How to Make a Delicious Breakfast from Thanksgiving Leftovers

If your morning has gone anything like mine, then you’ve spent it scraping dried-up cranberry sauce and mashed potatoes off piles of unwashed plates and wine-stained glasses. Why is it that the scrumptiousness of a Thanksgiving meal is directly proportional to the disgustingness of cleaning it up?
Anyway, I’m working my sink hose like a water-spraying serpent in a stainless steel cage of doom — yo ho, you bit of stuffing! You shall not pass! — when it hit me: This leftover food can totally be transformed into an amazing breakfast and you don’ t need anything more than what you already have in your fridge to make it. *Runs to grab computer and sits down at kitchen counter, abandoning half-filled dishwasher of dirty plates to instead write this post.*
Here goes … 

Post-meal on Thanksgiving. Friends, Snapchat and vino.

Turkey Breakfast Sausage

Ingredients

• 2 tsp. chopped fresh sage
• 2 tsp. salt
• 1 tsp. ground black pepper
• 1 tsp. fresh chopped thyme
• 1/2 tsp. ground cloves
• 1/4 tsp. red pepper flakes
• 2 cups of turkey meat (chopped fine, also use as much as you have, no need to be too particular about measurements)
• 2 egg yolks (use a third yolk if you’ve got a lot of meat)
• 1/4 cup olive oil

In a bowl, combine sage, salt, pepper, thyme, cloves, red pepper flakes, turkey meat and egg yolks. Shape into patties and set on a cookie tray. In a large skillet, heat up 1/4 c. olive oil and fry patties over medium-high heat until golden brown on  both sides, about 5-6 minutes total. 

Stuffing Biscuits

Ingredients

• 1.5 cups all purpose flour
• 1 cup stuffing (with the bread pieces chopped as finely as possible)
• 1 tbsp. baking powder
• 1 stick cold unsalted butter, cut into small cubes
• 1/2 cup cold buttermilk (if you don’t have buttermilk, regular milk will work just fine)
• 1 cold egg
• 1 egg beaten with 1 tbsp. of milk (egg wash)
• 1 tsp. salt (optional because your stuffing may have all the salt you need)

Preheat oven to 425 F. Place flour, chopped stuffing and baking powder in a bowl. In a small bowl, mix together the egg, butter and buttermilk. Add mixture to large bowl with stuffing and flour. Mix until a moist dough forms. Drop onto a well-floured board and knead about 5-6 times. Cut the dough into squares with a sharp knife and place on cookie sheet lined with parchment paper. Brush the tops with the egg wash and sprinkle with the optional salt (again, only if you want). Bake 20-25 minutes or until the tops are golden brown. Serve hot.

Cranberry Sauce French Toast

Ingredients

• 1 loaf of bread (or however much you have left over from Thanksgiving)
• 2 tbsp. butter
• 6 eggs
• 3 tbsp. vanilla extract
• 1 tsp. salt
• 1/3 cup milk
• 1/2 cup cranberry sauce (or whatever you have left)
• 1/4 cup cream cheese
• Optional: syrup, sliced strawberries or whatever fruit you have left over from dessert

In a bowl, combine eggs, vanilla extract, salt and milk. Slice bread into 1/2 inch pieces and soak in mixture, making sure it is completely soaked through, flipping in bowl to soak both sides; thorough soakage is an essential and oft-forgotten step to delicious French toast. In a skillet, melt butter and place egg-mixture-soaked bread in the pan. Cook until golden brown, about 4-5 minutes per side. Once the break is browned, remove from pan and place on board. On one slice of bread, spread cream cheese, on another the cranberry sauce. Place two slices together so cream-cheese side combines with cranberry-sauce side like a sandwich. Place back on skillet and cook an additional 1 minute, patting down bread with your spatula. Serve warm with a drizzle of syrup and topped with fruit.
That’s it! If you make any of these recipes, let me know in the comments. I’ll leave you with this video walking on the beach last night with my nutty dog, Austin …
https://www.facebook.com/littlewordstudio/videos/1899808990034125/

To connect on Insta: @melissakandel.