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How-to Make the Perfect Leftovers Frittata. Great for Brunch or Meal Prep.
If you don’t know, know you’ll know. The frittata is basically one of THE greatest foods. EVER. It’s so quick to make, easy, inexpensive, and it’s also the perfect vehicle for leftovers—not to mention that it’s equally delicious at breakfast, lunch, and dinner. My Leftovers Frittata is crazy versatile and highly customizable. With my formula and my tips and tricks, I can guarantee this will be a staple food in your house in no time. It’s as great for simple weekly meal prep as it is an impressive option when you host brunch.
Frittatas are omelette meets crustless quiche made from eggs and any other ingredients and seasonings that you want to add. With all the possibilities on this Leftovers Frittata recipe, you’ll never ever get bored and with my easy method and simple tips, you’ll become a leftovers frittata pro in no time.
The versatility of a leftovers frittata makes it a must for your weekly meal planning and meal prep. It can be eaten cold, room temperature or steamy warm and the possibilities for the add-ins are truly endless and you guys know how I feel about recipes that offer you tons of wiggle room to get creative and to make it work for you and your needs. I find when I make a weekend brunch frittata or even just the frittatas I make as meal prep for the week – they are always an amazing opportunity to do a little fridge clean-out and to use up some of those leftovers that have become stragglers.
Listen though, we need to have a little talk. A poorly-made frittata is just a straight-up tragedy. We’ve all had a less-than-stellar frittata. You know the ones; spongey, flavorless, bland and dry. I want to make sure you avoid this horrible fate, because no one should ever have to endure this – I wouldn’t wish this on my worst enemy.
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Turkey Pot Pie Soup with Grain-free Drop Biscuits
Cue the Boys II Men song, End of the Road. The big event is here and after all the recipe testing, menu planning and grocery shopping it all comes to fruition in the big feast and soon all we’ll have remaining are full bellies, happy memories and hopefully lots of leftovers.
This week has been ALL about getting you prepped for the days after. With minimal cooking and making great use of the leftovers, I want you to just keep the holiday comfort food party going and of course, I never ever want you to throw away any food! This Turkey Pot Pie Soup with Grain-free Drop Biscuits is about as good as it gets when we are talking about comfort food and leftovers. This is the ultimate and without any grains or dairy, you can feel good after indulging!
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Thanksgiving Leftovers Pizza {with Grain-free Option}
Without trying to rush away the holiday, considering it hasn’t even landed yet, I wanted to have a little something special waiting for those of you that will have leftovers later this week. If you ask me, the leftovers are half the fun. Sadly, oftentimes there isn’t exactly enough left over to make a full meal out of or, maybe you are sick of the traditional Thanksgivings spread and you wanna have a little fun. This pizza recipe is the answer. Use this more as a gentle suggestion / inspiration, since you can really make this your own, depending on what specific leftovers you have.
Of course, you could always make the traditional sandwich, a pot of turkey soup or a turkey pot pie, but I am telling you, after you’ve made a Thanksgiving Leftovers Pizza, there’s no turning back.
This pizza is an updated makeover on the traditional leftover Thanksgiving sandwich that we all now and love, and it’s easy to make with the family. To lighten things up, I made the turkey and the fresh veggies the highlight here with little dollops of cranberries for some bright, sweetness. For some extra fun, leftover gravy would make a killer sauce or maybe take some leftover stuffing, roll it up into tiny stuffing meatballs and add that on top, finally, you could mix your leftover mashed potatoes with the cheese and spread that out on top of the crust, to change things up a bit. But listen up, whatever you do, please don’t skip on the cranberry sauce! As crazy as it may sound, it’s THE best part of this pizza. The bites with the bright, fresh and sweet flavor of the cranberries were our very favorite.
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Turkey Tortilla Soup {with Paleo Option}
Here we go, it’s about that time to answer the very important question of ‘What to do with ALL the Thanksgiving leftovers?’ While I know the big holiday hasn’t hit just yet, I want to help you guys get prepared for the aftermath. This week is all about Thanksgiving leftover ideas for the days following the big event! Since we are always left with loads of goodies, why not get creative and continue the eating party?
Soups are almost always my go-to after the holidays, for a variety of reasons. 1) they are so simple to make and they yield a large amount of food 2) soup is my ultimate comfort food. It’s always what I crave after I’ve maybe eaten more or differently than I usually do and 3) it’s the perfect cozy, cool-weather food. Soup will forever feel like a hug in food form!
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Butternut Squash Chai Smoothie – Gluten-free, Vegan + Sugar-free
For my final recipe as part of my vegetarian Thanksgiving series this month with Free People, it just didn’t seem right to share another side dish for the feast or a sweet dessert, I thought it appropriate to share a recipe that is not only healthy and delicious, but also one that uses up some of the leftovers from the big day.
