What to Do With All of That Turkey

In a few weeks and change you're most likely going to be faced with a wall of Thanksgiving leftover-filled tupperware containers when you open your fridge.  A blessing and a curse, right?  I mean...how much turkey and stuffing can one person really eat?  We've already addressed one delicious means of getting rid of some of it with Kraft's Thanksgiving Leftovers Casserole that I wrote about.

But what else?  What can we do with the rest of it?

I'm here to save the day with a couple more recipes.  lol if three recipes isn't enough to dispose of your leftovers, you're on your own.

That, and you cooked way too much.

:-)

Click on the picture to find the recipe on Allrecipes.com

The first recipe I came up with was a savory monkey bread.  Or bubble loaf.  Or whatever you want to call it.  I'll go with monkey bread because it sounds more fun :-)

I got lazy.  I never thought I'd see the day when I bought pre-made bread dough, but that day came.
My son was fighting a nap, I was sleepy, and I had no desire to do much actual cooking.
I went up and down the freezer aisles, knowing that frozen bread dough exists, but not having the slightest clue where it might be located!

I finally found it, sandwiched between the pre-made breakfast items and the frozen pies.
Personally, I would have displayed it next to the puff pastry and pie crusts, but hey, I don't work at the grocery store :-)

I digress...

Anyway, after allowing the dough to defrost I broke off balls of dough and flattened them until they were as thin as they could get without breaking.

Then I stuffed them full of goodness.  Stuffing, mashed potatoes, veggies, chicken (lets pretend it was turkey for the sake of this recipe!).

I used a spring form pan, but you could just as easily use a bundt.  I prepped it by spraying with cooking spray and then I just placed the stuffed dough balls in the pan with a sprinkling of cheddar cheese.  I baked at 350 for half an hour or so until the dough was cooked through.

I'm all for fun food, and I liked that they were fun to pull apart.

I served them with homemade cranberry sauce (half a bag of fresh cranberries, 1/4 C OJ, 1/4 C water, 3 Tbsp brown sugar, 3 Tbsp white sugar, 1/2 tsp cinnamon in a saucepan...cook, mash up the cranberries a little, simmer till it starts to thicken.  Let it sit in the fridge for a few hours and voila!  Amazing cranberry sauce.  I should really write that up as a recipe!) and they were a big hit, especially with my husband!
I have to thank him, too- I made a stupid mistake and injured my hand and my husband had to finish assembling these...my hand totally gave out on me :-(

Alls well that ends well, though, because these turned out fantastic and I got a little extra time with my husband in the kitchen :-)

Stay tuned for my third (and final!) recipe for Thanksgiving leftovers, coming soon!  :-) One can only handle so much turkey at a time...

Thanksgiving Leftovers Monkey Bread

2 lb package frozen bread dough, defrosted
1 C cooked, chopped turkey
1 C prepared stuffing
1 C prepared mashed potatoes
1/2 C mixed vegetables
1/2 C cheddar cheese shredded

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

2. Break off 2" pieces of dough.  Flatten each piece of dough as thin as possible without breaking.  Place approximately 1 tsp each of turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, and vegetables on dough.  Close dough around filling, sealing to form a ball.  Repeat with remainder of ingredients, placing each dough ball in baking dish.

3.  Sprinkle dough with cheddar cheese.  Bake for 30-40 minutes or until dough is cooked through.  Invert onto serving dish.