10 Ideas for Your Party Leftovers

Soup is a very comforting and warming dish when the temperature begins to dip. Using chicken or beef broth, you can use your leftovers to make some chicken noodle soup, turkey noodle soup or even beef stew.

Here is how I use my turkey leftovers to make soup, it is very simple and fast to do.
Ingredients

* 1 leftover turkey carcass
* 3 medium onions, chopped
* 2 large carrots, diced
* 2 celery ribs, diced
* 1 cup uncooked long grain rice or spiral noodles
* 2 teaspoons salt or to taste
* 3/4 teaspoon pepper or to taste
* 1 teaspoon Mrs. Dash seasoning

Directions

1. Place turkey carcass in a soup pot and cover with water. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat; cover and simmer for 1 hour. Remove carcass; cool. Set aside 3 qt. broth. Remove turkey from bones and cut into bite-size pieces; set aside.

2. In a soup pot, add turkey broth, onions, carrots, celery and turkey. Reduce heat; and let all ingredients cook for an hour.

3. Next, add rice ( or noodles), salt, and pepper. Cover pot and simmer for 30-35 minutes or until rice is tender.

That's it, easy, fast and delicious!

Freezing means that you can enjoy your party fare at anytime. If you use plastic storage bags, make sure that they are freezer bags and write the date of freezing on the outside.

When you divide food into portion sizes then you can thaw out only what you need and not the entire lot.

Use a freezer thermometer and keep the freezer at 0 degrees Fahrenheit. Leave some space around frozen food packages so air can circulate.

Remember to mark freezer bags with what the contents are and the date frozen before you place food in the bags

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Why keep all the bounty to yourself? Load up on reusable food containers (in festive colors) so that each guest can take home some food for later.

Especially if you know you are not going to eat the leftovers in the next few days or aren't going to feel like packaging up everything to freeze it in the next day or two.

Green salads can be so boring sometimes. Add a slice or two of turkey, beef, chicken or ham to spice it up. Leftover meats make great salad toppers.

Or, make turkey salad for sandwiches or to use as a spread on crackers.

Here is my favorite turkey salad recipe;

Ingredients

* 3/4-1 pound cooked turkey meat
* 2-3 celery stalks
* 1 sweet yellow onion
* 3 tablespoons mayonnaise
* 2 tablespoons prepared Dijon-style mustard
* 1 tablespoon cider vinegar
* 1 teaspoon white sugar
* 1/4 teaspoon salt

Directions

1. Place cooked turkey meat, celery, and yellow onion in a blender or food processor. Finely chop using the pulse setting.

2. Transfer the turkey mixture to a medium bowl. Mix in mayonnaise, prepared Dijon-style mustard, cider vinegar, white sugar and salt. Cover and refrigerate for at least 4 hours, or overnight is even better.

Omelets are fun to make. Even more fun than making them is adding different items to them to see what kind of combinations you can come up with. Use leftover party fare to decorate your omelet. Ham can be diced to use as an omelet add-in. Leftover vegetables can also be cut up to sprinkle inside an omelet.

Leftover whole potatoes are great cut up and fried with a little salt and pepper, yum yum.

Use a cast iron pan for your omelets

A well-seasoned cast-iron pan is an excellent non-stick surface. Cast iron is known for its even heat-distribution and durability. In addition, cast iron is also especially complementary to eggs (which are a great source of iron) because a very small amount of iron leeches out of cast iron into the food cooked in it. The body uses iron to produce red-blood cells.

Did you have steak or beef for your party gathering?

Cut the leftovers into thin strips. With a few stir-fry vegetables you have created a new dinner meal. If stir fry is not your cup of tea, you can make lo mien, fried rice and other Asian dishes that include steak.

Or if you had the traditional turkey, go wild with turkey chow mein.

Who doesn't love a good casserole? With party dinner leftovers, you can whip up a casserole for any meal. With breakfast, combine ham, veggies and shredded cheese with egg for an after party treat.

For lunch, use some turkey, rice, cream soup and vegetables for a midday meal. For dinner, try chicken, vegetables, noodles and cream of chicken soup for an easy all-in-one meal that takes less than an hour to cook.

This is not the sweet treat but a dinner pie. Turkey or chicken and even beef can be placed inside a crust with tons of delicious veggies to make a pot pie your family will love.

I always use bought pie crust.... come on, there is only so much time in the day and I am not that handy in the kitchen!!!

I know it can be overwhelming when faced with all that leftover food, but hopefully these ideas can make sure nothing goes to waste.

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