Post-Holiday Turkey and Stuffing Casserole

Our Family Christmas dinner gathering, after church, was small this year.

Afterwards I had a LOT of leftover turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, green bean casserole, cranberries. . .I've taken all the meat off the bones and am simmering a big roasting pan of turkey bone broth now. After straining, chilling it overnight, then skimming the fat off - I'll have lots of bone broth. I'll use some for a big pot of soup tomorrow. However, instead of the usual reheated leftovers, I have an idea formulating...something I've never attempted.

This will be sort of a savory, turkey bread-pudding type egg-bake. Using the stuffing, gravy and turkey from yesterday's dinner. 

I have about a cup of leftover homemade chicken bone broth that I made recently. I'm going to combine that with the gravy, and other ingredients, to extend that. Some fresh celery, onion and garlic also. I'll cool this a little then add a few beaten eggs and half and half. . .

So, this isn't an exact recipe, more a suggestion of what to combine for an interesting take on Thanksgiving-Dinner-For-Christmas leftovers. And, if you're seeing this, it turned out well! 

Put 2/3 of the leftover stuffing in the bottom of a 8"x12"x2" glass baking pan. Top that with about 10oz. of the turkey, cut into bite size pieces.

To the leftover gravy, in a 2 quart pot, add a cup of chicken broth and 1c each of chopped onion, celery and 3 big cloves of minced garlic. Simmer this on low heat about 5 minutes, add chicken bouillon, about 2/3c of a thick flour and water roux, stir until bubbling. Check the flavors and make any needed adjustments. Add more water if it's too thick, simmer again, then cool to room temperature. Whisk the eggs with half and half, then stir this into the cooled gravy and vegetables. Pour half of this over everything in the pan. Add the rest of the stuffing then the remaining gravy-egg mixture. 

Bake in a preheated 350° oven, about 45 minutes, until it's done bubbling, browned and 'set'. Scoop, right away, onto plates, or let cool just a few minutes, before cutting into squares. I had this tonight, with leftover mashed potatoes, green bean casserole and Swedish Lingonberries. This would also be good for breakfast or lunch. Tomorrow I'll make this again, for my nephew and great grandson, with a side of some yummy glazed carrots...Mmmm.

Happy Holidays Everyone. .😊. .Lin

Salads - With Turkey

Each of these was a full dinner salad. . .

as in a salad for dinner.

This one started with some mixed greens, a little bit of chopped turkey, green onion and Kalamata olives. 

Add some sauté-steamed broccoli florets and some orange bell pepper in a little EVOO and a big splash of vinegar at the end.

Top with chopped avocado, pepper jack cheese and some half-sharp paprika.

Tonight, another of these sounded good to me. Again, it began with some chopped mixed greens, lightly steamed broccoli, about an ounce of chopped turkey, green onion, celery, avocado and splashed with a little of my favorite homemade 'clean' salad dressing.

Meat doesn't have to be the main event. Here it's a minimal addition to healthy green salads. . .Lin

Christmas Turkey Bone Broth and Soups

So many people are not fans of leftovers, of any kind. They would probably throw the skin and bones from the turkey away, after picking off most of the meat.

Big Mistake!

You can use it to make wonderful, healthy bone broth to use as a base for future soups.

Today, my bone-picking resulted in the following, from left to right, top row: scraps to mix with the dogs dry food, in the toasting pan: 1/2c white vinegar, bones, cartilage, skin and 3-4 quarts of fresh cold water. Left to right, bottom row: 8oz. of little pieces of meat for soup, dressing, gravy, 9oz. white and dark meat for future turkey salad or turkey tetrazzini.

Put the skin, bones, water and vinegar, in the roasting pan, over low-medium heat. This should just barely bubble the entire time, not vigorously simmer. I keep this very plain -no seasonings, onion or garlic. Those are bad for dogs and cats. I often add a little bone broth to their dry food. Today I added carrot peelings, some outer cabbage leaves, chopped up, and a little bit of celery, all animal-friendly vegetables 😉 Gently stir everything around the pan and slow cook it, covered, for 3 hours.

