Several years ago, my oldest three were in NY for Thanksgiving, and Lili was a baby and not really eating yet.  We are 12 hours from family, and decided that we weren’t going to go all out with the huge Thanksgiving meal and opted for Cracker Barrel instead.  It was cheap, no clean up, and tasty.  Since then, we’ve gone back several times on Thanksgiving, because it’s just SO much easier.

But there are no leftovers.  And that makes me sad.

I’m not sure if I’ll cook a big Thanksgiving dinner this year ON Thanksgiving, but I totally plan on doing it at some point this fall/winter.   I simply HAVE to after attending The Motherhood’s class Turning Leftovers into Left-‘Uppers’ on Tuesday.  Sponsored by ConAgraFoods and ReadySetEat.com, our celebrity chef George Duran gave us so many great ideas.  And seriously- where has Ready Set Eat been all my life?  That site is amazing.

If you missed the chat, you can read a summary of the transcript on The Motherhood.

During the chat, George Duran whipped up some Leftover Turkey & Stuffing Enchiladas as seen in the photo, and everyone who attended was drooling.  We all were wishing we were there in his kitchen to taste test them!

Bottom line- there are so many things to do with all those Thanksgiving leftovers besides sandwiches and reheated plates.  Some more ideas you’ll find on Ready Set Eat include Leftover Turkey Taco Soup and Leftover Turkey Sloppy Joes.  If you cook a ham on Thanksgiving like many of us do, how about dicing it up into a quiche or even making the ham & potato soup I’ve posted about recently?

An added bonus?  By purchasing ConAgra Foods for your holiday preparations, you’re feeding hungry kids.  Through December, collect the UPC codes from ConAgra Foods brands like PAM Cooking Spray and Hunt’s canned tomatoes and donate them to participating schools, listed at http://www.ChildHungerEndsHere.com. ConAgra will donate one meal to Feeding America for each code.  The goal is to donate 5 million meals during the 2011-2012 school year.

Here in the United States, we produce 34 million tons of waste each year, and 14 percent of that is from food scraps alone.  Don’t let your holiday leftovers become part of that statistic!

My awesome friend Steph shared this recipe with me a while back, and I’ve been craving it lately so I wanted to share it here with you all! It’s one of those recipes that you can mix and match amounts to your personal taste, so the following is just a guide. It’s awesome for leftover ham!

Grandma Amanda’s Ham Soup
In a stock pot combine:
Several Potatoes, chopped to bite size
1 Onion, chopped
2-3 c. Ham, cubed
2 cans Green Beans
4 Chicken Bouillon Cubes
Summer Savory
2 Bay Leaves
Basil

Cover with water and bring to a boil, then simmer until the potatoes are tender.
Add cheese until melted.
I’ve used whatever cheese we’ve had on hand, from shredded colby-jack to Velveeta, and as much as I felt like.
Add 1 cup Cream just before serving (you don’t want it to curdle!)

The original recipe didn’t call for cheese, so I adjust my cream amount depending on how much cheese I put in. The 1 cup is for no cheese.

Serve with Beer Bread.

Beer Bread
3 c. self rising flour
2 T. sugar
1 beer
Mix up, plop into a bread pan. Bake at 375 for 45 min. then take out and slather the top with butter, bake 10 more min.

Thanks so much, Steph, for sharing this recipe a couple years ago with me!

The other day I’d found a recipe on Pinterest that was described as ‘the bomb’ by another pinner, so I knew I wanted to try them.  Then I got to my mom’s this  week, and we were looking for something to feed the kids and I found chicken pot pie insides in the freezer.  My mom will make stuff like that and freeze it to bake in the crust later on.  I decided instead of using pie crust, I’d just drop some biscuit dough on top and bake it.

My big kids LOVE seltzer and flavored waters, so we ran to Walmart to pick up a few necessities and I grabbed a few flavors of Clear American for them.  They drink it straight from the bottle, but I prefer it mixed with a bit of juice.

Anyway- I also pulled a batch of beef barley soup out of the freezer and put the rest of the dough on that.  Both came out of the oven delicious!  The biscuits were perfect with the chicken pot pie and soup- all the kids loved it and both pans were gone.

The recipe is so simple- only four ingredients- you can find the original here, but I changed it a bit in an attempt to make it a little healthier:

Biscuits:
2 cups Bisquick
½ cup Light Sour Cream
½ cup Lemon Clear American
¼ cup Melt Buttery Spread, melted

Bake at 450º for 15 mins

That’s it!

Clear American is carbonated flavored water- with no calories.  I love knowing that my kids are not drinking something full of sugar like soda.  You can find Clear American at Walmart stores- check their facebook and twitter too.

Disclosure: This shop has been compensated as part of a social shopper insights study for Collective Bias, which is a vendor for Cott Beverages Inc., the manufacturer of Clear American® brand beverages.