It’s Thanksgiving day. I love this time of year.   While I’m busy roasting a big turkey, and making all of the trimmings for a traditional dinner,   the family is gathered together making plans for the long weekend.  It’s a great time to be together with family.  Thanksgiving is all about the food.  We have a tradition in our family that everyone picks a side dish to go with the dinner.  When the kids get older, they will be responsible for making their own side, but for now, I make whatever they order.  As a result, we have turkey, stuffing, gravy, and whatever sides the five of us pick.

I love cooking Thanksgiving dinner.  I love planning ahead and having it all come together perfectly, but I have a confession to make.  The members of my household  actually look forward to the leftovers more than we do the actual Thanksgiving feast. I don’t think we’re alone in that , either.  At least, I hope not.  Our average Thanksgiving dinner costs us about $40 -$50, and I admit that sounds like a lot of money for a single meal, but with a large turkey and all the trimmings, we have leftovers for days.  I even freeze some of the turkey in meal size portions to be pulled out to make enchiladas, pot pies, turkey tetrazinni, and other delicious leftover dishes.   Of course, we can’t forget turkey soup made from the turkey carcass and the last bits of meat that are stuck to it.

My mother always planned for Thanksgiving Dinner to be served at just past noon.  Definitely no later than 2:00pm.  As an adult, I have continued that tradition.  That way, we gorge ourselves on turkey and all the trimmings at lunch time, and by dinner time, we are ready for our favorite part of Thanksgiving, the  turkey sandwich with a piece of pie for dessert.  We are always far too full after the dinner to eat a piece of pie, so we wait until the evening.

We tend to prefer our sandwiches simple.  Turkey, mayo, kosher dill pickles, and sometimes lettuce on toasted bread are all we need to be happy.  Sometimes, as the days go by, we switch things up a bit.  In anticipation of this year’s thanksgiving dinner, I scoured the internet looking for some new ways to serve up our turkey sandwiches.  Here are a few of the things I found.  (Click on the photos to be taken to their source sites.)

An old-fashioned classic that my mom and dad always loved is the hot turkey sandwich covered with gravy.  This one, posted by Elise at SimplyRecipes.com, looks good.  My parents always served it with a side of mashed potatoes also topped with gravy and a side of whatever vegetables were left over from the main meal.   It’s warm and hearty, and we love it.

Here is a delicious Deli Style Turkey Sandwich recipe that I found over at SavorySweetLife.com.  This sandwich is piled high with turkey, mayo, cream cheese, cranberry sauce as well as veggies, like sprouts, tomatoes, onions, and cucumbers.  It looks and sounds delicious.

Turkey Salad sandwiches like this one from FamilyFeast.com are another great way to use up leftover Thanksgiving Turkey.

 

Robyn at AddAPinch.com, has a delicious turkey wrap sandwich.  Lets face it, with all the Christmas shopping and sandwiches, you might just run out of bread.  I usually have flour tortillas laying around, and this sandwich wrap  looks delicious.

If you’re looking for another recipe that’s a little further from the traditional turkey sandwich, try this one for a Pulled Turkey Barbecue Sandwich from babble.com.  There’s also a delicious sounding Pulled Turkey Sandwich with Cranberry Barbecue Sauce over at Pink-Parsley.com.

If you’re still looking for more leftover turkey sandwich ideas, check out these sites.

Real Simple has a list of 12 Creative Turkey Sandwich Recipes.

Bon Appetit has a list  of the 15 Best-Ever Leftover Turkey Sandwiches.

Among my many other blessings, I am thankful for each and every one of my readers.  Happy Thanksgiving from Patty Cake’s Pantry.   Thanks for visiting my site.