10 Days of Turkey~Carcass Redux!

In reality, my family will not tolerate the same leftover foods for more then a few days, at best.  And at best is usually after Thanksgiving, Christmas or Easter.  It's rather ridiculous, on one hand, they enjoy the big meal with seven or eight different dishes, but on the other, if they have to eat that menu for more then three days in a row, they start getting picky! 

So, over the years I developed a thrifty little system for making sure we get the most out of the holiday meals (and the money spent), and keeping the family from going into a full on dinner mutiny.  I make TV Dinners and freeze them :)

I just get small disposable aluminum pans from the Dollar Store and divvy up the remaining left overs.  I like the ones that have the cardboard lids with them.

Write out what is in the dish, the date, and instructions for how to cook.   Now, if I am out of town, away for the evening or not feeling well, my husband can pull out a couple of these little meal trays and avoid hitting Zips for Dinner.  If you can find trays that are microwavable, this concept would be good for work lunches too (I just haven't found disposable microwavable trays anywhere, if you know where to get some please let me know!)

After I finished off all the leftover Turkey and sides, I stripped off the rest of the meat, bagged it and stuck it in the freezer  for Casseroles/Enchilada/Soups on some other day, then I put the all the Turkey bones in the crock pot, covered it with water and turned it on high for 8 hours for homemade Turkey broth.  This year I got about 8 cups of broth. 

After I strained off the broth, there was still a good deal of meat left on the bones.  If it isn't to dry, it would also make good meat for Soups and Casseroles, but I usually pick out the bones and save this meat for the Dog and Cats.  They like Turkey too :)