Thanksgiving Leftover Ideas + Flemings Giveaway!

The fact that I'm writing this post while 39 weeks pregnant and literally will be wearing maternity pants on Thanksgiving (if I'm not actually in labor) this GIF could not be more appropriate. 

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If you're anything like me though, the meal is great... but the leftovers are even better! I am constantly concocting new creations every year with our leftovers but this year I received a little bit of help from my friends at Fleming's Steakhouse. 

Executive Chef Russell Skall shared some of his great Thanksgiving Leftover recipes with me, here's my favorite that will be added to the repertoire for sure! 

                                            Roasted Turkey Crepes

Filling Ingredients: 4 servings

2 Lbs. Turkey meat white & dark                 

3 oz. wt. Onion, 1/4” wide x 2” long julienne

6 oz. wt. Red pepper, 1/4” dice 

4 oz. Button Mushrooms, 1/4" wide slices

1/4 lb. Butter

1/4 lb. Flour

1 tsp. Kosher salt

1/2 tsp. White pepper

3 cups Turkey gravy or Chicken stock           

2 cups Half & half 

               

Filling Preparation Instructions:

Remove the skin on the turkey then cut into 1/4" wide x 1 1/2"-2"

long julienne strips. 

Remove the seeds and stem on the red pepper then cut the onion & pepper

into julienne pieces.

Cut the mushrooms with the stems into 1/4" wide slices.

Melt the butter in a 1-gallon sauce pot set on high heat.  Add all of the

vegetables and sauté for 5-6 minutes. 

Add the flour and cook for 2 minutes.

Reduce the heat to medium then add 1 cup of water, salt and

pepper then cook for 1-2 minutes stirring often until very thick. 

Add the turkey gravy or chicken stock, half & half and 

cook for 4-5 minutes to a slightly thick sauce consistency.

Add the turkey meat and cook for 2 minute. Place the mixture on a sheet pan to cool.

Mornay Sauce Ingredients: 4 servings

1 oz. Butter

1 oz. Onion minced

1 clove Garlic minced

1/2 cup White wine

2 1/2 cups heavy cream

1/2 tsp. Tabasco       

1/4 tsp. White pepper

1/4 tsp. Kosher salt

3 Tbsp. Grated parmesan cheese

Mornay Sauce Preparation Instructions:

Melt butter in a 1-quart sauce pot on medium heat. Add onions and

garlic then sauté for 2-3 minutes.

Add the white wine and cook to reduce by half.

Add the heavy cream, Tabasco, white pepper and

salt.  Cook on medium high heat to a sauce consistency about

8-10 minutes.  Add the grated parmesan cheese and blend in

with a wire whip.

Strain the sauce into a storage container.

Plating Instructions:

Ingredients: 4 servings

8 ea. Crepes local store                   40 oz. wt. Turkey filling

As needed Pan coating                     2 cups Mornay sauce

1 Tbsp. chopped fresh herbs

Place the brown side of the crepes face down on a table. 

Weight out 5oz. of the cold turkey filling and place lengthwise in the center of each crepe.

 Roll up the crepes and set on a sheet pan sprayed with pan coating.  

Bake in a 350° oven for 10 minutes to an internal temperature of 160°.  

Place 2 crepes side by side on each plate.

 Ladle 2 oz. Mornay sauce over the top of the crepes. Garnish with chopped herbs.

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After all that cooking, you may not want to get behind the stove for awhile so why not enter my giveaway for your chance to win a $100 Fleming's gift card! Just leave a comment below or on Facebook with what you like to do with your Thanksgiving leftovers and I'll pick a winner over the weekend! (baring I don't go into a labor!)

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!! 

Easy Chicken Pad Thai

Last night I was beyond exhausted (still catching up from the crazy weekend) and if you can believe it, I really didn't feel like cooking. The night before I had made some Ginger Chicken Wontons and I had quite a bit of the filling left over (see how to make the filling here) so I decided that I was going to create one of my famous "Dinner Do-Overs" and turn it into Pad Thai. You don't have to use leftovers for this though, you can make this same dish with chopped up chicken breast!