While this is slowly cooking, prep your vegetables for a big pot of soup. Today I used the vegetables shown, chopped, sliced or minced them and simmered them on low heat for about 45 minutes before chilling them overnight, until the bone broth is ready. Today I simmered the vegetables with the following seasonings and NO starches (pasta, rice or potatoes) for someone who is on a low-carb diet:

4T butter

1t fresh ground black pepper

1/2T poultry seasoning

1/2T roasted garlic & herb seasoning

1T dried parsley

1T Better Than Bouillon - chicken

After 3 hours, remove the roasting pan from the heat and it let come to room temperature. Scoop out all the solids then strain through a colander, large strainer, then a smaller mesh strainer. Finally pour it through a clean four sack type dishtowel lining a colander.

Chill the liquid overnight.

After it's thoroughly chilled, scrape off all fat. This can be used like you would use butter, to brown vegetables or meat. You can also melt it and add a little to your dog or cat's dry food. The more 'jelled' the broth is, the more collagen it contains. Collagen is excellent for healthy skin, hair and connective tissue. The addition of the vinegar in the simmering process is what draws the collagen from the skin, bones and cartilage.

This bone broth turned out very well gelled, so I wanted to make as much soup from this batch as possible. For each of these pots of soup, I used half bone broth and half water with seasonings to make a strong or milder flavored broth. One pot with herbs and poultry seasoning, the other more plain.

Soup is a year-round thing! Have fun with it! . .Lin

Thanksgiving Turkey Vegetable Noodle Soup

BONE BROTH:

1 big turkey carcass

Pick over the whole thing. Break up the bones and put those, the skin, neck and other extra body parts in a big pot with some carrot, celery, onion, salt, pepper, bay leaf and any other seasonings you like.

Put the meat aside for the soup and other recipes. Make a little bowl if the 'icky' edibles you don't want to use, for your dogs. Simmer the bones, skin and the broth vegetables, stirring occasionally for a couple hours.

Cool, scoop out all the solids, save the carrot and celery for your dinner or chop that up for your dogs. Pour this through a strainer throwing away anything it catches and chill the rest. After 8 hours or so, scrape off the fat. Use that, throw it away or add it - a little at a time - to your dog's dry food.

THE SOUP:

Sauté the fresh vegetables shown here, with garlic and pepper, for your soup. Wait on the soup base, frozen peas and green onion tops, until the end.

When the vegetables are crisp-tender, add the bone broth and simmer a half hour. Stir in a couple tablespoons of powdered soup base and check the flavor. The ground pepper here is very strong, so mine ended up way too peppery. At this point I added stewed tomatoes from a 28oz. can. ONLY the tomatoes, cut up, saving the juice for another recipe. I also stirred in 1c sour cream. This was to correct the pepperiness, but it also added a really nice dimension to the soup.

I cooked 8 oz. thin spaghetti -separately- for those who aren't gluten sensitive, to add to their bowl. For those who are, they can eat it as is, without the pasta. You could also cook and add a recipe of white, brown, or wild rice.

Every soup is an adventure! Even having cooked as many years as I have, I'm often surprised by the results. This turned out well though.

Have fun with it. . .Be Adventurous. If something unexpected happens. . .Change The Plan! . .Lin

Turkey Rice Vegetable Soup

It's another soup day here. . .

Yesterday I bought an almost 4# roasted turkey breast. This morning, I cut off a pound and waited for soup inspiration to happen. I started in the usual way by lightly browning the following aromatics and rice. This time in some ghee. I've made my own ghee a couple times, but haven't made our bought any recently. Then I bought a big tub of it yesterday.

4 stalks celery

1 giant carrot

1 sm. onion

1 lg. garlic clove

1 lg. purple shallot

2T ghee, butter or EVOO

3/4c golden rose brown rice

Sauté these together, stirring occasionally while prepping the vegetables listed below. After the first group has sautéed enough to need a cup or two of water, add the remaining ingredients below.

1 sm.-med. green cabbage 

1/2 lg. long-skinny red bell pepper

4 roma tomatoes - peeled* +

2-3T turkey Better Than Bouillon

1 bunch of beet greens sliced-chopped 

5-7c cold fresh water in total

Simmer gently, stir occasionally for another 20 minutes or until the rice is done the way you like it. . .Lin

*tomato skins contain flavonoids, which impart a bitter flavor. they don't break down in cooking so, to me, they add a sort of nasty plastic bag texture. additionally the skins are high in lectin, an undesirable protein that can create digestive issues and inflammation. it's so worth all this 'trouble' though, since the cooking process develops the lycopene in tomatoes. lycopene is a very beneficial antioxidant, similar to betacarotene, that can protect our cells from damage.

