Great news, everybody! The answer is yes. I don’t know about you, but I have a gallon freezer bag full of turkey and it’s already been 5 days since the actual holiday.
I will admit that I love Thanksgiving meals in all their glory, so I have been enjoying making mini-sandwiches with turkey and ALL the sides. I have also made the regular repeat plates of the actual dinner but I figured it was time to come up with some better ideas for the rest of the week.
Below are three healthy ideas of what to do with your turkey leftovers.
- Turkey salad: like chicken salad but with turkey and no mayo…that’s right! Take about a cup of shredded turkey and mix it with half and avocado, add a little salt, and lemon juice. I also added cranberry relish to mine but you can use regular cranberry sauce or nothing at all. I ate it in a bowl with raisin fig crackers from Trader Joe’s.
Monday lunch!
2. Arroz con pavo (turkey with rice): in Argentina we make arroz con pollo (chicken with rice) but this will work too. I like to use brown rice instead of the more traditional yellow rice but you can do either. I use one pack of Ben’s rice (90 second pouch) with as much shredded turkey as you want. Before adding both those ingredients, I cook chopped onions (1/2 cup) with 1 tsp of minced garlic, a can of diced tomatoes (drained), and a can of peas in olive oil. Cook if for a couple of minutes, then add rice and turkey. Stir it all together in the skillet. Top it off with Parmesan cheese when serving if you want to, I know I do!
3. Turkey wraps: this is an easy one. Take a whole wheat wrap and stuff it with shredded turkey, crumbled feta cheese, baby spinach leaves, and dried cranberries. You can also use leftover cranberry sauce (I will be using my relish). The beauty of the wrap is that you can put whatever you want in it. Want to do turkey, lettuce, tomato instead? Go ahead!
I hope everyone had a good Thanksgiving break and start of the holiday season. If you didn’t, I wish you that you take some time for yourself to re-charge and finish up the year strong, but always remember to be kind to yourself.
Let me know what your favorite healthy Thanksgiving leftover recipes are!