Turkey Leftovers!

Sometimes it becomes a task in our house to actually eat leftovers!  With my divorced parents and Adam's family, we end up with a lot of Thanksgiving leftovers!  After a couple days of turkey sandwiches and warmed up side dishes, we tend to get sick of the leftovers.  I was determined this year to use every bit of these leftovers because we really don't need to spend extra money on food when we already have delicious home cooked food in our refrigerator! Here are two easy yummy meals I made with the leftovers!

Turkey Tortilla Soup!

Ingredients:

1 onion, chopped

4-5 cloves of garlic, minced (use my favorite invention ever, garlic zoom)

1 Tbsp. Olive Oil

1/2 tsp. chili powder

1 tsp. cumin (this makes the soup!)

1 (28oz.) can of Crushed Tomatoes

1 (14.5oz.) can of Diced Tomatoes

1 (32oz.) carton of Swanson Chicken Broth

1 (15oz.) can of Whole Kernel Corn

1 (15oz.) can of Black Beans, drained and rinsed

1 (4 oz.) can of chopped green chile peppers

1/4 cup chopped jalapenos

1/4 cup fresh cilantro, chopped

2 cups chopped left over turkey (white and dark meat)

Hot Sauce to Taste

Directions:

In a stock pot, heat oil over medium heat.  Saute onion and garlic in oil until soft.  Stir in chili powder, cumin, crushed tomatoes, diced tomatoes, chicken broth and 1/2 can of water.  Bring to a boil, and simmer for 5-10 minutes. 

Stir in corn, black beans, chiles, jalapenos, cilantro, and turkey.  Add Salt, Pepper, and Hot Sauce to Taste.  Let simmer for 1 hour.

Ladle Soup into serving bowls, and top with tortilla chips, avocado slices, sour cream, and chopped green onion.

Turkey, Stuffing, and Gravy Stuffed Rolls

Ingredients:

Pillsbury biscuit dough, whole sheet

Left over turkey, chopped

Left over stuffing chopped

Left over gravy

Left over Cranberry

Directions:

Unroll of whole sheet of biscuit dough and cut out round circles (I used a left over can of corn).  Mix the other ingredients together in a bowl and spoon a small portion into each circle.  Grab the edges of the dough and gather at the top, like a little wonton.  Place on a baking sheet and bake for 20 minutes at 375 degrees.

We served it with our favorite side, fresh tomatoes and mozzarella with balsamic, and our bottle of wine from Jeff and Sarah!

Pottery Barn Fiasco

In the past couple years, Adam and I have started to drink wine.  Don't let me fool you, we know nothing about wine, except for the fact that we enjoy drinking it at home with each other while cooking, watching TV, or attempting to hang pictures, mirrors, and shelves successfully! Since we bought the house while engaged, we were able to register for certain house décor that we wanted.  Of course I'm sucker for anything Pottery Barn, and the list became long with everything we wanted!  We loved these  Rustic Wine Shelves and Adam's mom graciously bought us one of them as a house warming gift. 

Only problem was a couple weeks later, the other shelf became on backorder until March 2012!  We decided to hold on to the shelf for a few more weeks and return it if nothing became available.  One day, Adam checked the registry and saw that the shelf was available.  We were very doubtful that this could be true, but decided to scoop up the other shelf anyways.  After receiving an email confirmation, the shelf was listed as back ordered on the website again! Since we were skeptical, Adam called Pottery Barn to see if we really did just order what seemed to be the one and only shelf left in the Pottery Barn Warehouse!  The very nice, and equally surprised representative on the other line showed no shelves available, but decided that we should wait a couple weeks to see if there really was one lonely shelf available for shipping!  We came home to a pleasant surprise one afternoon as the second shelf had arrived! 

After the honeymoon we decided there were a few things that we wanted to get done in the house immediately.  One was to finally hang those shelves!  So after a nice afternoon at the local vineyard, we started to hang the shelves!  These shelves, though they are a pair, are created completely different in their assembly process.  Hanging the bottom shelf was a nightmare because not only did you have to measure evenly between the two holes on the back of the shelf, the drywall screws would not stay in one spot once they were screwed into the wall!  They would either push in or fall out when the shelf actually hooked on.  After an hour, some stomping around, and me telling Adam to return it, we came up with a genius idea and broke out the super glue and calking putty.  Ten minutes later, those screws were not moving and the shelf was finally in place!  The other shelf had a ledge you screwed into the wall and was an absolute breeze to put up!  Here's our finished product! 

I decorated the wine bottle shelf with some of the fun wine bottles people gave us for the bridal shower.  Each bottle has a tag that specifies when we should open the bottle as a married couple.  FUN FUN idea for any bridal shower!

We're Married!

I know I originally started this blog to keep memories of the big events happening in my life… well two big items have now passed and I did a whopping three blogs… woopsies.  Lets Recap!

After 4 years, My Best Friend and the Love of my Life, Adam, got down on his knee and asked to spend the rest of his life with me Christmas Morning 2010.  Of course I said Yes, we set the date 11.12.11, and the planning started in full effect!  From dress fittings to vendor meetings to wedding crafting, my life was consumed!

As if planning a wedding isn't stressful enough, Adam and I decided to house hunt!  We decided that we wanted to "see what was out there," but once you're out looking, you kind of get addicted to looking.  After many weeks we went to see one more and FELL IN LOVE.  It was everything we wanted in a house and more!  We couldn't believe we could afford it, but with a little price banter, we signed and settled in within a month of the offer!

As every couple does when they get in engaged, we decided we needed to focus on fitness.  Not only for the wedding and all those pictures that will be captured, but for the week long Honeymoon in bathing suits in which we gained back all the weight we lost prior to the wedding!  Adam and I decided to best way to do this was to train for our first half marathon! We both completed the 13.1 miles in VA Beach in a little over 2 hours.  One thing about training for any race, you can't skimp on food or you will not make it through the training process, but you can eat for days after the race and never be full!  Signed up for the next one in March!

In the last few months before the wedding we had our amazing bachelorette and bachelor parties (completely separate of course), I attended the best bridal shower thrown by my amazing sisters and mother, completed my DIY crafts for wedding decoration, and threw the biggest celebration of our lives with our parents, family, and closest friends!

The honeymoon was the most relaxing week of our lives and we got use to calling each other Husband and Wife.

So now back to reality… what will I do with my time?  Blog. Hopefully. ;)