Post-Thanksgiving is the perfect time to make a large batch of stew and freeze the left overs in glass jars. These can be thawed late December when you are exhausted from the holidays, don't want to cook, and turkey begins to sound pretty good again.
Here's a stew I made last night, using Thanksgiving leftovers:
1.5 cups of left over turkey, chopped into bite sized pieces
1 cup of gravy
1 cup mashed potatoes
1 cup cooked and seasoned brown rice (Not sure I would use bread stuffing)
3 large shitake mushrooms, chopped
2 carrots, chopped
2 celery stalks, chopped
6 cloves of garlic, peeled and chopped
2 small turnips, chopped
1 cup red cabbage, chopped
Water to cover
2 teaspoons of poultry seasoning (combination of sage, oregano, thyme, savory)
salt to taste
I prepared this stew in the extra lazy fashion- just put all the leftovers and vegetables in a pot, added water and seasoning, let it cook on medium heat until the carrots were tender (about 30 minutes), and added salt to taste. There is lots of room for variation, if you have leftover fresh corn, pearled onions or other vegetables, throw them in. Don't think I would include the marshmallow yams, though.
Trick for freezing: Use glass jars! Tupperware leeches toxins into food, particularly if it's rich (like this stew.) Save your jars with lids, fill them up two inches from the top with stew, cool them in the refrigerator and then freeze them.
If you are a big soup maker like me, Crate and Barrel has heavyweight jars with wide mouths, and plastic lids. It's easy to slide out the frozen stew, the lids just pop off if you accidentally fill them too high (liquids expand when frozen) and they won't crack in the freezer. They are also nice enough to use as drinking glasses as well.
