I decided to revamp my own post from Thanksgiving leftovers to work for all holiday leftovers! Everyone loves the large amount of food on the table for holiday meals but what do you do with all of the leftovers? Here are some ideas to reuse the food without getting sick of the eating the same thing every day for leftovers.
Some of the staples for holiday meals are turkey, mashed potatoes, corn, cranberry sauce, stuffing, gravy, pumpkin pie, and ham. Here are a few recipes that put a delicious spin on some of these holiday leftovers!
Contents
Turkey
I personally do not like turkey so I find myself stuck with a lot of leftover turkey and nothing to do with it. Here are some ideas to try to make turkey taste yummy. Number 6 has been passed down many generations and is by far my favorite way to eat turkey!
- Turkey Sandwich: Probably the most often used way to reuse turkey.
- Toasted Cheese with turkey inside!
- Turkey Quesadillas- Grab a tortilla, some cheese, turkey, and anything else you want to stuff in it and Voila!
- Southwestern Turkey Casserole-This is an awesome recipe from About A Mom that puts a unique twist on leftover turkey!
- Turkey Tacos- Just grab some taco mix and substitute your beef with turkey. I’ve heard these are extremely good!
- A family tradition- Take some turkey and warm it up in a pan. Sprinkle some BBQ Shake and Bake on it, add a slice of Velveeta and put it on slices of bread. Delicious!
Cranberry Sauce
Here are some ways to use your cranberry sauce in different ways after Thanksgiving. It can spice up your waffles, bagel, or yogurt. Number four is a delicious recipe from my uncle!
- Use it on your waffles or pancakes as a topping
- Put it on a bagel with cream cheese on it
- Add some to your yogurt for some additional flavor
- Mix up the ingredients for chicken salad but instead substitute the chicken with turkey and add cranberry sauce
Mashed Potatoes
Mashed potatoes can be made into many different recipes and taste amazing! We regularly use all 3 of these recipes for our mashed potatoes and I love each one! Kanish is an absolutely delicious treat and I definitely recommend it for anyone who loves deep fried food, like myself.
- Shepherd’s Pie is a great way to reuse mashed potatoes
- Kanish- This was always a favorite in our household. You take a wonton skin, put mashed potatoes, cheese, crumbled bacon (or turkey), onions, and whatever else you want in it. Don’t pack it too full or you can’t close it. Then wet the edges and fold them up one by one to the center using the water as glue to make them stick together. The last step is to deep fry it until it floats and is light brown on both sides. Delicious! Especially with sweet and sour sauce. You can email me for more help if you need it!
- Potato Pancakes are another great way to reuse leftover mashed potatoes. My dad makes awesome potato pancakes!
Stuffing and Gravy
These are tricky ones to reuse other than just warming them up and eating them the same way you did for your holiday meal. Here are a few ideas to make them taste a little different though.
- Use stuffing in your meatloaf to give it some more body
- Stuffed Peppers using turkey and stuffing– This is a cool way to incorporate both turkey and stuffing leftovers with a new spin.
- Put gravy on your waffles
Ham
Ham is my favorite food for the holidays. I usually stack my mashed potatoes and corn on top of my ham and eat all three together. Amazing!! Here are a few ways we have used up ham in the past to make some delicious meals!
- Put ham, diced potatoes, and string beans in a crock pot and let it simmer on low for around 6 hours. Dice and cook your potatoes on the stove before adding them so they aren’t too firm. It is absolutely delicious and an easy meal to make.
- Put chunks of ham into your scrambled eggs. DELICIOUS!
- Make hot ham and cheese sandwiches (Ham on a toasted cheese sandwich essentially)
- Warm up ham in a pan, put some cloves on the ham, and add slices of pineapple to the pan to warm up. This is one of my favorite ways to eat ham!
Feel free to email me with any questions about preparing these dishes and please comment some ways you reuse holiday leftovers at your house! I would love some new ideas to try this year!
