What to do with that Leftover Holiday Turkey

The dirty work

 This week has been Turkey week in my house. As in, I picked clean the entire bird, made a giant pot of turkey stock, and cooked turkey meals like a wild woman. It was well worth the effort! Today I will be throwing several containers of soup and pot pie filling mixture into my freezer for later days in which I am un-inspired to cook. Success! Also, there is this empowering pioneer woman feeling that comes from making your own from scratch broth and picking clean an entire giant animal :).

Simmering the bones and other remains for stock

Lately I have been reading Trina Holden's e-book Real Fast Food. The timing was perfect, because in her book she explains the best way to make stock with the maximum nutritional benefit. Although I'd made my own stock before, I had no idea that you needed to boil it for a minimum of 12 hours to get all the good stuff out of the bones! I also learned a "secret" ingredient for drawing the good nutrients out. But it won't be a secret if you read her book :).

My soup

Finally, here is a very basic soup recipe that we enjoy. Bonus: it is very quick and easy to make! For four servings all you need is: 3-4 cups of broth, 1 cup of turkey (or chicken), 1 chopped carrot, 1 chopped stalk of celery (my husband doesn't like this, so I just add another carrot), 1/2 cup of noodles, and salt and pepper to taste. Simply bring the stock and carrots to a boil, add pasta, and cook until the pasta is done (about ten minutes). Add the meat, salt and pepper. Sometimes I use brown rice instead of pasta (it does take longer that way), and add frozen corn for a little bit of natural sweetness. Yesterday I made a quadrupile batch so that I had extras to freeze. We still have more meat, so I think we might be eating turkey quesadillas tonight :). Yum!

What things do you like to make with your leftover turkey meat?