My mom was my very first cooking inspiration. Like most little girls, as soon as I was old enough to stir, I loved helping her in the kitchen. She taught me so much of what I know about cooking and keeping a home. One of her biggest lessons in the kitchen is to use every part of the food. Nothing went to waste in our house. We never threw out food. I hated this as a kid, because what kid actually likes leftovers? But now that I have my own home, I get a huge kick out of how many meals I can get out all the leftovers. Thanksgiving dinner is the perfect example of this! So, since I cooked Thanksgiving this year for my parents, I decided to find out how many meals you can out of one turkey. And I'm shocked!
Meal 1:
Thanksgiving
-served 4 people
Meal 2:
Thanksgiving Sandwiches for lunch the next day
-served 4 people
Meal 3:
Second Thanksgiving- just basic leftovers
-served 2 people
Meal 4:
Turkey, vegetable, and mash potato soup
-served 2 people (with 4 servings put into the freezer for when we aren't sick of turkey)
*This is where I really feel like I'm using the whole bird. I boil down the turkey carcass and make stock first. I make sure to get all the meat off the bones after boiling and put it in the soup, and save some meat for future sandwiches. After I make the stock, I add whatever vegetables I have in the fridge, carrots, onion, celery, corn, mashed potatoes, and I even made a mistake that turned out great...I accidentally added pumpkin pie goo thinking it was leftover gravy! I thought that I was going to ruin the soup, but instead, it added a nice hint of pumpkin and nutmeg to a basic turkey vegetable soup.*
Meal 5: Pre-work Turkey sandwiches
-served 2 people
So far...I've gotten 18 meals out of ONE turkey! And I might even have a couple more in there somewhere. So, all I have to say, is Thanks Mom for teaching me how to use everything!
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