Leftover Turkey Recipes Roundup

I don't know about you, but I have a lot of leftover turkey here. I am certainly not complaining though. I'm just busy looking for creative ways to use it up~and fairly quickly! I found out the hard way last year to not let it stay in the freezer too long.

So I've been going through my recipe files and cookbooks looking for some good ones. Here are some ideas I've found so far:

Chicken (Turkey) Pot Pie
I'm making this tonight with a twist!


(Google images)

Easy Chicken (Turkey) Bake

(Taste of Home images)

Classic Turkey Tetrazzinni


(Taste of Home images)

Poppy Seed Chicken (Turkey)


(Google images)

Chicken (Turkey) Spaghetti


(Taste of Home images)

Mushroom Turkey Tetrazzinni


(Google images)

Chicken (Turkey) Turnovers


(Google images)

Chicken (Turkey) Luscious

I'd love to hear about ways that you use up leftover turkey~leave me a comment and tell me your recipes!

One Thousand Gifts

0361. a special time to focus on thanksgiving to God

0362. the amazing story of the pilgrims

0363. fun and peaceful family gatherings

0364. the joy of making {and eating} cookies

0365. watching holiday movies snuggled up with my family

0366. watching the Christmas tree lights twinkle

0367. delicious food to eat

0368. walking through a *forest of lights* with my kiddos

0369. star-gazing on a clear night

0370. the comfort of snuggling down under the covers on a cold morning

O Christmas Tree, How Lovely Are Your Branches

We got our Christmas tree up this past week. It's the first time I've ever put mine up before Thanksgiving. After trying it, I think I still prefer to wait until after Thanksgiving to put it up, but my goal this year was to have my Christmas shopping and my decorating finished before December.

Here is a little video Vince put together of our tree trimming time. If you're wondering about that extra person helping, that's my sister.

P.S. Ignore the mess in the background:)






This post is linked to:
and also Kelly's Korner.

Menu Plan Monday: Nov 29th

Ahh...the crazy frenzy of cooking from last week is over and this week will be much more laid back, right?

I thought taking last week off from school would give me so much extra time, but I think I spent it all in the kitchen either making dinner, making things ahead of time for Thanksgiving, and then making the actual dishes for Thanksgiving. I need another week off to recover!

However, we are going to have two more weeks of school before our Christmas break. So I'm planning simple meals. Comforting and hearty, but simple.


Monday: Pinto Beans & Cornbread (from the freezer:)
Tuesday: Turkey Pot Pie
Wednesday: Tostadas
Thursday: Spaghetti
Friday: {date night}
Saturday: yet-to-be-decided as there are some Christmas activities looming

This post is linked to Menu Plan Monday at I'm an Organizing Junkie.

And Thankfulness Did Abound

Whew! I made it through this weekend of food~hopefully my clothes will still fit! I have to start off with this picture of my beautiful peanut butter pie. It was so yummy!

Frankly, it was all amazing. We had an overabundance of food, that's for sure! This was the spread at my parents' house on Thursday. You can read all about what's on that island here. There were a couple of food bloopers: my homemade rolls didn't turn out well, I didn't beat the meringue on my pie long enough and I left the pumpkin bread for the pumpkin bread pudding in the freezer at our house (luckily my hubby was sweet enough to go get them for me:). But oh, well...right?

My sister decorated our table very prettily, including these fun place cards with turkey trivia.

It was a very relaxing day filled with watching the Macy's parade, cooking with my mom and sister, watching A Christmas Carol, playing Phase 10, having our annual ornament exchange and watching Punkin' Chunkin'. Good times!!

(Vince with his new Yoda ornament from the kiddos)

Then on Friday we did it all over again, in-law-style. We drove up to Tulsa to have the big dinner with Vince's family. It was a good day visiting with everyone. After stuffing ourselves yet again, we headed over to Bass Pro to take Santa pics.

On a side note: we don't teach our children to *believe* in Santa. Instead we teach them about St. Nicholas, modern-day Santa is just all in fun for us. It's all about the spirit of giving.

Then we had some fun playing with laser guns at Bass Pro and browsing around~we could spend hours in there!



Before heading back home we made our annual stop at Rhema Bible Church/School in Broken Arrow to view their lights. They have an amazing display every year~over 2 million lights (or something like that!). Mr. B calls it the *forest of lights*.