+Martha Stewart has the simplest video showing this process. If your tomatoes aren't ripe, you'll need to leave them in the rapidly boiling water just a little longer, maybe 20 seconds total.

It's A Turkey and Vegetable: Dog Food, Sick Food, Baby Food Kinda Day!

Outwardly, I can't tell you how happy I am, here on the first official day of Fall, to see the long, hot summer we've had, finally come to an end. . .bye bye summer  Today is cooler, in the low 60's. Jeans and flannel weather ☺️ calm, sunny. . .and pretty much perfect.

My internal body isn't always so quick to rejoice. For some reason, many people, and animals, take a while to adjust to each new season. With flu season cranking up again, and COVID showing no sign of being eradicated, we have to take responsibility to listen to our bodies, and enhance its ability to keep our immune systems strong however we can.

Our 'gut' is largely where the good bacterias reside. They feed a healthy immune system and keep it that way. Having had 3 intestinal surgeries, I know it's my bodies weakest link. Today, I'm switching back to smoothies to boost that. Basically full-fat plain Greek yogurt, banana, frozen pineapple and berries. Mexican vanilla, a big, BIG shake of cinnamon, and coconut milk, from a carton, to thin it to 'drinkable.' I eye everything up, I don't measure, and it creates a 2-1/2c smoothie  It's a lot, but I just sip on it for an hour or so because I know it's what my body needs.

Now onto this recipe. . .Fill a 5 quart pot about 1/3 full with fresh cold water in which you dissolve 1/2-1t of salt. Chop all the vegetables shown, starting with the sweet potatoes, and potatoes. Get these into the salted water right away to avoid big grey oxidation spots. This will fill the whole pot. Cover and simmer.

(My dogs don't like purple cabbage, I'll use that in coleslaw)

Once the water is at a very low boil, cover the pot and set the timer for an hour. Check the celery for doneness since that's the vegetable most resistant to heat. Once everything is cooked the way you like it, pour the vegetables to a colander over a big bowl. Save all the wonderful vegetable broth to add a little when serving, or for a future soup.

Clean the pot, then add 12-16oz. ground turkey and 3/4c good quality, single source, EVOO. It sounds like a lot, but it's a very good, healthy, and necessary fat. Chop and stir this until sizzling and lightly browned. Add a big serving spoonful of Turkey Better Than Bouillon - about 3 tablespoons. Stir this over low heat just until it bubbles again. Now add the vegetables back to the meat, a little at a time, mixing everything together well. Cover, turn off the heat and let stand a half hour to blend all the flavors.

I had a tiny bowl of this for lunch, with a ladle of the vegetable broth. I'm glad I did. The celery and cabbage were still quite fibrous. I didn't want to cook it any longer, so I used my immersion blender to make it easier to digest.  Once it's cool, I'll freeze it in 1c packages which will be enough for 1 feeding for both dogs. I'm pretty sure if each of us only had a smoothie as described above and a bowl of this each day for a week, we would go a long way toward healing our gut issues! I have a lot of cooking to do in the next week or two, but after that's done, I might do just it!

I think this recipe would also be excellent to use instead of commercially prepared baby food. This contains sodium, but that could be eliminated or reduced. There are no chemicals or preservatives, only good quality, healthy meat, oil and vegetables. I'm not a doctor or a trained dietician, but I'm very interested in all aspects of food and how it can either hurt or heal our bodies, and promote good gut bacteria, which, in turn, will eliminate the bad bacterias. This is all of much interest to me and will be one of lifelong learning.

I would also recommend this when recovering from a bad bout with a stomach and intestinal bug. After a day with just clear liquids: Coke or Pepsi that has the carbonation stirred out, and chicken broth for 24 hours. Then adding soda crackers and/or toast. This would be good on day 2 or 3, post sickness, if everything else was well tolerated. 

