Now that Thanksgiving is over and we have a few weeks until Christmas we should focus on saving money and time and maybe a few calories.  

Make sure that you go out and buy all of your necessary items for the two weeks ahead of time so that you are not wasting time and money by visiting the grocery every day or every couple of days.  Stick to your list!! The biggest reason people spend too much at the grocery is that they buy things that are not needed, do not buy them.  I am telling you, I can buy enough groceries to feed my family of four for two weeks and spend around $100 - $150.  This amount includes organic milk and usually organic fruits and veggies, which always cost more.  

Do not be afraid to substitute in any of these recipes.  There are often nights that I will use different ingredients than what the recipe calls for and that is just fine.  Use ingredients that are low in fat, dairy products do not have to be the full fat versions and this saves a ton of calories.    If you do not like say black beans, but you do like pinto beans, well, use them.

Prep things ahead of time.  I cannot stress this enough.  I will chop and dice and slice ingredients a week ahead of time and then freeze or refrigerate until I am ready to use them.  Doing this makes coming home and preparing a meal much more enjoyable and leaves me with my sanity.

WEEK 6

WEEK 7

Today is the day that you should either have all of your turkey eaten or you need to get that carcass in the freezer.  Tonight we are going to have hot turkey roll-ups with mashed potatoes and gravy.  To simplify things for the evening I am caving in and buying a tube of biscuit dough from the market.  Although, now that I think about it, I do have my Quick Mix that I can use instead, that is what I will use.  


This is what you will need:

1. Leftover turkey.
2. Onion.
3. Gravy mix.
4. Quick Mix (or Bisquick or roll of biscuits).
5.  Mashed potatoes if you have them.
6.  Cranberries if you have them.

1.  Prepare your Bisquick as you would if you were making biscuits and roll out onto a floured surface.  
2.  Preheat oven to 450 degrees. 
3.  Spray cookie sheet with cooking spray. 
4.  Prepare your gravy mix.
5.  Chop turkey into small pieces. 
6.  Chop onion into fine pieces. 
7.  Spread a thin amount of gravy over your rolled dough. 
8.  Spread your cranberry sauce (if you have) over the gravy. 
9.  Sprinkle the onions over the cranberries. 
10.  Spread the chopped turkey over the cranberries. 
11.  Roll your dough into a log.
12.  Slice the log into sections that are about one inch thick and place each section on your prepared cookie sheet. 
13.  Place in the oven and bake for 10 - 12 minutes.  Just keep an eye on them while they are in there and make sure that they are a golden color on top when you remove them from the oven. 
14.  While your roll-ups are baking warm up your mashed potatoes and any other sides you would like to use up with dinner tonight. 
15.  Serve the roll-ups either on top of a nice pile of mashed potatoes and covered with gravy or alone.  

If you would like to use my Quick Mix the recipe can be found HERE and how to use it HERE.