Guilty Pleasures

How I love turkey!

Turkey is one of my favorite foods. Right up there with chocolate. Roast turkey is a pretty healthy food, especially if you feed the skin to the dog, as I do. What's not so healthy is some of my favorite ways to use up leftover turkey.

Top of the list is grilled turkey sandwich, a real guilty pleasure. Even thought I make it with multi-grain and oat bread and with the fairly low fat and high protein turkey breast meat, the fact that I slather on some butter on the out side of the sandwich on both sides, and even sometimes put a little more butter inside, makes this sandwich a real indulgence. I don't even add on cheese, although that is really yum. Sometimes I'll add some tomato slices, especially if the turkey is dryish. Even with the tomatoes added, the nutritional value is suspect. They remain a favorite guilty pleasure.



A second favorite way to use up leftover turkey is in a pot pie. There are lots of veggies in this one, so it is sounder nutritionally, but that crust, be it pastry or biscuit dough, is hardly diet food. This is one of thoes dishes that taste even better the second day. These days you don't even have to wait until Thanksgiving. The frozen section of your food store usually have turkey year round. Go on, give yourself a little treat. Cook up this pot pie, or even the sandwich. Then take a brisk walk. Right.

Turkey Pot Pie
2 medium baking potatoes
3 tablespoons olive oil
1/2 cup diced celery, about 2 ribs
1 medium onion, diced
3 or 4 oz. fresh mushrooms, sliced
1 clove garlic, minced
1/8 teaspoon dried thyme
1/4 teaspoon poultry seasoning
1/4 teaspoon dried rosemary
salt and pepper to taste
1/4 cup flour
2 cups chicken broth
1 to 1 1/2 cups leftover turkey, diced. I use both dark and light turkey
1 cup frozen mixed vegetables, cooked in the microwave for 3 minutes, then drained
1 cup biscuit mix
1/4 cup milk

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.
Scrub the potato, cut in half, cut each half in half and slice in roughly 1/3 inch thick slices. Place potato slices in a medium saucepan and bring to a boil. Then turn down heat to medium-high and cook until tender when pierced with a fork. Drain and set aside.
In a dutch oven or casserole that can go on the stovetop and into the oven, heat the olive oil over mediumn-high heat. Saute' the celery, onions, mushrooms, and garlic until the onion is transluscent, about 5 minutes, stirring frequently. Add there seasonings and stir well. Add the flour and stir, cooking for about 1/2 a minute. Add the broth all at once, stirring briskly until the contents of the pan are well mixed. Turn up the heat to high and cook, stirring frequently, until mixture bubbles and thickens.
Add the turkey, drained potato slices, and mixed vegetables. Stir. Cover and reduce heat to simmer. Cook for about 3 minutes to make sure mixture is very hot.While mixture is heating, mix the biscuit mix and milk (I use non fat, but any kind is fine) in a small bowl.
Once mixture is very hot, pour the biscuit mixture over the turkey-veggie mixture and place in the center of a pre-heated 400 degree oven. Cook 10-12 minutes, or until biscuit mixture is golden brown.
Serve from the casserole, giving each portion some of the crust and some of the turkey mixture.
Serves about 6.

guilty pleasures
pot pie
grilled turkey sandwich
leftovers
turkey