My old dog, Penny, is around 17. She's mostly deaf and losing her sight, arthritic and full of benign lipomas. . .But. . .she still gets around, goes on short, slow walks, and I want to keep her as healthy as possible for her remaining time with me. When she was much younger, maybe 4-6 years old, she started vomiting, pretty much daily. My vet said get her off grains. I switched her to a 'good' grain-free dry food, which worked right away! Then several years later, it was on the list of dog foods to avoid. I switched both my pups to another and all was well until recently when this food, that my vet recommended, and feeds her dogs, started making her sick again.

Quite by chance, I read the ingredients on a bag of SPROUT Dog Food and decided to try it. Immediately the vomiting stopped. I'm on my 3rd big bag of it, and they're doing great! Oliver is my 10 year old 'puppy,' and then there's Daphne, my 13 (?) year old wonderful cat. I'll even let her try some of this food. For each of the dogs, I'll use this to supplement their dry food - 1/2c dry and 1/2c vegetables and turkey - plus a Vit. E and fish oil gel cap and a Cosequin for the old gal, at one feeding each day, until all 11 1c packages are gone. 

They're Family! . .Feed Everyone Well...☺️...Lin

Lamb, Turkey and Beef Meatloaf-Meatballs (gluten and dairy free)

This is yet another variation on my mom's special meat loaf recipe.  I'm not sure just yet if this will be meatballs or meatloaf.  Probably meatloaf since, as good as these sound to me over spaghetti, with a tomato cream sauce, I don't think I want all that gluten right now.  In a big glass mixing bowl, combine the following:

• 
  1# each: ground lamb, turkey and beef
• 1½c chopped onion and sweet peppers
• 1T seasoned salt and pepper

In a 2c glass measuring container, whisk together the first two ingredients, then add the egg, oats and flax mix:

2 lg. eggs

1T± Sriracha sauce 

½c regular/plant 'milk' or half & half

1c quick rolled oats

¼c ground flax and other seed mix

When the egg, milk and oat mixture are well mixed, let it stand 5-10 minutes to achieve the proper level of 'gloppiness'.

Add this to the meat and chopped vegetables, then mix with a heavy wooden spoon or clean hands. When well mixed, form into meatballs or loaves. Bake at 350° on a parchment-lined jelly roll pan.

For meatloaf, bake for about an hour.  These looked pale after an hour, so I raised the heat to 375° for an additional 15 minutes.  Check to be sure the center is cooked.  Cool 5 minutes or longer before cutting.  Serve this with your favorite vegetable casserole.  Refrigerated leftovers will keep 4-5 days.  When chilled and sliced thin, this makes great sandwiches!  

Meatballs will take less time and should be flipped after half the cooking time.  Start with 20 minutes at 350°.  Flip them, then go another 10-20 minutes.  Check for doneness.  Serve these with your favorite sauce over pasta accompanied by a fresh tossed salad. . .Lin

Quick, Spicy Turkey and Egg Salad

I woke up hungry this morning. Sometimes food doesn't even cross my mind, until noon or after, but not today! I was thinking steamed eggs and turkey. It evolved quickly into an interesting 'salad'. By the time this was put together and I sat down, I wasn't getting up till my plate was clean! Ooops, forgot a knife. Nope, not getting up. . .It quickly turned into three yummy Lettuce Wraps!  Mmmmm. . .no pic though, I was not moving - even to get my camera!

2 steamed eggs (aka: hard boiled)

½c chopped kalamata olives

4oz. roasted turkey

⅓c golden raisins

2 green onions

4 radishes

1T± coriander (cilantro) chutney

1-2T fig balsamic vinegar
½c plain Greek yogurt
½t pepper
1t sugar

Slice, chop and gently mix everything together in a medium glass bowl. Stuff in a pita, roll in a tortilla, serve over crispy chopped romaine, or roll in some gorgeous fresh lettuce leaves. . .Lin

Mmm - Roasted Turkey -- In June!?!

Change - re. fresh herbs. . .see below**

Every year, at the end of November, I vow to make more turkey in the coming year. Mmmm, if you were here with me now, you'd know why. My home smells like Thanksgiving!! (well, almost, no wonderful-warm scent of stuffing. . .) This is half a turkey, so no stuffing. It will brown and cook quick, but my method  (hot, cooler, hot oven temperatures) is my secret for creating wonderful roasted chicken and turkey. Lots of flavor, and not dry.

