What to do with all the leftover Turkey?!!

First off, this is NOT my turkey!! :)  This is the wishful thinking that a Christmas dinner table would have setting at the head of the table while everyone oos and awes at the beauty of this old bird.  When you see my note from Paula below, you will know mine looks more like a flat bird than a beauty.  I would never serve my turkey  on a platter whole.  But I digress from the purpose of this post...what do I do with all my left over turkey meat??

I did lots of the recipes after Thanksgiving Day because I had lots of turkey meat left over.  This Christmas was the same.  I always seem to have too much food left over after our meal.  The kids were tired of the run of the mill turkey dinner left overs.  I decided to spice it up by changing the turkey into different flavors.

We had Mexican, Italian, and American versions of food using my left over turkey.  Here are some ideas that I created:  Turkey Alfredo, Turkey Enchiladas,Turkey Poc Pie, and barbecue turkey sandwiches.  It is amazing how you can disguise the 'old bird' into a variety of different dinners.  I think I am going to cook a turkey more often and disguise the bird as it was easier to cook one meat dish and spread him around. :)

Don't wastes the turkey bones either!! They can be boiled to make broth.  Be sure to put them cooled broth in 2 cup containers when freezing them.  After they are frozen, transfer them to freezer bags.  You now have a measured 'fresh' broth for future recipes.  Many like to freeze some of the broth in ice cube trays.  You will then have small increments for the recipes that aren't requiring broth but only the flavor.

A funny on our turkey broth....one of my kids was trying to be helpful and put my whole stock pot of broth in the freezer.  Humm...I am going to have to do a major soup fest to use that broth.  Glad they had the heart of helping.  Decided to wait for the next round of bones instead of cooking lots of soup. lol

Note from Paula:  Though late in the game to tell you how I cook my turkey, perhaps you will be inspired like me to cook turkeys more often since it doesn't mean a turkey feast meal every time you cook a turkey.  I put my turkey upside down in the roasting pan.  This means the legs/dark meat is on top.  The dark meat is the moist part of the turkey.  When you cook it upside down, the dark meat stays moist and lets the juices run into the white/dry parts of the turkey.  The normally dry white meat rests in the drippings keeping it moist during the cooking process.

It was rather comical as I listened to my kids talk about my turkey.  They reminisced about all the dried out turkey meat they have eaten at others homes and were glad to be back to 'real home cooking!'

Here are links to the chicken variety of the recipes I used the turkey meat for:

Chicken Alfredo:  http://paulasbread.blogspot.com/2011/08/healthy-chicken-alfredo.html
I didn't saute the meat but simply mixed the turkey meat with the noodles.

Chicken Enchiladas:  http://paulasbread.blogspot.com/2011/09/easy-chicken-enchiladas.html

Chicken Pock Pie:  http://paulasbread.blogspot.com/2011/08/easy-home-made-chicken-pock-pie.html