Thanksgiving Leftover Stuffing Bites

If you served me a plate full of stuffing, cranberry sauce, mashed potatoes, and gravy for Thanksgiving- and nothing else- I would be a happy girl.

Ok, maybe throw in some deviled eggs- we know how much I love those guys- but seriously...that's all I really need.

Sure, turkey is fine, mac and cheese is delicious, rolls are tasty...but those things are just the frosting on the cake of Thanksgiving as far as I'm concerned.

If you're a crazy carb lover like me you're going to love this recipe!

What if I told you that I had a recipe that used all of those things.

Minus the deviled eggs, of course.  That would just be weird.  :-)

So flash forward a week and a few days from today: you've had your fill of Thanksgiving foods but the fridge is still full.  You have leftovers to use up but you can only face so many Thanksgiving leftover sandwiches.  You really need to shake things up a little.

This is where Stuffing Bites come in!

It's a pretty simple concept- throw your extra mashed potatoes and stuffing in a bowl, add a bit of cheese and some seasonings, and mix them up.  Then you form the mixture into little balls, coat in panko, and fry it up.  Tasty, right?

Of course something like this screams for a dipping sauce, and thankfully you already have them in your fridge!  Serve these little gems with cranberry sauce and gravy on the side as dipping sauces and you're good to go!

I love that you really don't even have to do much measuring for the filling.  Have more mashed potatoes than stuffing?  No problem they're a bit like loaded potato bites.  Heck, you could even mix in some bacon and green onion- maybe switch out cheddar for parmesan?  As written the stuffing actually gets a little bit lost in the potatoes to some degree so I think next time I might up the stuffing.  This is a really easy recipe to adapt, in fact you could probably toss in some chopped turkey or whatever you have left over.

Here's the best part- if you're so sick of Thanksgiving that you really just can't handle even eating another bite of mashed potatoes these freeze really well.  I made up a few of these to try and totally froze the rest for game day snacks!

I lined a baking sheet with parchment paper, dolloped out the potato mixture onto it and froze them to make them easier to work with.  After they froze I dipped in egg wash, coated in panko, and returned to the lined baking sheet.  Once they're frozen you can transfer them to a freezer bag and save them until you're ready to fry them up!

Happy Thanksgiving!

P.S.- Need a little help planning out your Thanksgiving cooking preparations?  Check out my schedule to make sure your meal prep goes smoothly!

Stuffing Bites

Modified slightly from Allrecipes.com

2 C leftover mashed potatoes

2 C leftover stuffing

4 eggs

1/2 C grated Parmesan cheese

1 tsp poultry seasoning

1 tsp salt

1 tsp ground black pepper

2 C panko bread crumbs

2 Tbsp water

oil for frying

1 pinch sea salt

1 C cranberry sauce, warmed

1 C gravy, warmed

1. Mix mashed potatoes, stuffing, 2 eggs, Parmesan cheese, poultry seasoning, 1 teaspoon salt, and pepper together in a large bowl until well combined.

2. Pour panko bread crumbs into a wide shallow bowl. Form 2 tablespoonfuls of stuffing mixture into a ball. Whisk together 2 eggs and water. Coat balls in egg wash and roll in bread crumbs until well coated. Repeat with remaining stuffing mixture.

3. Heat oil in a deep-fryer or large saucepan to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Fry stuffing balls until golden brown, 6 to 8 minutes. Transfer to a paper-towel lined plate; sprinkle with sea salt.

Serve fried stuffing balls with cranberry sauce and gravy.