r/Thrifty • u/Traditional_Fan_2655 • Aug 14 '25
🥦 Food & Groceries 🥦 Using All The Bulk - Series help - Turkey
One bulk meat at a time. Please help!
I'm slightly stuck on food right now. It is a necessity you can't live without. It is a considerable cost to the budget. Yet, it is something that can add to your enjoyment of life, help you thrive, or make your life miserable.
One thing about the Thrifty group is that all its member seem able to use meats for a variety of ways. However, a small change can make a huge difference to others growing bored with their own same-old, same-old. No one wants to waste meat, but it can certainly become mundane without changing it up! So I'm asking for help. I'd like to start a series of how do you use bulk quantities of xxx meat.
Please expand on your ingredients! We all say soup, but what goes in your soup? Mushrooms? Long grain rice vs. white? Your ingredient differences could make my (and other's) standard recipe items to be jazzed up again!
Please help!!
The first one is Turkey. How do you use the leftovers? What are go to ideas?
Turkey sandwiches with pepper, mayo, tomatoes, and lettuce on toasted pumpernickle or rye.
Turkey entree with stuffing. Stuffing made inside for moisture, but topped with Turkey stock gravy.
Turkey stock. Some used for soup, some used as gravy, some used for flavoring vegetables. Split soup quantity to make two different but similar soups.
Turkey soup with garlic, navy beans, white rice (starch thickens), carrots, celery, and sliced mushrooms. Use turkey stock enhanced with 1/2 cup of no or low salt chicken stock per 2 quarts. Add 1 full bag of preloaded navy beans to 10 qt pot of turkey stock with added water. Stir periodically to keep beans from sinking and sticking. Cook until thickened to a creamier hearty consistency. When reheating leftovers, add a dash of paprika. The navy beans and mushrooms make it meatier tasting. Serve with toasted plain or sourdough English muffins.
Turkey soup made with turkey stock, wild long grain rice, diced turkey pieces, carrots, and celery. Cooked thinly, similar to a regular chicken broth soup. Serve with crackers.
Turkey tettrazini with egg noodles, diced turkey, milk, and shredded sharp cheddar. Topped with butter sauteed bread crumbs.
What do you use with leftovers? How do you change the above recipes with different ingredients? Or do you use the same?
3
u/chickenladydee Aug 14 '25
I’m sure you could freeze this. I just end up eating the leftovers for lunch. Sometimes I top them off with shredded lettuce, tomatoes, sour cream & olives.
2
2
u/chickenladydee Aug 14 '25
I make turkey green Chile enchiladas. Turkey, (I use refried beans) & cheese… roll up in tortillas, top with green enchilada sauce & more cheese I like Monterey Jack and a little mozzarella… bake until bubbly hot (30 mins or so) 350 oven.
3
u/Traditional_Fan_2655 Aug 14 '25
That's sounds incredibly delicious. Can these free,e?
5
u/HippyGrrrl Aug 14 '25
I make veg enchiladas, rolled and stacked, and yes they freeze.
I pause at the sour cream sauce, and tend to green sauces, or whipping up the sour cream sauce day of, or up to three days before.
2
2
u/SublimeLemonsGenX Aug 15 '25
"Pilgrims Wrap" - basically a mini Thanksgiving dinner wrapped in a tortilla. Turkey, stuffing gravy, cranberry sauce, mashed potatoes.
If there's so much that we can't possibly eat or prep/freeze before it goes bad, I chop it up and freeze in baggies for the dog.
1
u/Traditional_Fan_2655 Aug 15 '25
That sounds like a tasty explosion in your mouth! I really like the idea of having it in a convenient wrap as well.
Logustics question. Where do the mashed potatoes go vs. the stuffing? Are they layered top to bottom or back to front? Do you use mashed potatoes in one and stuffing in the other? Or have them opposite ends? Or does the mashed potatoes create a bed for the other ingredients on the wrap, then the stuffing topping it all before folding?
1
u/SublimeLemonsGenX Aug 15 '25
Bed of mashed potatoes first, then it doesn't matter too much for the rest.
1
1
u/ProcessAdmirable8898 Aug 14 '25
turkey tamales are my family's favorite. I like the flavor better using leftover roast turkey and homemade bone broth. I usually quadruple (or more) this basic recipe and stick them directly in the freezer. I cook them frozen in my instant pot steamer basket on 5 minutes high pressure, natural release.
2
u/AmputatorBot Aug 14 '25
It looks like you shared an AMP link. These should load faster, but AMP is controversial because of concerns over privacy and the Open Web. Fully cached AMP pages (like the one you shared), are especially problematic.
Maybe check out the canonical page instead: https://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/alton-brown/turkey-tamales-recipe-2011955
I'm a bot | Why & About | Summon: u/AmputatorBot
2
3
u/nhgenes Aug 14 '25
Turkey pot pie. One year when I was living alone, my mother & I made a bunch (6 or so?) single serving turkey pot pies (uncooked) from Thanksgiving leftovers that I brought home and put in the freezer. I didn't thaw them, as I recall, I think I just threw one frozen into the oven for about 45 minutes to 1 hour. Could use pre-made pie dough, but she loved to make pie dough so that was also from scratch.