I decided to use Nasoya's Pasta Zero for this recipe because after looking at the back of the package and seeing I could eat the whole bag for 40 calories... I was sold.

Ingredients

2 Chicken breasts, ground or chopped

1 Egg, scrambled

1 tbsp peanut butter (I used Magee's)

1 tbsp soy sauce

water

honey

a dash of sweet chili sauce (optional)

frozen edamame

green onions

Thanksgiving Dinner "Do-Over"

I’m sure by now everyone has their Thanksgiving menus finalized. Grandma’s bringing the pie, Auntie is bringing the rolls and your crazy cousin is bringing his latest flame, right? If you lucked out and you’re hosting the big feast, there’s one perk that easily gets overlooked. YOU GET ALL THE LEFTOVERS!!!

Since I’m the queen of “Dinner Do-Overs”, Thanksgiving is like my Super Bowl! I spend all year thinking up new and exciting ways to re-use those traditional dishes for the next few weeks because let’s face it, turkey sandwiches can only take you so far.

Kasey’s Top 10 Thanksgiving Dinner Do-Over Dishes:

1. The Thanksgiving Sandwich - This is obviously the staple, and not gonna lie, my favorite. Layering turkey, stuffing, cranberry sauce in between two slices of honey oat or potato bread with a light spread of mayo... well honestly, that’s just heaven!  

2. Thanksgiving Pie - This dish utilizes almost everything from your feast! Get a store bought pie crust, lay it into a pie dish and bake for 15min to get it golden. Now layer in your turkey, cranberry sauce, green beans and a little gravy. Top it off with stuffing or mashed potatoes and bake for 25 minutes. YUM!

3. Butternut Squash Soup - Have some leftover roasted butternut squash? Throw it into a food processor with a little heavy cream or milk. Heat, serve, and you’re good to go!

4. Gnocchi - You can see the full recipe here but basically all you do is take those leftover mashed potatoes (sweet potatoes work too sans marshmallows) and combine them with an egg and some flour and you’re good to go!

5. Pumpkin Ravioli - Now this is a new one that I was pleasantly surprised with! Did you know that you can scoop out the filling of pumpkin pie and use it for pumpkin ravioli!? Guess what, now you do! Scoop spoonfuls of filling onto pre-made ravioli sheets (use Nasoya’s wonton wrappers for a quick fix). Boil water in a deep pan (not pot) and drop filled ravioli into the water and cook for about 5 minutes. Top with a brown butter sage sauce or a sweet white wine sauce. YUM!

6. Pilgrim’s Pie - A spin on Shepard’s Pie but using your T-Day ingredients. In a glass casserole dish, layer chopped turkey, a little gravy, corn and mashed potatoes. Throw it in the oven, bake and serve!

7. Turkey Stock - This is an obvious choice no doubt, but it’s still a staple. When everyone is in a food coma after dinner, remove all the meat from the turkey and place the carcass in a large stock pot with a stick of celery, a cut-up carrot, half of an onion and a bay leaf. Fill ¾ of the way with water and let simmer for at least an hour. Strain the stock and let cool. Once it’s done, put the stock in ice trays and freeze, then throw them in a labled plastic baggy. Now you’ll have stock year round to help flavor many dishes!

8. Turkey Soup - So remember that stock you just made? It’s time to use it! Add lots of carrots, celery, and onion into a stock pot and saute with a little oil. Add in your stock and some of the leftover turkey meat. Cook up some noodles or rice on the side (prevents soggy noodles) and serve together. Talk about comfort food!

9. Turkey Tertrazzini - I’m going to be honest with you... this one isn’t my favorite, but I know of a lot of people who make this one with leftovers, so I figured I’d share. Basically what you do is mix in a can of cream of mushroom soup with turkey, pour that over cooked noodles in a casserole dish, top with breadcrumbs and bake it up.

10. Ginger Carrot Soup - This is the newest of the bunch and I’m super pumped about it! If you make glazed carrots this recipe is the perfect “do-over”. Puree the glazed carrots, juices and all with 1 tbsp of fresh ginger. Add in a little vegetable stock if it’s too thick. Heat it up and serve! So good!

