Monday, October 8, 2007

No Baste-Turkey Dinner and a Week of Delicious Leftovers

Here's a delicious way to plan meals and save money! Whole turkeys are typically extremely inexpensive (especially this time of year!), and with easy leftover meals, you can enjoy an entire week of delicious turkey-based dishes! Turkey is delicious, healthy, and is high in Triptophan so it is a natural antidepressant.

Prep: 20 minutes, plus roasting
Yield: varies by size of your turkey. For my family of 4, a 12 lb turkey will feed us for a week.

1 turkey, thawed
Pam cooking spray
1 brown paper grocery sack

Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Remove neck & giblets from turkey. Rinse with cold water inside & out. Pat dry with a paper towel. Place turkey in brown paper bag & staple closed. Place in roasting dish in oven. On a lower rack place a cookie sheet to catch drippings. Roast until meat thermometer reads 190 degrees, about 4 hours for a 12 lb turkey. About one hour before turkey is done, remove bag & discard bag, spray turkey with Pam. Return to the oven.

Carve turkey, and clean all visible meat from bones. Reserve any tiny pieces in a bowl for casseroles. Reserve carcass for soup. Reserve drippings for gravy.

Tips & Tricks:
Almost any chicken recipe can use turkey in its place.

Sunday: Turkey dinner with Mashed Potatoes & Gravy (make extra mashed potatoes & gravy, reserve leftovers for Tuesday & Wednesday.)

Monday: Turkey Noodle Soup

Tuesday: Leftover Turkey & Potatoes from Sunday

Wednesday: Turkey Dinner Casserole

Thursday: Turkey Divan

Friday: Enchiladas (use the tiny bits of turkey you reserved from Sunday to save time-no chopping needed.)

Saturday: Leftovers from the week. Or, for more recipes, try here.

2 comments:

Dutchnic said...

Sounds good and easy. But I'd be afraid the heat of the oven would put the sack on fire!

Jennifer @ Fruit of My Hands said...

I've never had a fire & neither has my mom or anyone I know...her family has done this for years. The turkey juices soak into the bag, which I staple down quite tightly around the turkey. Just be sure no part of the bag is touching the sides of the oven.