Re-Invent Thanksgiving Leftovers

Lets be honest you can only have so many turkey sandwiches after turkey day...so I always try to come up with some easy ideas to re-invent and re-use those turkey leftovers!

This year we did a whole lot of reinventing! I must apologize though I forgot to snap pictures of a couple of the items.

First off here was our Thanksgiving Dinner--lots of food = lots of leftovers!Re-invention #1 - Sausage Egg and Cheese "muffins"
First take a muffin pan and put a little of the stuffing in the bottom (we used our apple and sausage stuffing) next pour a little egg white or whole egg onto the top and bake approx. 12 minutes at 350 degrees-top with a little cheese and melt. Quick and easy breakfast/brunch!

Next up? #2 - Turkey and Noodles (no picture sorry)
Take turkey bones, sage, and thyme and create a delish stock-simmer at least 2 hours!
Add in some veggies we used carrots, onion, peas, and corn
Next add in your shredded turkey (light and dark meat)
Simmer and then add in your noodles. The longer you cook the noodles the thicker everything becomes rather than a soup it's like a little turkey and "dumplings"

Re-invention #3- Turkey Nachos!
For anyone who has ever been to an Ale House this is a play on their Chicken Nachos

Super simple! Layer tortilla chips, then cheese, turkey, more cheese, jaleponos (optional) and bake!
Serve with sour cream, salsa, and guacamole!

#4 --Cranberry Almond and White Chocolate Chip Pancakes!
(sorry no picture)
Make a basic pancake mix, add in cranberry almond sauce and some white chocolate chips! Delish!

#5-Spicy Pumpkin Soup
See the pumpkins in the mail photo? We baked our stuffing inside the little pie pumpkins then used them in our soup!
First start with a little chicken stock (about 3 cups) add in onion, and pumpkin flesh. Allow to simmer for at least 30 minutes.
Next add in cayenne pepper, salt, curry, and red pepper flakes to your own taste--continue to simmer another 10 minutes until the pumpkin has started to fall apart.
Next in small batches or large depending on size of your food processor, blend until nice and smooth
Return to stove and add 1 cup of heavy cream, and 3 tablespoons of brown sugar, stir until combined.
Our soup is in the freezer for a nice cold day this winter!

And last but certainly not least! #6 - Turkey and Winter Greens Eggrolls!
We used what remained our our winter greens and mixed them with some shredded light meat turkey and reheated it in a saute pan. Next we then took egg rolls and wrapped the mixture up and brushed with a little melted butter and baked at 400 degrees for about 12 minutes!
Served with a little gravy it was a nice crunchy treat to end out the weekend!


And thankfully we used up almost all of the left overs!

What I'm Loving Wednesday

It's the day before Thanksgiving and yes I'm at work but it's Wednesday and here's what I'm Loving!

-- There is no school today which means not only is there no traffic, but also no line at the Starbucks drive thru!

-- We are going to get our holiday/family pictures taken today for holiday cards!

-- It's a day at work where I don't really have to stress out too much and I'll actually leave on time not an hour or two later!

-- No Finance class tonight!

-- I get to start cooking and prepping everything for Thanksgiving tonight! (I love to cook it, but cleaning duties will fall on Rene).

Happy Wednesday! What are you loving today?!

Thanksgiving Menu!

Here it is--the 2011 Blanco Thanksgiving Menu!

Cocktail:

Toasted Walnut Martini

Appetizers:

Mini Cheese Balls with Crackers (almond, chive, paprika)

Fried Brussel Sprouts

Main Course:

Orange and Bourbon brined turkey with chipotle maple butter

Sides:

Wilted Winter Greens

Spice Roasted Cauliflower

Roasted Acorn Squash

Sausage and Apple Stuffing roasted in pumpkin

Chipotle Maple Mashed Sweet potatoes

Dessert:

Pear and Apple Pie

What are you making for Thanksgiving this year?

Countdown to Thanksgiving!

The past couple of months have been a whirlwind to say the very least and now it's T-minus 4 days until Thanksgiving! Yes it will just be Rene and I again this year for turkey day but that doesn't mean that I won't be cooking a meal fit to feed at least 6-8!

What can I say I enjoy cooking #1--this is the 3rd year that I am cooking a full turkey.... and #2 it gets us away from the "chicken and veggies" routine at least for a couple of days. We decided this year that we wanted to make everything pretty light and simple with lots of veggies rather than starchy stuff (minus the stuffing). So what's on the menu this year? A whole lot of delish! Check back tomorrow for the full breakdown of the menu (mainly all ideas from the Food Network Magazine). And believe it or not we didn't completely break the bank either!

We went shopping for Thanksgiving, as well as our typical weekly groceries and only spent around $200 which is pretty dang good if you look at the fact that 95% of the items we buy are organic, we came and home with a 14 pound turkey (I told you I cook like we have a house full of people!).

What are you cooking this year?

What I'm Loving Wednesday

What am I loving this week??

...that I've got the Thanksgiving menu planned for this year-though dreading the grocery store this weekend!

I'm loving....that I only have 5 more weeks of classes and then get a little mini-break before my last semester of graduate school!

I'm loving....my super cute "Mrs. Blanco" robe that Rene got me for our "cotton" anniversary (photo to come soon).

An of course my wonderful hubby!

Get in the holiday Spirit

Join me over at forever88 for her annual ornament swap!

Here are the rules:

- sign up below by Friday, November 20th - you'll get an email to let you know who your partner is!

- buy or make an ornament for your swap partner [$10-15 limit] and mail by November 29th so your partner can enjoy their ornament throughout this years holiday season! Make sure to check out your partner's blog and try and make it fit their style, interests, hobbies, etc.

- include a holiday card for your partner and share a little bit about the ornament and yourself!

- have fun and make sure to take a picture of your ornament displayed on your tree/in your home and share it with all of us!

I just signed up and think that you should too! It's super easy! Just follow This Link and then click the link on the bottom of the page to enter!

What I'm Loving Wednesday

What am I loving this Wednesday?

Rene and I are celebrating our 2nd anniversary today!

To be honest it doesn't feel like it has been 2 years since we said "I do" and it doesn't feel like we've been together for since my junior year of college either (6 years!).

I have realized however that Rene is my perfect match! He's very laid back while I am completely the opposite, he has a great sense of humor and makes me laugh (or at least tries to). He encourages me, supports me, and is a wonderful sounding board for my ideas.

He's quite possibly the best person I know and I could not be happier to know that I get to spend many many more happy years with him!

My Next Project

Another of my recruiters has a birthday coming up this Sunday and since I made a wonderful cake for the last one I decided that this time I am going to bake some cookies for her birthday.

And who doesn't love a basic sugar cookie? But I found this on Pinterest and thought that since it's fall why not go with a little theme right?

I'll be making a batch of these this Thursday while Rene is off playing basketball with Deloitte I'll be sure to post how they turn out!

Busy Days = Lack of Posts

I haven't posted recently and it's mainly because work and school are again consuming my life...there isn't a lot of time for much of anything else sad to say...but on a high note it's getting down to the end of the semester (December 19th) and then January 16th it's time to start my last semester of graduate school (fingers crossed at least!).

Aside from that things at the Blanco home are pretty boring.

It is nice that Rene is at least able to come home and eat dinner with me though it's been pretty quiet and lonely the past couple of months.

The weather in Dallas is starting to get cooler, the days are seeming shorter and it's dark when I head to work and then dark when I get home from work. And that all leads to the fact that we are getting closer to end of the year, Thanksgiving, and Christmas--where has the year gone?

I haven't even started to think about Christmas gifts yet!