Including turkey leftovers that can be frozen
While planning your Christmas Day dinner it may pay to think about your leftovers as well. Let’s be honest, we all buy a bit too much for Christmas dinner and end up having a lot leftover.
Turning your delicious Christmas dinner into stunning leftovers is a great way to save money over the Christmas period and treat your friends and family.
These yummy recipes use up all your remaining Christmas dinner leftovers and make some great family meals that can be frozen for later in the week.
Turning leftover Christmas turkey and vegetables into family favorites is a great way to transform your food. We all have our favorite Christmas recipes and hopefully, these will soon become yours too.
All leftovers should be cooked up within a couple of days for safety reasons and then frozen if needed.
Turkey can last a couple of days while ham can last up to four days. Freezing everything can mean that you have a month’s grace.
Don’t sit there and eat turkey sandwiches all week. Below we have 15 family favourite leftover dishes that can be made from your leftover Christmas dinner.
For more ideas on Christmas food then have a look at:
21 Christmas Dinner Starters That Won’t Break the Bank
A Fabulous Traditional Christmas Dinner For Under £4 a Head
Meal Ideas For The Whole Family
If you find meal planning hard then come join our Facebook group Money Saving Mums and get access to The Resource Vault with access to over 15+ money saving printables. This includes our easy slow cooker meals meal plan, available exclusively to subscribers!
Everything is included from budget planners to meal plans and pre-made shopping lists plus a link to our Money Saving Mums Facebook group!
Join our free Resource Vault here
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What to do with leftover turkey?
Christmas dinner leftovers can cost you a lot of money if you end up throwing them away.
Here are some Christmas dinner recipe ideas to help you use up ALL of your Christmas dinner. These can all be frozen, and used for the rest of Christmas week, meaning a minimal amount of cooking and no need to buy any extras for dinners.
You won’t find the normal bubble and squeak here. These are dinners that even the kids will eat and that are mega easy to prepare, using staple ingredients found it your cupboard.
For more leftover food ideas have a look at:
27 Leftover Lamb Recipes That Are Family Friendly
9 Slow Cooker Chicken Curry Recipes That Are Budget Friendly
7 Gammon Slow Cooker Recipes That Are Budget Friendly
Saving money over Christmas
If you are struggling to save money over the Christmas period then we are here to help you. Keeping your budget on track over the Christmas period is really important.
Read more here about how we keep our Christmas to a budget.
Here’s our 5 main tips to keep your costs down over Christmas:
Meal Plan Sheets
Depending on how comfortable you are, either find a spare pad or print out 8-10 copies of a weekly meal plan sheet.
You’ll need enough space to write down a simple menu for each day and a shopping list as you go.
You can make your own weekly meal plan or download my meal plans and shopping lists for free from the Resource Vault. Having several copies on hand will help inspire you to get started and keep up the meal plans for several weeks.
Before you know it, meal planning will become a natural part of your routine.
For more ideas on budget friendly meals for the whole family have a look at:
The Ultimate £1 Per Head Budget Meal Planning List
21 Cheap Meals for a Week for a Family
21 Budget Family Meals and a £16 Aldi Meal Plan
Use a budget planner
Budget planning is the best way to keep your money on track. You can use our printable version in the Resource Vault if you prefer or have a look at Plum.
Plum is a free app that helps boosts your bank balance*. It’s the smartest app for managing your money. It analyses your spending patterns and automatically puts your money away for you, so you don’t have to think about it.
It takes all the pressure off you having to do anything. By using a smart AI app, you can get a better grip of your finances and set more aside.
Use cashback sites
If you are buying something online. whatever it is then make sure you check out the cashback websites first. Our favourite is OhMyDosh.
OhMyDosh is an easy to use cashback site that’s free to use. It’s not like a normal cashback site though. OhMyDosh gives you loads of ways you can make money including:
The refer a friend scheme. Refer your friends to OhMyDosh and earn yourself £5 for every sign up and your friend £1.
Competitions: Enter them for free and receive money.
Shop through them to earn the bigger rewards.
The best thing about OhMyDosh is that you only need to make £10 to “dosh out” and they pay out through your bank or through PayPal.
If you are new to OhMyDosh* then use our link here to get your first free £1*
You can read more about how OhMyDosh works here.