After the 350° roasting - before the last 425° roasting

½ a perfect turkey that calls your name. . 

~ mine is just under 5#, so adjust times for size*

½ a stick of real butter - no substitutions!

your favorite seasonings, spices and herbs**

~ today my fresh herbs are: regular and lemon 

~ thyme, pineapple sage, rosemary

Rosemary Seasoning and Lemon Thyme seasoned salt

- - - Done! - - -

Roast, uncovered at 425° for half hour, then roast an hour, covered at 325°, then uncovered with the heat back up to 425° for the last half hour.  Baste in between each temperature change, or at least 3-4 times, quickly, while cooking.

**Adding the Fresh Herbs. . . Put them in the juice in the bottom of the pan, then poke and baste - when you reduce the heat to 325°. Remove them before poking and basting, an hour later, when you again, increase the heat to 425°.

MMmm, Lunch today. . .

This would be wonderful, hot out of the oven with garlic mashed potatoes, pan drippings, fresh green beans and carrots.  But I'm not doing that today. I had 4 gorgeous sweet potatoes that I didn't think to bake with the turkey, but poked them, then covered them on a plate and microwaved for 8:30 minutes. Perfect! It was almost noon and I realized I hadn't eaten yet. This will be a good combination breakfast-lunch. Maybe a salad for dinner later. . .

This will make great sandwiches, turkey tetrazzini, turkey Waldorf salad, turkey mac'n-cheese, turkey noodle soup, cut up in scrambled eggs, turkey tacos. . .any way you'd use roasted turkey. . .Since I'm A Soup Freak. . .of course, it goes without saying, there will be a nice big pot of turkey rice, turkey vegetable, or turkey noodle soup - soon.


Starting The Soup

This meat will be all covered and tucked in, with a damp paper towel, the cover snapped shut, and refrigerated for the next couple days. Any left by then, will be frozen in a zip-type bag. The skin and bones are going back in this pot, to be slowly simmer, covered - with a splash of white balsamic vinegar added to pull the collagen out of the bones. Cook, covered at a low bubble once it boils hard for a couple minutes, for 2-4 hours, with some chopped celery, pepper, carrot and onion,  salt and pepper - adding water if needed.

I'll strain the broth until it becomes clear bone broth (no particles) for the soup. Then finally straining, into a tall flat edged, glass jar and refrigerate. The fat can then be pulled off in a round, solid, yellow circle. It can be melted on dog food, or used in cooking, since it's well strained and rendered. I might use it to brown the turkey with onion, for the soup, tetrazzini or turkey stroganoff!

Ahhh Be Creative! Try to think of all possibilities regarding food, seasonings, fresh herbs, creating healthier-rendered-fats.

Happy Cooking 😊 🍗 💖 🤎

Ahhh. . .Turkey. . .Not Just For HolidaysAnymore! . . . Lin

Turkey Bone Broth -- Turkey-Chicken Vegetable Soup

This is a labor-intensive two day process. Does it make great broth?  Does it make great soup? Yes. Is it worth all the time and effort? I'm not sure. When I'm feeling like I need a couple days of Kitchen Therapy and doing nice quiet 'house-things' I'll for sure opt for this method every time. A good slow method like this, to me, is reminiscent of a slower time where homemakers use what they had and resorted to drawing flavors from simple healthier ingredients without using as many additives or flavor enhancers. However, I've had great results with excellent tasting beef, chicken or turkey vegetable soups (with or without rice, pasta or potatoes) using just water, seasonings and a good soup base. So if you're up for a challenge and don't need Immediate Soup Gratification - well - give it a go to see what you think!

🍲 🍗 🍲 🐓 🍲 🍖 🍲 🍖 🍲 🐔 🍲 🍗 🍲

BONE BROTH - DAY 1

2½# turkey backs
and neck

assorted vegetable scraps as shown

FRY THE CHICKEN - DAY 1

After washing the breasts, cut them into thirds or smaller. I had more chicken than I needed for this, so I froze half, about 1½#, shown in the first picture, for another recipe. Pat them dry with a paper towel then toss them around in a bowl of seasoned cornflour or VERY fine cornmeal. To my cornflour, I stirred in salt, pepper and more of the Old Bay Garlic and Herb seasoning. Heat up about an inch of your favorite oil or solid shortening, in an 8 quart stock pot, then put in the floured pieces. They should sizzle if the temperature is hot enough. I used avocado oil and coconut oil.

