it adhere to the cranberry sauce.

Slide back into the oven and bake until the edges turn golden and feeling is set, ~45 minutes. Transfer to a wire rack to cool.

Run a thin-bladed knife around the inside of the pan to loosen the edges and then lift the whole thing out using the extra foil as handles. Cut into 24 bars.

notes:

This works with any sweet or sweet/tart cranberry sauce...I'd stay away from those made with savory ingredients like garlic and onions. It would be great with this one or this one or even this one.

slightly adapted from Baking For Friends