Hope everyone has an amazing holiday with their family and friends! Share your Thanksgiving food pics over on the Facebook page too! www.facebook.com/kaseyskitchen

Dinner Do-Over : Meat Sauce into Chili

With all these yummy recipes I've been dishing out for you guys, the leftovers in my fridge have been piling up! I always seem to make way more than me and The Mr. can eat. I am not one to waste food so I've come up with a few ways to take one dish and roll it over into a bunch of yummy "Dinner Do-Overs".

Dinner One: Pasta with Meat Sauce

What You Need:
1 lb ground turkey
1 carrot, peeled
1/2 onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic, grated
olive oil
1/2 jar favorite tomato sauce (Or use my recipe Garlic Tomato Sauce recipe here)

What You Do:
Drizzle olive oil in pan add in chopped onion and grate in the garlic. Let that saute a bit then grate in 1 whole carrot.

Add in the ground turkey and allow it to brown (feel free to use Worcestershire Sauce or Gravy Master to "beef" it up).

Once the turkey has cooked out, drain your pan. There may be a lot of liquid and we want to get rid of that.

Add in your tomato sauce and let simmer on a very low heat to let the flavors meld. You want the sauce to be very thick. Think... Sloppy Joe.

Cook your favorite pasta to al dente and serve. My favorite for this was Barilla linguini, it actually has ridges in the pasta to hold sauce. Brilliant! 

Dinner Two: Turkey Chili

What You Need:
Left over meat sauce
1 can of red kidney beans, rinsed and drained
1 can of black beans, rinsed and drained
1/2 onion, chopped
red and yellow peppers, chopped
crushed red pepper (the wet one in a jar)
cayenne pepper
chili powder
2 tbsp brown sugar 

What You Do:
Drizzle a little oil in a large pot or dutch oven. 

Add in onions, peppers and beans to the heated oil and saute. At this time add in a few shakes of cayenne and chili powder and the crushed red pepper. Add as much of those 3 ingredients as you want depending on how hot you like it!

Stir in the meat sauce from the other night along with two tablespoons of brown sugar. This will give it a great "sweet and spicy" flavor. Cover, remove from heat and let rest for 5-10 minutes. 

If you'd like, top with cheese and pop it into the broiler. Or top with a dollop of plain Greek yogurt (sour cream substitute) and chopped green onion. 


*Bonus: Still have some leftover chili? Layer a baking dish with cream cheese, chili and shredded cheese, bake for 20 minutes and you have a crazy good dip for the big game on Sunday!



 

Butternut Squash Puree In a Pinch

Thicker than soup but I won't stop you from just eating it out of a bowl with a spoon! 

What You Need:

2 cups of Butternut Squash (boiled and drained)
Splash of Vegetable Stock
Brown Sugar, about a 2 tbsp
Sea Salt
Sprinkle of Cinnamon

What You Do:

Throw it in a blender and you're ready to rock! Fool-proof!

*I topped this one with some left over pulled pork... OMG - Heavenly! 

Dinner Do-Over: Cowboy Pie

So believe it or not this idea was inspired by my husband... the meat and potatoes ONLY guy.
 I had made a batch of my pulled pork along with some cornbread bread pudding and while I was eating them together he said, "You could make it like Shepherd's Pie". LIGHTBULB! Brilliant! So here it is, a Kasey's Kitchen "Dinner Do-Over",  Cowboy Pie!

Ingredients:
2-3 cups of left over Pulled Pork
1 can of baked beans (any flavor)
1 pkg of corn muffin mix
1 c shredded cheddar cheese (optional)

Preparation:
Preheat oven to 350

In a baking dish, put down a layer of pulled pork.

Pour the can of beans over to pork to create the next layer.

Pour the corn muffin batter over the bean layer.

Bake for 12-15 minutes until muffin mix is golden brown. 

Enjoy!

Don't forget to leave a comment and let me know what you think!