Thanksgiving Leftover Turkey Soup

Post Thanksgiving, aka Black Friday, has been a relaxing, yet semi-productive day!

Yesterday Jordan and I hit three Thanksgivings, but of course, we did not pace ourselves and only really ate at the first one.

We did, however, get some lovely leftovers. One of my best finds would have to be the turkey carcass from Jordan’s brother’s house. I was helping with clean up, and they were going to throw the bird remains away! Since no one else was interested in making soup with it, I decided to step up and offer to take it off of their hands.

As you may know, I was a vegetarian for quite some time. I am now back to my omnivorous ways, but I still try to limit my impact of animal eating by at least making use of as much as I can- hence, my compulsive need to repurpose the carcass.

So this morning I started my turkey soup making.  This is only my second attempt making a soup with a carcass- so I am sure my routine could use some refining, and from some internet sources I read, many people add in a lot more steps, but, frankly I think mine came out just fine.

Ingredients used:

·      1 Turkey carcass(I only used half of mine, and froze the rest for a later time)

·      1 Red onion

·      1 Yellow onion

·      4 ribs Celery, chopped

·      ~ 2 pounds Carrots, chopped

·      4 tiny Red potato, quartered

·      2 medium Idaho potato, chopped

·      1 Italian pepper, chopped

·      1 cup Frozen peas

·      ½ cup Frozen corn

·      2 cups dry Egg noodles

·      1 cup dry Lentils

·      5 cloves garlic, sliced

·      Thyme

·      Rosemary

·      Black pepper

·      Parsley

·      Oregano 

(As usual- I just used whatever veggies I had around- no real need for mixed colors of onions/ potatoes etc, they just happened to be hanging around) 

1.     I started by making the stock by placing the carcass in my crockpot with water, the veggies that were stuffed inside (in this case red onion, celery, and parsley). I also threw in an additional yellow onion (quartered) and a few carrots (roughly chopped).  I simmered this for a few hours. 

2.     During the interm, I chopped up some of the other veggies and threw them into the pot as I went.  I also added the spices and garlic at this time.

3.     After a few hours of simmering I removed the bones from the stock. Some of the meat had already fallen off, but I picked at the carcass and removed the rest of the meat before throwing it away. I gave the weird bits that I wasn’t quite sure what they were to Leo, who was quite appreciative. 

4.     I added the meat back into the stock.  ** This is where my methods varied from a lot of others I read, many people make the stock, strain it, cool it, remove the fat etc, and get rid of the veggies and stuff they used in the stock.. but I just kept it in there. I only had a little bit of fat on the top so I just skimmed that off in the crock pot. 

5. I then added the egg noodles and lentils.

    

6. I then continued simmering the soup on low for most of the day. I decided I wanted it to be a bit thicker of a soup, so I removed some of the large pieces of potatoes, carrots, and celery and placed them in another bowl and blenderized them with an immersion blender, then added the pureed soup back into the crock pot.

Here are a few pictures of the end result. I was surprised how much meat was actually in the soup considering it was only what was on half of a turkey carcass- and what was going to be thrown away! 

What are you making with your Thanksgiving left overs?? 

My boyfriend's bento

Jordan is the antagonist in my plot to encourage healthy eating. No matter how many little tid bits I give him, or healthy-yet delicious foods I attempt to expose him to, he still insists he must eat the fattening foods he loves because he will not give up "flavor"

I have tried introducing him to new flavors, and incorporating his beloved flavors in a healthier fashion, yet, he still makes dietary decisions to make any dietitian/ health conscience individual cringe.

I have always said the main reason I want children is so I can feed them - which probably isn't the true main reason, but I do enjoy feeding people/ preparing them food, and getting them to eat healthy. So, I am using Jordan as my 'practice child' and I prepare his lunch for work most days.

I love Lunch in a Box blog about a mothers journey of preparing speedy-adorable bentos for her son, so I got inspired and bought a bento box. - as the baker I used to work for used to say "If it looks good on the plate, it tastes good going into the mouth."

So here is one sample of Jordan's Bento box:

* turkey sandwich: whole wheat bread, turkey, lettuce, cucumber, sauteed onion and pepper.

* carrots with hummus

* a cut up plum and nectarine

* reduced fat wheat thins with thinly slices cheddar cheese

* unsalted, dry roasted peanuts

* and a granola bar.

Sure, it's only one meal, but I am making healthy changes to that boy- one meal at a time :) And as per usual-- encouraging frugality, since we're saving money by packing lunched rather than going out and buying them every day.

Picadillo

Picadillo is a Hispanic dish. Cubans, Brazilians, and Mexicans (and probably every other South American country) has their own variation on the dish. It is traditionally a dish made with ground beef that is served over rice, or can be made in to empanadas. Since Jordan is Cuban, I've had the great pleasure of trying his mothers Picadillo on several occasions.

Jordan always tells me that his favorite foods are Cuban foods, which have a lot of fat in them. I try to make the argument that he could make some substitutions in the recipes to make the dishes healthier, but he says it will make them lose their flavor.

