Back in late November I spent a hundred bucks at Winco and got a free turkey.
Because I could pick out any size I picked out a nice big ole 20-pounder. And the day after Thanksgiving I put the bad boy in the oven so I could have plenty of leftovers.
After a total of six straight days of turkey for dinner I am not going to lie - I was thankful that the turkey was out of my refrigerator and I was thrilled to be cooking anything for dinner that didn't consist of turkey.
What started out as a love affair on Thursday ended up as a snotty-nose toddler come Tuesday.
This is the breakdown of what we got out of that FREE turkey:
Meal 1. We roasted the turkey and ate it just like we ate the day before: with gravy and a couple of sides.
Meal 2. Turkey sandwiches. I brushed the slices with dijon mustard and a little mayo, then the turkey, swiss cheese, a little dollop of gravy and some cranberry relish. Then, buttered the outside of the sourdough bread and grilled it, panini style. Yummmmy. The only thing I had to buy for this meal was a packet of swiss cheese - everything else I had in my pantry (cranberries) or freezer (bread).
Meal 3. Turkey pot pie. I made it really simple. Gravy, chopped up turkey, and frozen vegetables. The recipe calls for a variety of leftover Thanksgiving vegetables (candied carrots, roasted potatoes, peas) but I didn't have any of that so I used whatever freezer vegetables I had on hand. The pie crusts I stocked up on while on sale awhile ago so I just popped one out of the freezer.
Meal 4. Creamy Mexican Turkey Soup. This was made with all things I already had on hand. Carrots, celery, onion, garlic, green chilies, milk, spices, corn. (And the stock...see meal 5 below.)
Meal 5. Although not technically a meal it was used in almost all the meals: turkey broth with the carcass. I tried something new this year and I will say that I LOVE it. I put the carcass in the crock pot! I added enough water to just about cover, a bay leaf, some salt, pepper, and onion/garlic powder and turned it on low for several hours. I actually had Larry cut the carcass in half because it was too large for even my biggest crock pot so I had two of them going... I think the broth came out even more flavorful than cooking the carcass on the stove.
Meal 6. Turkey Tetrazzini. I had never made this before although I realize a staple in the 60s. Larry says his mom made it - from the freezer section - regularly. The recipe was easy: some butter, mushrooms, garlic, broth, cream cheese, frozen peas, black olives, thin spaghetti, and a few spices. Baked in a casserole dish covered with Panko breadcrumbs. While I had the frozen vegetables, spaghetti, bread crumbs, and spices I did need to buy: mushrooms, olives, and cream cheese for this recipe.
Meal 7. The Creamy Mexican Turkey soup made so much that I immediately froze a bag. I love even small portions of soup in the freezer because they can be paired with a sandwich and makes a perfect light meal on a cold wintery day.
Meal 8. On the last day the turkey should be in the fridge I realized I still had an entire container of turkey leftover and I have this thing about freezing turkey and then thawing it only to cook it again. So, I decided to make a few freezer meals with all the remaining turkey. The first was a Creamy Turkey Taco Soup. Canned black beans, spicy diced tomatoes, salsa, bouillon, cumin, chili powder, garlic powder, and turkey. When ready to cook it sits in a crock pot for a few hours and then add sour cream and diced avocado and some flour to thicken. Serve with cornbread...yum. (Oh, and all the ingredients from the spices to the beans and tomatoes I had in my pantry.)
Meal 9. Crock-Pot Turkey and Dumplings. This was an easy one to throw together and place in the freezer. A few cups of that turkey broth, a couple of cans of cream of chicken (which I had in the pantry) and a frozen bag of peas and carrots (which I did buy). On the day it cooks I will add some cans of refrigerated buttermilk biscuits, cut up.
Meals 10-16. It is worth noting that we got about 7 lunches out of some of the meals prepared above. When I made the sandwiches I made each of us an extra one for lunch the following day. I also sliced some of the turkey breast for another lunch after that. The Mexican soup, while freezing a bag full, I kept some out for a couple of lunches. The Turkey Pot Pie garnered another lunch and the Tetrazzini another two lunches.
For a handful of ingredients that totalled under ten dollars...I got about 16 meals (dinners and lunches) total out of that one giant FREE turkey.
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