What to do with all that Left Over Turkey

I don't know about you but when I buy a turkey it's usually free range, localand expensive! This year big bird cost us over $80.00. It was about 22 poundsand fed eight people but cheap it wasn't! If we only got that one meal that's$10.00 per serving of meat so I need to lower the CPM or cost per mealsignificantly. 

The best way to lower your CPM is to make the expensive items, like meat, gofurther. Turkey is a perfect example. If I only served turkey for the one mealit would be expensive, but our family will be eating a variety of turkey dishesfor several days and weeks, significantly lowering our CPM. 

Lowering Turkey CPM

1. During clean up remove as much meat as possible from your bird. Store in resealable freezer bags and depending on how much your family likes turkey, put in freezer for later use or in the fridge for next day's meals.
2. Divide bones into three separate freezer bags. I like putting the breast and partial back in one bag, the thigh, wing and remaining back in another bag and whatever remains in another bag. If you want to make up soup or congee right away keep the breast and partial back out and put the rest in the freezer. Make sure you label with the date or record somewhere that it is in the freezer. Many is the time I've faithfully put chicken bones in the freezer with good intentions for making soup and found them a year later at the bottom with major freezer burn.
3. Our favourite turkey left over meal has to be turkey congee. It's easy to make, super cheap and in Chinese Medicine is known for its ability to strengthen and build the blood and stores of Qi energy. You can find the recipe in Fresh Start: A Recipe for Healthy Living or click here. For more information on congees check out Kitchen Chick's latest book, The Healing Kitchen, available March 1, 2010 as an e-book!
4. Sui choy or Nappa cabbage is a mild tasting brassica used in Chinese cooking. It's relatively inexpensive and if you live on the Westcoast is usually grown locally. It's mild flavour pairs well with turkey and makes a delicious comfort soup for cold winter days.
5. Turkey chow mien is always a hit in our house. As we use white rice noodles with no nutritional value, lots of veggies are added to spike up the nutrient content. We usually make this for lunch the day after a big turkey meal as we aren't needing or wanting too much meat!

What did you do with turkey left overs? Share your recipes and ideas forlowering turkey CPM by filling out the form below.