So... a challenge?

I took this Traditional Cuban Picadillo Recipe I found online, and analyzed the nutrition and modified it. Usually Cuban Picadillo also contains raisins, so I added a cup of raisins to my modified recipe, and to the traditional recipe when analyzing.

My Modified Picadillo Recipe Included:
*4 cloves of Garlic
*~ 2 tb olive oil
* 2 medium onions, finely chopped
* 1 large green bell pepper, chopped
* 1 tsp cumin
* 1 tsp oregano
*1 tsp fresh ground black pepper
* 1/2 tsp salt
* 1 cup beef broth (can use vegetable/ chicken/ just water)
* 1 Package Shady Brook Farms Lean Ground Turkey (20 oz raw, about 1 LB cooked)
* 2 small cans tomato sauce
* 2 medium potatoes (roughly peeled), diced
* 10 large green olives, cut
*~ 1 cup raisins

Instructions:
1. Saute onions, peppers and garlic in olive oil over medium heat, until softened.
2. Mix meat with spices, then add to pan with vegetables. Add broth, and tomato sauce. Let cook, covered at medium heat for about 15 minutes.
3. Add potatoes. Cook for an additional 15 minutes.
** note- I stated 'roughly peeled,' the original recipe said peeled, but frankly I enjoy the peel- and its where all of the fiber is! so basically I just lazily peel a potato so that about 2/3 of the skin is off, so the texture is better but I still can have the fiber and nutrients from some of the peel. You could do as you wish.
4. Add in olives and raisins, simmer until potatoes are fork tender.
5. Serve over (brown) rice or with a whole wheat tortilla!

Note- instead of ground turkey you could use a lean ground beef, ground chicken, or even diced up chicken breast or other lean meat. Megan actually came over for dinner, so I made her a batch that had tofu, and no beef broth- and she seemed to enjoy it as well! So be creative!

According to the website I got the original recipe from, the recipe makes 4-6 servings, which I found to be way off! There were 4 of us eating good size portions, and I'd say I still have at least 1/3 left. So honestly, I would say this makes about 8 servings. But of course, that may have something to do with my adding more vegetables. To be as fair as possible, below I compared the two recipes dividing them into 6 servings each:

The Nutrition Break Down:

The Original Recipe:

• 400 calories
• 20 grams fat- 6 grams Sat Fat, 10.5 MUFA,
  
• 35 grams carb- 4 grams fiber
  
• 23 grams protein

My Modified Recipe

• 360 calories
• 12 grams fat- 2.5 Sat fat, 6.5 MUFA
• 40.5 grams Carb- 5 grams fiber
  
• 23 grams protein
  

So, the nutrition facts do not look that much different, but again, honestly, considering volumetrics, you would not eat as much of the modified version as you would the original version (as in 1/6th of the recipe).
And Saving 8 grams of fat certainly is not too shabby!

Giving Thanks :)

This past Thursday was Thanksgiving. I went home to Worcester Wednesday afternoon through Friday afternoon.

Thanksgiving was super mellow. It was just my immediate family: Dad, Mom, Tara, and my Grandmother for some of it.

My sister also brought home my "neice" Snuggles, which is always a treat. She is growing up and learning so many new things! She now sits, stays, gives her paw and dances... I've been trying to teach her roll over for quite a while but she just rolls over on her back and wants her stomach patted.

I started off the afternoon/ breakfast with some cheese and crackers:

For Thanksgiving dinner we had far too much food especially considering the number of people present. We had: Turkey, asparagus, green beans, squash, salad, mashed potatoes, stuffing, and
blueberry pie.

The only thing I cooked was the asparagus which I just put a bit of salt, pepper and olive oil on and steamed it in the microwave. I do not come from a very "culinary" family so overall most of the food was very standard-- so no fun recipes to share unfortunately.

This year is was a big deal that I "had to" eat turkey. I did try some, it was ok, but I still prefer the vegetables. I also determined I only like the unhealthy parts of the turkey, the dark meat. The white meat didn't really taste like anything but it was unpleasant to chew. I'd really rather just stick to the greens and squash :P

I learned that Snuggs takes after her Auntie, and not my sister- She loves green beans!!

Tara's plate was slacking heavily in the vegetable department.

One of the best things about having Snuggles around was that I got to take her for walks! I love to walk, but sometimes it can be boring to just go for a walk by yourself, so having an adorable lil pomapoo to join you makes it all better. We went for a walk before and after dinner, probably doing about 3-4 miles total, which is pretty significant for lil Snugs considering her size! Plus Tara barely ever walks her, so I definitely wore the lil pup out. We even ran for about half of each walk... which made me feel rather pathetic when I was having trouble keeping up with Snuggs.



At any rate, Thanksgiving was a nice little "break" and I tried to enjoy the home cooked food and being around family and friends. I'm rather excited for "Christmas break" to have a little bit more of a legit break. But must be Thankful for everything :)