Downshift
You don’t always need to buy the best. Value food items also taste great at a lot less cost.
No one is going to care or know if you buy smart price potatoes or discounted wine, I mean, it all goes down the same way!
Could you buy gammon or chicken instead of turkey? Do you need a big bird, could you have a crown? Find out how many you’re cooking for and start to buy now. Items like mint sauce and ice cream won’t go off, but you’ll be hard pressed to get them at a good price come November.
Email Alerts
Using price alert sites like Love Sales are handy, as you get to add items you want, set a price you’re willing to pay and it will ping you an email when the price drops.
You do need to register first and pick a retailer, but it’s a simple way to know if your desired online purchase has dropped in price.
15 leftover turkey recipes
All these can be frozen if needed, and are quick, plus come in at under £1 a head. That’s almost two weeks of meals for the whole family using staples from your cupboards and leftovers you’ve already brought!
These can all be made from your Christmas leftovers. Use these for a boxing day feast. These are all priced and worked out for four people.
(Turkey prices are based on the turkey I had, details can be found here.)
Turkey noodle soup
This turkey noodle soup is really easy to made and is great for those cold days. You can use any of your leftover vegetables too. This is a great beginner recipe!
Read how to make this turkey noodle soup here.
1.2l chicken stock 11p
4 small carrots 16p
150g dried noodles 50p
200g cooked turkey £2
200g frozen peas 17p
1 bunch spring onions 39p
Total: £3.33 = 83p per person
Turkey egg fried rice
Really easy to make and quick to cook, this turkey egg fried rice stir fry is cheap and cheerful. Bung anything in and you have dinner for 4 for under 70p a head.
Handful turkey £1.87
2 Egg 14p
250g Rice 31p
60g Frozen peas 5p
2 tsp Soy sauce 4p
100g Frozen onion 15P
100g Frozen peppers 13p
Total: £2.69 = 67p a head for 4 people
Turkey soup
This turkey carcass soup does take 2 hours to cook, but can be left to its own devices in a pan or slow cooked over night.
Turkey carcass
250g Potatoes 31p
125g Carrots 31p
100g Frozen onion 15p
100g Cabbage 31p
400g Tin tomatoes 34p
1 tsp Worchester sauce 2p
Herbs 4p
Total: £1.48 = 37p a head for 4 people
Crispy chili turkey noodles
This crispy chili turkey noodle recipe is great if you have people over as you can bulk it out. The recipe does call for mince but we chopped up our leftover turkey really small. Dried noodles work great and you can use any spices from your cupboard.
2 tbsp oil 5p
200g turkey slices £2
1tbsp dried ginger 5p
1 large garlic clove 5p
3 tbsp honey 7p
3 tbsp soy sauce 5p
300g dried noodles £1
2 carrots 8p
4 spring onions 39p
Total: £3.74 = 94p per person
Baked turkey pesto alfredo
This baked turkey pasta is a really simple dish that my kids love! I normally do a double batch so I can have some for lunch but this is based on the four of us having it for dinner. it takes about 30 minutes in the oven but is well worth the wait.
25g Butter 14p
25g Plain flour 9p
600ml Milk 26p
350g Pasta 24p
Handful turkey £1.87
100g Cheese 95p
400g Tin tomatoes 34p
3 tbs Pesto 5p
Total: £3.94 = 98p per head for 4
Leftover turkey casserole
I love this turkey casserole recipe, it’s so easy and everything just gets chucked in.
200g Frozen onions 30p
1 Apple 32p
Herbs 5p
25g Plain flour 9p
300ml Stock 10p
2 tbsp Honey 5p
Handful of turkey £1.87
50g Whole red cabbage 15p
100g Whole roasting potatoes 15p
62g Whole carrots 15p
Total: £3.63 = 90p a head for 4 people
Red cabbage, bacon and potato hash
I amended this red cabbage, bacon and potato hash for the kids, but by putting bacon into it really sweetens it up!
50g Whole red cabbage 15p
100g Whole Roasting Potatoes 15p
62g Whole carrots 15p
5 Unsmoked streaky bacon £1.10
25g Butter 14p
Total: £1.69 = 42p for 4 people
Sausage hot pot
This sausage hot pot is easy peasy and perfect for those busy days when you’ve had no time to cook.
