Lighter Leftover Love

So, the goal was to get a handful of left over turkey recipes on Bloom all week long… but, family arrived.  The holiday came.  And, things got busy.  

But, good busy.

It’s always fun to get the family together, talk and laugh.  What was really fun about this Thanksgiving is that Adam and I hosted everyone.  We spent the last couple days showing my family around our town, showing them our favorite parks, places to shop and, of course, our favorite places to eat.

So that meant the new doughnut shop downtown, the brewery, a cute new diner for brunch, and the Irish pub.  

Now that everyone has left and the Holiday festivities have cooled, Adam and I are both feeling the need to get back on track.  All the indulgent food and short week at the gym has us craving something green.

My go-to salad really fits the bill.

It’s similar to a Cobb Salad but, traditionally, a cobb includes greens, grilled chicken, bacon, tomato, eggs, hard boiled eggs, avocado, chives, Roquefort cheese, and red wine vinaigrette.

But, I say, why be so confined? Why go buy Roguefort when there is Colby Jack in your fridge?

Enter my salad: The Garbage Salad.

The Garbage Salad is kind of an institution in my family.  Adam and I rarely repeat a dish, but we make Garbage Salad maybe once a month.  We even say that if we were to ever open a restaurant The Garbage Salad will be on the menu.

I was introduced to this complex salad by my Dad thanks to the handful of times he cooked for us without my mother’s menu planning.  He was also a big fan of the garbage macaroni and cheese, garbage pasta and garbage pizza.  

You better get a pen for this one: The ingredients are whatever you can find in your refrigerator that would work well in a salad. So it is great for this weekend, the weekend after Thanksgiving, as I am trying to use up what we already have and clear out the fridge.

This salad features bacon left over from this mornings send off breakfast for all the guests, the carrots from my roasted thyme carrots that were a side dish on Thursday, cheese from cocktail hour and, of course the bird.

Take a look at your fridge and get creative tonight!

And, for another great turkey salad recipe, check out my most recent post on Scratch Mommy and whip up my Crunchy Chinese Turkey Salad.