As I stirred a spoonful of cranberry sauce into my plain yogurt this morning it occurred to me that I am a bit of a nutbar as it pertains to using up leftovers. I really hate food waste. I mean – I REALLY hate food waste – and so I will do everything I can do to use it all up.
There are, of course, a number of ways to do this:
- Make less to begin with. I went overboard for Thanksgiving, but I usually don’t make massive dinners. I am usually pretty good at making the right amount, so there isn’t a lot left over.
- Choose dishes that easily convert into other meals when faced with leftovers. For example, pulled pork is excellent for this. On day one we’ll have pulled pork sandwiches. Day two, we’ll have pulled pork tacos. And if there’s a day three, I use the rest to top a pizza.
- Make use of the backyard composter. This doesn’t apply to leftover meat, cheese, or dairy, but a head of wilted lettuce or sad celery will eventually make some nice soil for my flower pots next spring. In my mind, this makes it less of a loss, knowing I’ll be using it.
So what about that Thanksgiving turkey? Well, we had it TWICE yesterday – in different formats. Mark used up some leftover gravy and made a hot turkey sandwich. I opted out of the gravy and made my own sandwich (yes, there is stuffing in that sandwich):
Last night we just had a second turkey dinner. I ate up the rest of the glazed carrots and the stuffing (as well as the turkey) and some cabbage and salad. Everyone else had variations of this. The carcass will be dumped in a pot of water today to make soup for dinner. The leftover meat might go into this curry (it’s my favourite way of using up leftover turkey!) although my eldest has asked me to make butter chicken, er, butter turkey. I picked up a jar of Farm Boy sauce for this and will serve it with rice.
I’d love to hear how YOU use up leftover turkey in your house!