800g Tin tomatoes 68p
Baked beans 30p
10 Chipolata Sausages £1.90
25g Brown sugar 5p
Total: £2.93 = 73p a head
Sausage plaits
I’ve amended this sausage plait recipe as I don’t think it needs anything else. It’s huge as well so perfect for lunch boxes.
227g Pork sausage meat £1.75
320g Puff pastry £1.50
Total: £3.25 = 81p a head for 4 people
Egg and bacon muffins
These are mega easy. Just crack 4 eggs in a bowl, whisk, cut some bacon and grate some cheese. Pour into a muffin tray and bake for 10 minutes. Perfect for bite size snacks.
4 Eggs 28p
2 Breakfast bacon medallions 78p
50g Cheese 47p
Total: £1.53 = 38p a head for 4 people
Turkey korma
There’s loads of recipes out there. I like this turkey korma because the kids will actually eat it, but I amend when goes in depending on what I have in the cupboards. We made this turkey curry using Spicentice too.
Turkey £1.87
25g Natural yogurt 4p
100g Frozen onion 15p
2 Garlic cloves 2p
Herbs 5p
25g Plain flour 9p
50ml Double cream 16p
10g Caster sugar 6p
20g Ginger 10p
Total: £2.54 = 63p a head for 4 people
Sausage and maple swede traybake
This is really colourful and a “bung in the oven” jobby. I use this sausage and maple swede traybake but chuck anything in. it all works!
6 Chipolata sausages £1.08
2 tbsp maple syrup 6p
Herbs 5p
2 tbsp wine vinegar 5p
Swede 50p
Red onion 24p
3 Apples 96p
Total: £2.94 = 73p head for 4 people
Turkey meatballs
These turkey meatballs come in at 1p over, but they are so lush. They go with anything. My kids eat them by themselves!
Handful turkey £1.87
50g Frozen onion 7p
227g Pork sausage meat £1.75
Bread crumbs 20p
Egg 7p
tsp Worcestershire sauce 5p
2 tsp Flour 4p
Total: £4.05 = £1.01 per head for 4
Turkey smothered sweet potatoes
Really simple to make. My kids cover theirs in cheese like this turkey smothered sweet potato recipe but I don’t, as I think they’re sweet enough.
4x Sweet potato 44p
Handful turkey £1.87
50g Frozen onion 7p
5 tsp Tomato sauce 5p
Can of kidney Beans 30p
Total: £2.73 = 68p a person for 4
Turkey fricassee
This is a really easy to make meal that takes under fifteen minutes and tastes great. This is perfect if you want to make more for the few days too. This comes in at just over a one pound a head but it’s worth it.
50g butter 5p
190g mushrooms 41p
1 tbsp plain flour 5p
100ml white wine 80p
200ml chicken stock 22p
150ml double cream £1
500g turkey £1.87
Total: £4.40 = £1.10p per person
Related Posts:
- 31 Ways You Can Have Christmas on a Budget
- How to Save for Christmas
- 101 Frugal Living Tips That Will Save You Thousands in 2020
Beginner and Budget Meal Ideas
If you are a beginner cook, looking for more turkey recipe ideas or even family meals in general then have a look at Spicentice*.
They send out packets of spices with easy to follow instructions so you can make a meal from scratch.
They are great to use if you are new to cooking from scratch or if you are looking to get your family eating new budget-friendly meals and have no clue where to start.
We tried them at the start of this year and loved them. We got stuck in a food rut and they helped by giving us ideas while keeping our food budget really low.
We made the below meals using Spicentice. Try them for yourself here:
Easy Chicken Fajita Recipe: A Family Meal for 94p a Person
Spaghetti Meatball Recipe For 73p a Head
Vegan Shepherd’s Pie For Just 82p Per Portion
Beginner Chilli Con Carne Recipe for Just 95p a Head
Laura x
If you enjoyed this post and would like some more family friendly budget recipes or meal plan ideas, then head over to the budget food section here on Savings 4 Savvy Mums where you’ll find over 30 cheap posts dedicated to helping you cook and shop wiser for less. There’s enough tips to help you save over £300 a month! You could also pop over and follow my family food Pinterest boards for lots more ideas on how to eat well and spend less; Family Meal Plans on a Budget, Budget Family Meals & Budget Slimming World Recipes for Families.
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