This morning I started my day with some coffee and leftover pumpkin bread pudding~which I must say was THE most amazing thing I ate all weekend! Absolutely divine! You must try it! Check out the recipe here.

I think I'll have some more for breakfast in the morning.

And that's a wrap on Thanksgiving! It was wonderful for us and I pray it was for you as well.

Now it's only 27 days till Christmas!!

Our Thanksgiving Day Menu

Today we'll be at my parents' house. I'm going very hungry~we have a tendency to get carried away with the cooking:)

***
Fruit Salad with Dressing
***
Copper Pennies
***
Roasted Turkey
***
Cornbread Dressing
***
Giblet Gravy
***
Cranberry Sauce*
***
Mashed Potatoes
***
Green Bean Casserole*
***
Corn Casserole
***
Roasted Brussels Sprouts*
***
Homemade Bread*
***
Pumpkin Pie
***
Pumpkin Bread Pudding*
***
Peanut Butter Pie*

*{what I'm making}

A Very Happy Thanksgiving To You!

May you have a wonderful holiday weekend with your families and friends! I am looking forward to a relaxing day with my family and then a fun little road trip to visit more family on Friday.

P.S. If you've never caught the Thanksgiving Charlie Brown show, you totally should! It's great (of course, my family LOVES the Peanuts gang)!

Holiday Side Dishes

In case you're still looking for some great sides to go with your turkey on Thanksgiving (or are already planning Christmas menus!), here are some yummy suggestions for you. These are some of our family faves and they will definitely be making an appearance (some more than once, I'm sure) during this holiday season. Frankly, the sides are my favorite part of the meal and I sometimes even have them for dessert:) Enjoy!

Corn Casserole

Copper Pennies (Marinated Carrots)

Green Bean Bundles

Squash Casserole

Special Peas

Macaroni & Cheese

Cornbread Dressing (slow cooker!)

What are some of your family's favorite side dishes?

Setting Up the Village

After hauling the Dickens Village boxes out of the attic nearly two weeks ago, I was finally able to get it all set up on Sunday afternoon.

I've noticed that a lot of people display their villages all on a flat, smooth surface and that is fine. But I thought I would share with you how I like to display mine. It's definitely not a flat, smooth surface~at least, not when I'm finished with it:)

First of all I clear my space off. In this case, I am displaying my village on the tops of my living room bookcases. So off to boxes go my framed pictures, etc.

Next, I visualize which village pieces will go where and then I pillage my bookcases for the right-sized books. I stack them in varying heights across the tops of the bookcases, like so:

Then I get out my *snow*. Now I'm not yet brave enough to use all those little packages of fake snow that come with the village pieces, so I use cotton batting. I used to find this in the fabric department, but last year I discovered that they are finally selling this type of *snow* in the Christmas departments. Yea! It's SO much easier! I simply cover my books with it, draping it across the tops of the bookcases.

Then comes the fun (and tedious) part: setting up the village pieces. I usually anchor the center with a larger piece and also the ends, filling the in-between spaces with clusters of smaller pieces. After getting them all plugged in (thank you, Vince!), I add the accessories starting with the trees and finishing with the people. That's the really fun part!

See what a difference it makes to have the pieces at varying heights? First of all, it's just incredibly more interesting to look at and, secondly, you can fit a lot more pieces on there! Since the pieces are different heights, you can stagger smaller pieces below and in front of larger pieces.

My Dickens Village is one of my favorite Christmas decorations! Some years I've set it up as early as October 1st, although I didn't this year. It makes more sense to do that though, since it's quite time-consuming to set up. But it's worth it! My kiddos are enamored with it!

Do you have a village that you collect? How do you like to display it? There are so many ways and places, I'd love to hear your ideas.

One Thousand Gifts

0351. the opportunity to be a blessing to others through Operation Christmas Child

0352. studying the Bible with my children

0353. a week off from school for Thanksgiving

0354. *free* goodies in the mail


0355. good food to nosh on


0356. the anticipation of what God has planned for our family

0357. time with my sister

0358. God's daily provision in unexpected ways

0359. candles on a cozy evening at home

0360. opportunities to be a blessing to others in unexpected ways