Whew. We made it through this year’s Thanksgiving feast, now what? You’re probably looking at a load of leftovers and know you’re going to get bored of having to eat the same thing for lunch and dinner until it’s all gone.
Well, I got here for you some meal and snack ideas to make your meal prep that much easier this week – with Thanksgiving leftovers! I hope this can be especially helpful for those of us who are getting back to our homes on Sunday nights – and may not have been able to get to the grocery store in time for Monday.
Hope you enjoy!
Thanksgiving Leftovers Recipe Ideas
I can’t believe Thanksgiving has come and gone and we are almost into December! Are you getting any of your New Year’s resolutions ready? It’s a great time to start thinking of what they will be. I’ll be spending this time doing the same!
So before I jump right in to give you a few ways to flip your Thanksgiving dinner into a brand new meal, the first step we need to take is to make sure we restock your fridge and get your groceries in for the week.
Here are some ideas of what to add to your list! Afterall, we’ll need more nutrients than just the carb heavy Thanksgiving dinner we just loaded up on. Here are some protein-forward, low carb, and healthy fats you can add to your grocery carts this week.
GROCERIES FOR THE WEEK (5 DAYS)
- 5 single-serving 0% fat yogurts – If you’re getting a flavored yogurt, I recommend one not sweetened with sugar if possible
- 3 cups of nuts & seeds – any kind you like! And I generally think roasted and salted nuts are fine
- 5 100-calorie amounts of chocolate – I like the Trader Joe’s 100-calorie milk chocolate bars
- 1 dozen eggs
- 10 cups leftover crudités (cut up veggies like carrots, cucumbers, peppers, etc.) – I have peppers here, but use whatever you have!
- 5 servings of dessert – if a dessert doesn’t fill you up as a snack, try something else. Otherwise, pick the dessert you like best from Thanksgiving! I have here 5 small cookies.
- 10 cups (2 cups per serving) of a leftover side dish of veggies – I have here green bean casserole & Brussels sprouts
- 20oz leftover turkey (4oz per serving)
- 3 cups sweet potato casserole – or just baked sweet potatoes, or leftover mashed potatoes, etc.
What To Make With Leftover Thanksgiving Dinner
Use your Thanksgiving leftovers to recreate a brand new meal that will be full of nutrition and is delicious. See below for screenshots of exactly what I ate in the days after Thanksgiving and use it as inspiration for what you can do too! I’ll also get you started with the following meal ideas you can try to add a little change to your leftovers and create something new.
Turkey sandwiches
Take your Thanksgiving leftover recipe and make a turkey sandwich for lunch! It’s an easy and lazy way to get more usage out of your leftover meat.
Pot pie
Homemade pot pie can be such an easy dump and go recipe idea you can use to flip your Thanksgiving dinner into something new. Purchase miniature pie crusts or make your own, but use your leftover stuffing and Thanksgiving turkey as the filling, add cream of chicken and frozen veggies. Bake and enjoy!
Swap out the jam for cranberry sauce.
If your go-to is to add jam to your pancakes, biscuits, or PB&J, switch things up by subbing the jam for cranberry sauce instead.
EACH DAY 1581 CALORIES
44% CALORIES FROM FAT; 20% CALORIES FROM PROTEIN; 36% CALORIES FROM CARB
If you haven’t heard of it by now, I like the Lose It app to keep track of foods. These are some screenshots – click on an image to enlarge it! If you’re interested in my outlook on weight loss and weight management, here’s what I wrote on the subject.
The main pattern you might notice is finding ways to incorporate fresh vegetables into your meal along with healthy fats and varied protein sources. Try these for yourself or let me know, what did you do?
BREAKFAST 8AM
-
1 Greek yogurt, 0% fat
-
1/4 cup nuts
-
Coffee (optional!) – I like adding whole milk!
LUNCH 12PM
-
2 hard boiled eggs
-
2 cups leftover crudités (cut-up veggies)
-
1/4 cup nuts
-
100-calories worth of chocolate on the side!
SNACK 3:30PM
-
1 serving dessert e.g. cookies! – a “serving” is of course dependent on a number of things – I’d say for this meal plan, a serving is about 200 calories-worth. You may not know what 200 calories of your dessert is, especially with homemade items (and especially if they’re made my someone else!). Try putting something into an app like the Lose It app to figure out what about 200 calories of that dessert is, and move on with your day 🙂
DINNER 6:30PM
-
Preheat oven to 400 degrees
-
Line a cookie sheet with tin foil
-
Put turkey, potatoes, and veggies in a single layer on baking sheet and re-heat for 10 minutes
