Favorite Post Thanksgiving Day Leftover Recipes: Sweet Potato Mac & Cheese, TDay Recipes & Soup

I tried a few new things with leftovers this year as we had quite a few. Mom and Dad were very generous when they came to us for thanksgiving this year. We were lucky they came to us since we'd been in Spain until Wednesday watching a cousin get hitched. YAY! We tried all kinds of new foods in Spain including Churros (yum), snails, duck, and prawns.  Very interesting, but I think we were happy to be home consuming good ol' turkey on Thanksgiving.

After Thanksgiving my favorite leftovers is the plain ol' fashioned fixens sandwich.  Just pile the mashed potatoes, stuffing, turkey, homemade cranberry sauce, and gravy on toasted potato bread and I am a happy girl. I contributed a few things to Thanksgiving including Ina Garten's sausage and herb stuffing, and homemade cranberry sauce. I also made spinach dip (based on Alton Brown's recipe but I cut back on fatty ingredients and put in some Greek yogurt).  I also made stuffed mushrooms thanks to a recipe from Rachael Ray. They were delish.

After Thanksgiving and polishing off 3 sandwiches each, we had some sweet potatoes left, corn muffins, turkey and lots of cheese. What to do?

This. I found this sweet potato mac and cheese online and made the adjustments. It was SUPER good. And it came from a healthy food website. You can see I did not have all the ingredients and added one leftover corn muffin and parm topping and baked it.

http://www.healthyfoodforliving.com/sweet-potato-and-brie-mac-cheese/

Sweet Potato and Brie Mac & Cheese (I did not use brie I didn't have it, added a half cup more the amount of Cheddar and added a 1/4 cup of parmesan also on the top before baking in oven added crumbled corn muffins and parm on top with butter.)

serves 4

Ingredients:

• 8 oz uncooked macaroni or other pasta, preferably whole wheat or whole wheat blend pasta
• 1 cup sweet potato puree (bake a few sweet potatoes at 400°F for 1 hour, or until soft; puree flesh until smooth; measure out 1 cup)
• 1 cup milk (skim or 1%)
• 2 oz (about 4 Tbsp) 1/3-less-fat neufchatel cream cheese
• 1 cup freshly grated 50% reduced fat sharp cheddar cheese *added a half cup of not so sharp cheddar
• 1/2 cup good-quality double cream brie cheese, rind removed, cut into cubes *didn't use
• tiny pinch of ground nutmeg
• Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste
• added parmesan cheese

Directions:

1. Cook pasta according to package directions (I actually prefer to cook my pasta a minute or two less than the lowest cooking time on the package for al dente pasta); drain.
2. Meanwhile, whisk together and heat sweet potato puree and milk in a medium saucepan over medium heat until just starting to simmer.
3. Reduce stove heat to low. Whisk in cheeses until fully melted.
4. Stir in nutmeg. Season with salt and pepper.
5. Stir drained pasta into the sweet potato-cheese sauce and mix until thoroughly combined.
6. At this point, the mac & cheese might appear a bit soupy. If this is the case, let the mixture sit off of the heat for a few minutes. The cheese sauce will firm up as it slightly cools.* I instead baked it in the oven - Billy liked this, this makes it less cheesey and soupy and a little more potatoey. I liked the gooey cheese but Billy ate it better baked.
7. I addded in a cup of frozen peas and stirred them in
8. Baked at 350 for 20-25 minutes with a topping of crumbled corn muffins and parm cheese and pats of margarine.
9. Serve with an extra dusting of nutmeg, if desired.

With the turkey I made Michael Chiarello's  next day Turkey Soup. Since we loved his restaurant in Napa, it seemed perfect.  We're having it tonight with homemade pizza. YUM! I did add some leftover herbs to this recipe I'll admit and tried to use as few pots as possible. For veggies I used brussel sprouts and broccoli.

Happy Thanksgiving and Keep on Tri'n!