The Energizer Turkey

For Christmas dinner this year, we did another brined turkey on the Weber…

Jay was in charge of the bird and I handled the sides.

Cornbread & sausage stuffing, Ina Garten’s mashed potatoes with homemade gravy {thanks Unc!}, maple glazed carrots, green bean casserole, roasted butternut squash and grilled turkey topped with Trader Joe’s cranberry orange relish {omg!} ~ you MUST pick up some of this stuff next Thanksgiving if you haven’t already discovered it! {you can find all the recipes on this post}

Yesterday I made turkey salad for sandwiches for Gramma, Grunc & Jill to take on the road as they headed home.

With still so much turkey, I decided to do a turkey tetrazzini this evening ~ looks like we’ll be eating this for dinner until Twenty Twelve, literally…

I searched through several recipes and decided on this one. It had the least amount of cream, butter and cheese in it.

I made a few changes/substitutions:

Used a whole box of whole wheat spaghetti {16 ounces}

Used 4 cups chopped turkey

Used {8 ounces} of white mushrooms, coarsely chopped

Omitted the pimentos and used one whole red pepper and some leftover frozen veggies {peas, carrots, green beans and corn} I sautéed the pepper with the onions and mushrooms

I used one can of cream of mushroom soup with roasted garlic to add flavor

Doubled the amount of chicken stock {1 cup} and used {1/2 cup} Chardonnay in place of the dry sherry ~ doubled it since I used the whole package of pasta

To try to keep it on the lighter side, I DID NOT double the amounts of cheese ~ used about 1.5 cups of sharp cheddar and a little over 1/2 cup of parmesan

I added some drizzles of Sriracha to mine ~ now that’s a spicy tetrazzini!

It was actually really good and reminded me of Pioneer Woman’s chicken spaghetti.

Still looks like the kids are going to have some turkey quesadillas this week and possibly some turkey hash for breakfast.

The turkey that keeps on going, and going…….

6 thoughts on “The Energizer Turkey”

  1. I envy you for having turkey leftovers. When we have turkey at my parent’s house, there are so many of us that it’s rare to have turkey left. And the few pieces that are left go to my dad (deservedly) every year. One of these days I’ll have to make my own turkey just for the leftovers!

  2. That was the BEST TURKEY EVERRRRRRRR!
    Jay…bring that Weber to SD next Thanksgiving! You’re the cook (THE BOMB COOK!)

  3. You have 3 less people this time than last Christmas when we were all there including Uncle Tottie. With all the 4 of us there the turkey came close to being all gone, I think. Then we took sandwiches with us on our flight back. You can probably freeze them for next month if you are already tired of them.

  4. Mom, we sure missed having you guys this year…would much rather celebrate with you than have all these leftovers! 😉 We are loving the Keurig and going through K-cups like crazy! 😉 Thank you! I am about to go brew an afternoon cup and relax for a minute before I put the rest of the Christmas stuff away! We miss you and love you lots! XO

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