3 Thanksgiving Leftovers that will Knock Your Socks Off

As part of a kickass Thanksgiving care package with Avelist, we put together some delicious recipes that you can easily make with your Thanksgiving leftovers. You can find those here on Avelist, and for your reading pleasure, we have pasted them below as well!

“Yammy” Barbeque Turkey Empanadas (serves 10)

This recipe makes use of your leftover sweet potatoes and turkey. It calls both Hungry Fan™ Fangating™ Spice Blends and Cin Chili’s Cin-Fully Hot Hot Sauce, all of which are available for purchase in the Hungry Fan e-store. “Yammy” is a play on words…it’s our take on yummy, because this recipe is really, really yummy and it’s great snack/finger food for your family, who may be wary of another large sit-down meal the day after Thanksgiving.

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2 medium yams (or 1¼ cups mashed sweet potatoes)

¼ cup sour cream

½ teaspoon Hungry Fan™ Pumpkin Spice Blend

1¼ cups tightly-packed leftover [cooked] turkey, diced into (¼ to ½) inch cubes

2–3 tablespoons Hungry Fan™ Barbecue Spice Blend

1 cup Cin Chili’s Cin-Fully Hot (Cayenne Pepper) Hot Sauce

½ cup honey

10 (store-bought) empanada discs

Avocado oil or vegetable oil for frying

Fine sea salt

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1. Preheat oven to 425 degrees F.

2. If you’re using yams from scratch, prick the yams several times each with a fork and place them onto a foil-lined baking sheet. Bake for 40 to 60 minutes, or until tender. (If you’ve already got 1¼ cup of mashed sweet potatoes already, sprinkle them with the Pumpkin Spice Blend, mix, and skip ahead to Step #3.) Let the yams cool enough to handle, then remove skin. Place into a mixing bowl and mash well with a fork or potato masher. Add sour cream and Pumpkin Spice Blend and mix until incorporated.

3. Season diced turkey with 1 to 2 tablespoons of Hungry Fan™ Barbecue Spice Blend, to taste. Toss well so the turkey is evenly coated.

4. Place the turkey into the refrigerator, covered, for 30 minutes.

5. In a bowl, combine the cayenne pepper sauce with the honey and another tablespoon of HungryFan™ Barbecue Spice Blend. Place the turkey into the mixture and toss to coat.

6. Transfer the now coated turkey into a large skillet and cook for 4 to 5 minutes over medium heat. Flip the turkey over and cover the skillet. Reduce heat and simmer until the liquid has thickened. Remove from skillet.

7. Add the turkey and any sauce left in the skillet into the yam mixture and mix.

8. Spoon 2 tablespoons of the turkey and yam mixture into the middle of an empanada disc. Fold the disc in half to form a moon shape. Moisten the edges of the disc with and pinch to seal closed, or seal with a fork.

9. Fill a deep saucepan with oil to a depth of 2 ½ inches. Heat the oil until hot (350 degrees) over medium-high heat.

10. Cook the empanadas until golden brown, flipping once, for about 4–6 minutes. Transfer to a paper towel-covered plate to drain then, while still hot, sprinkle with sea salt to taste.

11. Serve!

Bacon and Cheddar Potato Nachos (Makes 10 individual “nachos”)

This dish is kind of like baked potato skins meets nachos. You’re familiar with the flavors, it may just be the way it’s served that’s a little different. We came up with this recipe at my house last year when we had a lot of mashed potatoes left over. We tried making what were essentially potato pancakes with the leftovers in a skillet and they turned out to be de-li-cious. This recipe for potato “nachos” are basically just that — potato pancakes topped with cheese, bacon and green onions. They make for amazing coffee table picnic snack food.

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4 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil, or more as needed

¼ cups mashed potatoes

¾ cup melted sharp cheddar cheese

10 slices bacon, cooked until crispy

1/3 cup green onions, finely sliced into thin rounds

Cracked black pepper

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1. Heat 2 tablespoons of olive oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. You’ll know the oil is hot once it becomes shiny. Be sure the oil is evenly spread over the bottom of the skillet.

2. To make your potato nachos or pancakes: Place 2 tablespoons’ worth of mashed potatoes into the skillet, flattening to form an oval-shaped (think Pringles potato chips) pancake that’s about ¼” thick.

3. Cook for 2–3 minutes or until the bottom of the pancake has browned and is crispy, being careful not to burn. Flip the pancake and cook another 2–3 minutes until the second side is also browned and crispy. Remove from heat.

4. Repeat with the remaining mashed potato “batter”, making several at a time in the large skillet until they’re all cooked.

5. To serve, arrange the 10 potato pancake/nachos on a plate. Drizzle them evenly with the melted cheese. Then top each with a piece of bacon (feel free to crush each piece into bits). And then sprinkle with green onion slices and some cracked fresh pepper.

6. Serve!

Pumpkin Spice Caramel Cookie Bars (Serves 9)

This recipe is meant to help you repurpose your pumpkin pie. You’ll only be using the actual pumpkin part of it (which for me works out well because I’m known to eat off all the crust). You do whatever it is you’d like with the crust, just hang onto the pumpkin filler. You’ll need it for these tasty treats!

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16.5 ounces chocolate chip cookie dough (homemade or store-bought)

25 mini pretzels, plus more for serving

Whipped cream

¾ cup dates, pitted

¼ cup water

1 teaspoon dark brown sugar

¼ cup pumpkin pie filling

1 ¼ cup rolled oats

¼ cup honey

1 large egg

3 tablespoons 2% Greek yogurt

¼ fine sea salt

2 tablespoons Hungry Fan™ Pumpkin Spice Blend, plus more for serving

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1. Preheat oven to 375°F.

2. Grease a 9”x9” baking dish with butter or coconut oil. Set aside.

3. Combine your dates, water and brown sugar in a small pot and cook over medium-high for 5 minutes. Remove from heat. Using a fork, mash the dates until it forms a sticky paste, adding in additional water if necessary. Stir in the pumpkin pie filling and set aside.

4. In a medium-sized mixing bowl, combine the rolled oats, honey, egg, yogurt, salt and pumpkin spice blend. Mix well.

5. Spoon the pumpkin spice blend into the baking dish, spreading evenly along the bottom. Top with an evenly-spaced layer of pretzels. Then top with the caramel date paste and then a layer of chocolate chip cookie dough.

6. Bake for 22 minutes.

7. Remove from the oven and let cool for 10 minutes.

8. Slice into 9 equal pieces. Serve as is or top each bar with a dollop of whipped cream sprinkled with crushed pretzels and additional pumpkin spice.