Leftover Turkey Casserole

I have been inspired!!!  After having an amazing Thanksgiving meal (like always) at the Zimmer (parents) household I felt like I was done and over the T-day meal.  That was until the next day when Connie made a leftover turkey casserole.  WHAT!?!  This is not a new concept but for some reason the light bulb finally went off in my head, "We can have turkey all year round!!!!" 

So let me back it up a bit... turkey in my mind is an amazing meat.  It's healthy and CHEAP.  You get soooo much meat for such a good price.  But even more amazing is that in our household we could never seem to eat it all.  Not until now that is.  I had avoided buying turkeys throughout the year knowing that we would get our fill of the traditional meal during the T-day holiday.  One person can only take so much of eating turkey sandwiches and leftover plain turkey in one year.  With the turkey casserole revelation I realized that we didn't have to eat it all up at once.  We could cook a turkey eat some and freeze the rest to be used in meals later on.

Anyway after all these mind blowing revelations (ha ha), I came up with my mock Connie Leftover T-Day casserole and thus named it Leftover Turkey casserole since none of the other ingredients are leftovers.

Taste:  This dish is spot on for our family.  It is super quick and comfort food at its best.  We had 3 leftover bags (1 quart each) of turkey from my family Christmas in mid-January and we have already ate 2 of the bags for this dish.  The only recommendation I would make is that if you are a saucy/gravy person I would up your recipe to include 2 jars and layer one on top of the mashed potatoes and one over the meat.  Enjoy and please note that if you make this at your home the Zimmer's will give themselves an open ended invitation to join you. :)

Leftover Turkey Casserole

Ingredients:

2 packages instant mashed potatoes (flavor of your liking)

1 box of cornbread stuffing

leftover chopped up turkey (I probably used 3 cups or a 1 quart bag)

1 jar of turkey gravy

4 slices of cooked bacon (or pre-packaged bacon crumbles)

crushed corn flakes/saltine/Ritz crackers

shredded cheese

Directions:

1. Prepare mashed potatoes per package directions and place in the bottom of a 9x13 baking pan

2. Prepare stuffing per package directions and place on top of mashed potatoes

3. Place a generous layer of turkey over stuffing

4. Crumble bacon over turkey

5. Pour gravy over meat

6. Spread crushed crackers or corn flakes over gravy

7. Sprinkle shredded cheese over crackers/corn flakes

8. Cook covered dish for 30 minutes at 375; uncover and broil for 3-5 minutes until golden brown