leftovers

All You Need for a Nourishing Thanksgiving Dinner

Posted on November 13, 2012 by Lia Huber — No Comments ↓

We’ve assembled our best Thanksgiving dinner advice here to take the “frazzle” out of your feast. For 2 full-color e-books (including one for stress free “other” meals); a 5-step Surthrival Guide; hands-on daily checklists and more, get our Holiday Surthrival Kit!

Before the Feast

Test Your Leaveners — Before you start baking, run your baking soda and baking powders through these simple tests so your desserts won’t fall flat.

Make-Ahead Thanksgiving Desserts – Five delicious, seasonal options that you can make at least two to three days ahead and savor throughout the holidays.

All About Heritage Turkeys — What they are, why you’d want one, how they’re different and how to cook them.

Talking Turkey — A decoder for all the terms out there, from “fresh” to “natural” to “free-range” to “kosher” to help you decide what’s right for you.

Why Brine? — A primer on brining for a succulent bird.

What to Serve with the Thanksgiving Bird — Expert advice from Jill Hough on pairing wine with the Thanksgiving meal.

During the Feast

Slow Down and Savor the Feast — These three tips will help ground you in the ‘thanks’ and ‘giving’ part of the holiday meal.

After the Feast

Love Those Leftovers! — Five ways to make the most of the extras. Plus another bonus three.

Improv Cassoulet

Posted on November 24, 2011 by Lia Huber — 2 Comments ↓

There are so many things I love about cassoulet … one of them being its versatility. Be creative with your leftovers–beans, roasted meat, stale bread–and see what it becomes.

1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil
4 thick slices bacon, chopped
1 medium onion, chopped
3 links italian sausage, cut diagonally into 4 pieces
4 cloves garlic, minced, divided
¼ cup dry white wine
2 cups low-sodium chicken, vegetable or turkey stock
1 (14-ounce) can tomato puree
4 cups leftover cooked turkey, duck or dark-meat chicken, shredded
2 (15-ounce) cans white beans, drained
1 bay leaf
2 sprigs thyme
2 cups course bread crumbs
2 tablespoons parsley, minced
Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
1/4 cup melted butter

Preheat oven to 350 F.

Heat olive oil in a large Dutch oven over medium heat, and saute bacon and onion for 12-15 minutes, until bacon is semi-crisp and onion is browned. Add sausages and 1/2 of the garlic, and saute for 4 minutes, until slightly browned.

Add wine and scrape up any bits stuck to the bottom of the pan. Add stock, tomato puree, turkey, beans, bay leaf and thyme. Taste and adjust seasoning accordingly. Bake in the oven uncovered for 30 minutes, adding additional stock if necessary to keep moist.

Mix bread crumbs with remaining garlic, minced parsley, salt and pepper in a medium bowl. Toss with melted butter until moistened evenly and sprinkle on top of cassoulet. Bake for another 20 minutes. Push down breadcrumbs so they are slightly moistened and bake another 20 minutes, until top crisps.

Serves 8

Nourishing Resolutions: Plan Ahead in 4 Steps!

Posted on January 10, 2011 by Alison Ashton — No Comments ↓

When life gets hectic — as it so often does — it’s easy to put off this crucial step to eating well: Plan ahead. But isn’t that when you need it the most? We’ve said it before, and we’ll probably say it again: A little advance planning and few minutes of prep work here and there are often the difference between ordering take-out and cooking a delicious nourishing meal.

I know that if I’ve thought ahead a little and shopped smart, it’s usually easier and faster to cook at home than to pick up something to go. Here are 4 simple steps:

Plan Meals for the Week

Chances are, you did some serious meal planning during the holidays. Lia’s tips for feasting without frenzy during the yuletide season are easily adapted for everyday use. I do a modified version of this every weekend, thinking about our schedule for the week ahead and which recipes I want to make. I usually make a more involved meal on Sunday evening, with an eye toward delicious leftovers (i.e., “planned-overs”) I can recycle later in the week. For example, I made batch of Easy All-Purpose Tomato Sauce for pizzas last night with an eye toward using the extra sauce with pasta and veggies later this week.