Once the chicken is brown on both sides, put it on paper towels or a brown paper bag to soak up the excess fat. Transfer these to a parchment lined jelly roll pan and bake at 375 for about 30 minutes. Turn off oven and let cool there. Later, refrigerate the crispy chicken to add to the soup tomorrow.

Put the turkey parts and vegetables, except the garlic, into the pot you used to fry the chicken. Cover with 4-6 quarts fresh cold water. Add 1-2t whole peppercorns, 1T Old Bay Garlic and Herb seasoning. Bring this to a low boil, then turn down the heat.  Cover and check to be sure it's still bubbling occasionally. If you have a candy or meat thermometer, 180⁰ is the heat you want. Simmer this way for 12 hours. Start this after supper. Simmer covered, overnight, and it'll be ready by morning. If possible, the garlic should go in for the last 3 hours.  

🍲 🍗 🍲 🐔 🍲 🍖 🍲 🍖 🍲 🐓 🍲 🍗 🍲

DAY 2 - FINISHING THE BROTH - CREATING THE SOUP

After breakfast, using a very big slotted spoon, pull ALL the solids out. Give the carrots, celery and peppers to your dogs or rabbits.  Remove the garlic and set that aside for later in the day. Do NOT give that to your dogs. Remove the meat from the bones, discard the skin, add the bones back to the pot. Put the meat in a container and refrigerate until tomorrow. Chill the soup as quickly as possible.

Once it's well chilled, if you used a solid shortening, that will solidify on the top. Scrape it off, give a little at each feeding to your dog, or throw it away. If you used oil, you'll have to spoon as much as possible off the top, then strain everything through progressively smaller colanders, strainers and finally some cheesecloth. An old, clean dishtowel will do quite well and should remove all the particles and any leftover fat. Set this aside. 

Chop the vegetables shown, using the colorful hard ones now - the big purple shallot, carrots, celery, red and yellow peppers, green and purple cabbage. Add these to the pot with 1-2T of solid coconut oil and a cup of the bone broth. I only used about 3-4 quarts of the broth in the soup. The rest, in the glass container is in the fridge. It's a great thing to drink, warmed up. Lots of good things for your body! Put the green onions and tops, spinach, and celery tops aside for now. Simmer the vegetables over low heat, bubbling only occasionally for about 40 minutes, adding broth a few cups every 5 minutes or so until it's all in the pot.

For the last half hour, squeeze out however many garlic cloves you'd like in your finished soup. Slice or smash them and add them to the pot with the sliced lemon, chopped chicken and soft greens. If there are extras, they'd be good spread on toast with avocado and a little flaked salt, or mixed with sauces. Simmer 30 minutes and serve. It's finally soup! . .Lin

Christmas Meatballs and Noodles in Spicy Cream Sauce

MEAT BALLS

2 eggs

⅓ c heavy cream

1 t ground pepper

1 T Sicilian seasoning

2 T A-1 or Worcestershire Sauce

1 c Italian Panko breadcrumbs

½ c purple shallot - minced

½ c fresh parsley - minced

1# ground turkey

1# ground beef

Combine everything in a large glass bowl.  Using a tablespoon size scoop, shape into 48 meatballs.  Bake on parchment lined baking sheets for 30 minutes at 350⁰ or until sizzling and browned.  Meanwhile, cook 12 oz. of wide egg noodles.  When they're about ⅔ done, drain and rinse in cold water until they're completely chilled.  Drain and shake to remove the water.

ARRABBIATA CREAM SAUCE

1 c Arrabbiata pasta sauce

1 c sour cream or a mix of

~ sour cream and heavy cream

¼ c fresh parsley - minced

½ c fresh grated Parmesan cheese

TOP WITH

½ c fresh grated Parmesan cheese

¼ c fresh parsley - minced

Put the cold, drained noodles in a roasting pan and mix with half the sauce.  Sprinkle with half the Parmesan, add half the meatballs and gently mix.

Repeat this layers then top with the remaining chopped parsley.  Heat covered, at 300⁰ for 20 minutes.

💝 Merry Christmas Everyone 💝. . . Lin