Awesome Dishes using Thanksgiving Leftovers!

As I promised I am sharing with everybody some delicious ideas for Thanksgiving leftovers! It's easy to jazz up the simplest of food items to make a savory side dish or an early morning breakfast. Take a look at the following great ideas!


Wondering what to do with that leftover cornbread? 
Here's a great idea - Caramel Banana Cornbread Pudding. Even though I made homemade cheesy jalapeño cornbread for our Thanksgiving feast, I used Jiffy cornbread mix for the stuffing. It was an easy way to make a savory cornbread; plus, I grew up with Jiffy and I will always love it! I had some leftover cornbread [probably what an 8 ounce package would yield] so I decided to make a great desert/breakfast or snack. 

Ingredients:

• 1 (8 ounce) package corn muffing mix
• 3 bananas, sliced
• 1 cup dark brown sugar
• 4 eggs
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/4 cup caramel sauce or topping

Directions         

• preheat oven to 325 degrees F 
• prepare muffins according to package instructions, crumble muffins into large chunks
• lightly butter a 2 quart or 8 inch square ceramic baking dish or 6 small (8 ounce) ramekins
• arrange banana slices in the dish
• top with 1/4 to 1/2 cup of the brown sugar and chunks of corn muffins
• combine milk, eggs, remaining brown sugar and cinnamon, whisk well!
• pour mixture over muffins
• bake 50 minutes then drizzle with caramel sauce

This turned out pretty well and it makes a lot of pudding. So if you have family and friends visiting for the holiday this is a great way to start the morning with a hot cup of coffee or a cold glass of milk! Originally, I served it as a dessert but Nick gladly ate it for breakfast, too! You should ALL try this!!

I made a lot of stuffing - thus the reason I needed a recipe for the corn bread I did not use in the stuffing. However, I found an AWESOME way to jazz up some leftover stuffing! This is such a great way to get the entire family involved, particularly the kids. It will get a bit messy, but it will be well worth the excitement of eating this creation. So what it is this awesome dish you may ask.... well, it's Fried Stuffing Bites. This dish can stand alone or you can use some of that leftover cranberry sauce to make a pesto to dip. I served it without the pesto, but with some leftover sweet potatoes [which I will tell you ALL about in a minute!]

What you will need for the Fried Stuffing Bites:

• leftover stuffing
• 2 eggs
• 2 teaspoons milk
• 1 cup seasoned bread crumbs
• 1 cup cranberry sauce
• 1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
• oil, for frying

Directions

• preheat oil to 350 degrees F
• cut leftover stuffing into bite - sized cubes and set aside
• in a small bowl whisk eggs and milk
• coat each stuffing bite with egg wash, then dredge in the bread crumbs until fully coated and set aside

• in a food processor blend cranberry sauce and pepper then set aside
• once oil is at temperature fry each piece of stuffing until golden brown, approximately 3 minutes
• drain on a paper towel and serve with the cranberry pesto [or not!]

Now onto the next dish. I have never made sweet potatoes before because I do not like them. My body rejects them so intensely that I hate even thinking about them. I'm not sure what specifically repulses me about these things, it could very well be the fact that they are much healthier than other potato dishes; I will never know because I will NEVER eat them again. However, if you like sweet potatoes, which many people do especially my panda bear, this is a WONDERFUL recipe. Nick loved these. He actually told me that it was the best tasting sweet potato he had EVER had. My heart stopped and I was so excited that the dish turned out so wonderfully. 

I suggest you try these Stuffed Sweet Potatoes with Marshmallow Streusel!  

Ingredients

• 12 large sweet potatoes [though I only used 2... if you reduce the number of potatoes, REMEMBER to reduce the remaining ingredients or else you'll have a great deal leftover!]
• 3/4 cup [1 1/2 sticks] unsalted butter, at room temperature
• 3/4 cup light brown sugar
• 3/4 cup all purpose flour
• 1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/4 cup salt
• 1 cup miniature marshmallows

Directions

• preheat oven to 400 degrees F
• wash the sweet potatoes, scrubbing them well to remove the dirt
• with a fork, prick the sweet potatoes in a couple of spots and place them on a sheet pan
• bake for about 45 minutes, or until a knife inserted in the center goes in easily

• in a large bowl, mix the butter, brown sugar, and flour together until it's crumbly looking
• add the cinnamon, salt and marshmallows; fold the streusel topping together to combine

• slice the sweet potatoes lengthwise down the center and push the ends towards the middle so it opens
• stuff the sweet potatoes generously with the streusel topping and return to the oven
• bake for another 20 minutes, or until the topping is bubbly and brown

**Note: Nick says the topping tastes like the great marshmallows that you roast over an open fire! Mmmm.

Finally, we had some leftover spicy sausage and Nick, being a typical man, wanted to throw these bad boys into the deep fryer to see what would come out. Surprisingly, they were wonderful! I would recommend you trying deep fried sausage. They are good to eat standing alone or jazzed up for a nice warm breakfast, both of which we tried!

Deep fried Sausage:

Ingredients:

• spicy sausage
• peanut oil

Directions

• fry the sausages for 5 to 6 minutes in oil heated to 375 degrees F

Here are the ingredients you will need for the breakfast:

• leftover deep fried sausage
• 4 eggs
• 2 tablespoons milk
• 1/2 cup shredded Parmesan cheese
• onion powder
• chili powder

Directions:

• spray large frying pan with cooking oil
• crumble sausage then cook over medium to high heat 
• in the meantime, whisk eggs, milk, onion and chili powder together well
• once the sausage is warmed,  add the egg mixture to the sausage and flip occasionally to scramble the eggs and coat the sausage
• add cheese and finish scrambling the eggs

I served this great breakfast with a side of my leftover cheesy jalapeño cornbread. It was the perfect side to this easy and delicious breakfast concoction!! 

I have been so excited to try new things lately and I'm super glad that our Thanksgiving feast has given me the opportunity not only to experiment with these new creations but also use up all of our leftovers! I hope you all try these great meals and tell me how they turn out for you some day!!

Until next time, happy leftovers! :)

Comments

[Nick]

Not only are the leftovers great for just a quick dish of turkey and "fix-ins". But all of these dishes are great!!

[Nick]

I also made a wrap one night with all of the leftovers. It was really good. Like a hot turkey, open face sandwich. The cranberry sauce and stuffing made the sandwich super good.