You don’t have to go so far as mark your calendar, though it can help you remember make-ahead steps along the way. For instance, I jotted a note to remind myself to put the farro on to soak for this 15-Minute Farrotto with Sage and Butternut Squash. And there’s also a note reminding me to marinate the steak for Grass-Fed Beef Bulgogi for tomorrow night (which I’ll stir-fry rather than grill, with some veggies that need to be used up).

Stock the Pantry, Fridge and Freezer

There are ingredients I always keep on hand so I can whip up something delicious at the last minute. If I have whole grain pasta, chicken stock, some bacon, eggs and a little hunk of cheese, I’ve got the makings of carbonara, which I can improvise with whatever veggies we have on hand (if there are none in the crisper, I always have a bag of frozen peas in the freezer).

This is a good time of year to reevaluate your pantry, too — get rid of items you’ll never use and restock a healthy pantry. Go ahead and use up that white rice, but replace it with brown; make the switch from white pasta to whole grain.

Shop Smart

Ugh, is there anything worse that stopping by the supermarket after a long day at work? It’s crowded, the lines are long, you’re hungry and then you have to schlep home and cook.

Instead, include shopping in your weekly plan and choose a time that works best with your schedule. My neighbor always hits the store early on a Saturday morning, when it’s uncrowded. This year, I want to visit our neighborhood weekly Friday morning farmers’ market, which is far more convenient (and much less hectic) than the weekend market.

When I have to hit the supermarket, I try to arrange my shopping list according to the store’s layout–grouping all the produce, all the bulk-bin items, all the meat, dairy, cheese, etc.–so I can zip through the store in no time.

Prep (and Cook) Ahead

Doing a few small chores when you have the time–from cleaning farmers’ market greens or chopping squash to cooking a pot of beans or simmering some stock–is painless and sets you up for great meals later in the week. And you don’t always need a lot of time. The prep-ahead step for this farro risotto recipe is as simple as putting the farro in a pot to soak in the morning so it cooks more quickly when you get home in the evening.

Also in this series:
Nourishing Resolutions: Fruit of the Day

Thanksgiving Extras: 5 Ways to Play with Leftovers

Posted on November 26, 2010 by Alison Ashton — 2 Comments ↓

I rolled home from our over-the-top Thanksgiving feast with friends last night bearing a hefty supply of planned-for leftovers. Now, we’d never diss a next-day classic like a turkey and cranberry sauce sandwiches with reheated sides, especially if you make that sandwich with hearty artisan bread, arugula and a sprinkling of blue cheese. But there are other things you can do with all that culinary loot. Here are 5 ideas:

Make stock. Save that turkey carcass, which you can use in place of chicken to make our Most Versatile Chicken Stock. OK, so technically it then becomes Most Versatile Turkey Stock…
Go Mexican. The components of Thanksgiving leftovers play beautifully with Latin fare. In the Southwest, where I live, our version of the turkey sandwich is turkey and cranberry quesadillas. Stir a little chipotle or ancho chile powder into cranberry sauce to transform it into a spicy salsa that you can dollop over turkey tacos–or serve with our Turkey Enchilada Verde Casserole.
Make soup or salad. Add shredded turkey to our Simple Udon Soup. Or make it the centerpiece of our Asian Turkey Salad. Roast turkey would also be delicious in place of duck in our Frisee Salad with Lentils.
Top a pizza. Pick up some whole wheat pizza dough or even a prebaked whole wheat pizza crust, then use your imagination. Spread a thin base layer of mashed potatoes (or even sweet potatoes, if you didn’t go the candied route), then top it with diced turkey and chopped up leftover veggies (shredded roasted Brussels sprouts would be terrific on this). Finish with a sprinkling of fontina cheese for a pizza that’s redolent with hearty fall flavor.
Reinterpret. The components of Thanksgiving leftovers invite you to play with your food. My cache included about a cup and a half of the decadent marshmallow-topped bourbon sweet potatoes our friends made for our feast. I used this treasure to feed a craving for sweet potato pie by simply pureeing the mixture (sweet potatoes, marshmallows and all) with an egg and 2 tablespoons flour. I divided this mixture between two 4-ounce ramekins, topped it with a little streusel (1 teaspoon each of flour, brown sugar, butter and minced pecans) and baked it at 400 degrees F for 30 minutes to make a cute dessert for two tonight.