This smoothie is simple to make, perfectly sweet without any refined sugar and it has the most beautiful autumn-inspired hue. The spices are just perfect and you can feel free to adjust accordingly to your own taste. Plus, this smoothie makes the perfect quick and easy breakfast as you are heading out the door to Christmas shop for the day!
If you don’t have any leftover butternut squash puree, feel free to just sub in some unsweetened pumpkin puree. Canned or fresh will work.
Hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving surrounded by the people they love and delicious foods! My day was absolutely perfect!!
This recipe was originally shared on the Free People Blog BLDG 25.
[print_this]Butternut Squash Chai Smoothie – Gluten-free + Vegan
makes 1 large serving or two smaller servings- 1 1/2 cups unsweetened non-dairy milk (I used 1 cup of almond milk and 1/2 cup of coconut milk)
- 1 cup butternut squash purée (or pumpkin)
- 4 Medjool dates, pitted (soaked if they are very dry)
- 1 tablespoon ground flaxseed
- 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 1/4 teaspoon ground cardamom
- 1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
- 1/4 teaspoon ground ginger
- Pinch ground cloves
- Pinch of ground pepper
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- A couple of ice cubes
Add everything to your blender, blend until smooth and creamy. Serve topped with a sprinkle of cinnamon and/or nutmeg, and enjoy![/print_this]
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Smashed Potato Puffs
I didn’t get a chance to get on here Thanksgiving Day to wish you all a Happy Day, like I had planned but I was cooking away in the kitchen and watching the parade, the dog show and football! I hope all of my American readers had an incredible day surrounded by people they love most and filled with delicious and tasty fresh foods made with so much love and care. If you aren’t in the US – I hope you have a beautiful Thursday, still!
Our day was perfect, I spent the day cooking in my kitchen and relaxing with hubby, we really needed a day like that, then we headed to my parents to see a ton of family for dessert. It is going to be an insane few weeks coming up so I was very happy to have the perfect balance of a quiet and calm day, with a bit of the usual holiday fare with the extended family.
Of course the best part of making a big feast for 2, is that we have a ton of leftovers. This is so perfect since we are leaving on Friday of this coming week to head to Chicago – so finding time to cook is probably going to be tough. Besides just reheating things, I plan to come up with all kinds of fun and creative ways to eat up the leftovers. This morning I saw a post on the Kitchn with this very topic – lots of great and delicious ways to eat up those leftovers! One of the hardest things to just simply reheat are the mashed potatoes, they are never as creamy and delicious as they are that night! You could certainly make a shepherd’s pie with them or potato pancakes of some sort, which I had planned on doing until I saw this post. The Kitchn had this delicious recipe for Mashed Potato Puffs that caught my eye instantly. Their puffs included ham and cheese, though this was a bit too rich for me after the two days of eating that I just had, so I skipped the cheese and ham and just added a small amount of turkey and some fresh chives from my garden. If you had a vegetarian Thanksgiving, these would still be equally as delicious without any meat at all. These adorable little puffs were super simple to put together and ready in 20 minutes. We had ours for breakfast and we put the leftovers in the fridge for either a side dish or another breakfast. They were puffy, had a slight crisp on the outside and were perfectly soft and creamy inside. I almost always make my mashed potatoes as garlic smashed potatoes, which I add a smidge of Nancy’s Organic Cultured Cream Cheese to for a little bit of creamy and tart flavor. I make my smashed potatoes with red potatoes, leaving the skins on – so my puffs were a bit more rustic and chunky than the original recipe, which I really liked. They can stick a bit when coming out of the muffin tin, at least they did for me, so make sure you grease your tin, even if it is non-stick. I personally didn’t care about that little bit of sticking – they were delicious regardless.
Well we’re off to the country to cut down our Christmas tree today and then to walk around beautiful Elicottville to really get even more into the Christmas mood! I cannot wait!
Tomorrow I plan to make a gluten-free turkey pot pie with some of the leftovers and I am going to cook down the bones to make a turkey stock for soup. What are you making with your leftovers?
Smashed Potato Puffs
makes between 12 and 24 puffs, depending the size of the pan used
Adapted from The Kitchn2 cups leftover smashed (or mashed) potatoes
3 large farm fresh brown eggs, beaten
1/4 cup minced fresh chives
1/4 cup shredded leftover turkey (optional)
Salt and freshly ground pepper, to tasteHeat the oven to 400°F and lightly grease the cups of a regular muffin tin or a mini-muffin tin.
Whisk together the smashed potatoes, eggs, chives, and turkey. Taste and season, if necessary, with salt and pepper.
Put a spoonful of the mixture in each muffin cup. Bake for 20-25 minutes, or until the potato cups are set, browned on top, and hot through and through. Serve immediately.