Except I’ve already gobbled one of them.

What are your tasty ways with Thanksgiving leftovers? Share ‘em here!

Make Your Dishes Do Double Duty for Better Leftovers

Posted on June 29, 2010 by Lia Huber — 1 Comment ↓

One of the My Nourish Mentor crew mentioned during a session on meal planning recently that she loved the tips for getting creative with leftovers … especially now that summer’s here. I agree. Whether it’s the heat or just wanting to squeeze every little drop out of these long days, I’m less motivated to start meals from scratch every night of the week. So I look for ways to make the dishes I do cook do double duty.

double-duty-summer-leftovers I mentioned three ideas for getting creative with leftovers at Thanksgiving. Here are three more geared towards summertime:

Plan ahead and make extra. While the piece on Thanksgiving leftovers is about using up what you already have, in summertime you have to be a bit more deliberate. Especially if you’re grilling, double the amount so you’ll have leftovers to work with. Alberto’s Marinated Grilled Asparagus, for instance, makes great picnic fare the next day.
Think cool. Odds are when you do cook, you’ll eat your dinner hot off the grill (or out of the sauté pan). But flip the coin, too, and think of how the leftovers would shine when chilled. Like tossing these Spicy Sweet Shrimp in a fresh Glass Noodle Salad the next day.
Season boldly. It’s one thing to have leftover steak (yawn). Entirely another to have a Spice Rubbed Skirt Steak to star in South of the Border Steak Salad with Grilled Peppers and Corn Salsa. Boldly flavored foods bring personality to reimagined leftovers later in the week, keeping your meals from being just ho-hum.

What are your favorite “take two” ideas?

Making Leftovers Lovable

Posted on November 27, 2009 by Lia Huber — 5 Comments ↓

My friends used to think it strange when I’d invite them over for Thanksgiving . . . in April, when deadlines for food magazine November issues normally came due. But I have to admit to preferring the assignments for creative ways to use leftovers to the grand meal itself. Leftovers have an inherent challenge built into them. “Make me as inspiring as I was yesterday,” they seem to say. Once you’ve done the reheat and the sandwich, though, then what? Here are three ways I’ve learned over the years to live up to leftovers’ dare:

thanksgiving-leftover-1 Think beyond the turkey sandwich. Sure, the turkey-cranberry sandwich is good for a day or two, but try taking entirely new directions too. Toss shredded turkey with chopped artichokes and pasta, or mound it on a baguette with herbs and pickled carrots in a spin on a Vietnamese banh mi. Mashed potatoes and stuffing are delicious formed into “cakes” and fried in a bit of olive oil as a base for sauteed greens, and sweet potatoes can be folded into a farro risotto to add a silken sweetness to the dish.

Go global. It’s easy to get stuck in an all-American rut with leftover turkey, which is too bad. Turkey’s slightly gamey flavor goes well with a variety of cuisines. Try sauteing turkey meat in a chile spice mix for tacos; stirring it into spinach and feta as a stuffing for a Greek pie; or mixing it with white beans and sausage and topping with breadcrumbs for an easy cassoulet.

Make it fresh. If you’re a slave to reheated turkey and potato plates, try keeping your cool. Shredded turkey makes a great addition — or centerpiece — to salads of all kinds (often welcome after the big feast), and cranberries can add zing to salads both sweet and savory. The Asian Turkey Salad below, for instance, incorporates loads of fresh ingredients and bright flavors to give new life to leftover turkey.

The challenge, ultimately, is to make your leftovers as lovable as the original meal itself. If you come up with some new dishes of your own this year, comment below.