Getting Our Veg On with Turkey Chop Suey

Leftover turkey + lotsa vegies = Turkey Chop Suey, just like Mom used to make after Thanksgiving! Just in time for Taylor's game night, too.

I had cooked a small turkey earlier in the week with chop suey in mind later on. So on the way home from work this afternoon I stopped by the grocery store to pick up some mushrooms and sweet red peppers to augment the vegies I already had, plus the required bean sprouts. I shopped at Spencers, which always has good produce, and they didn't disappoint me today. Peppers and mushrooms were on sale! I might mention I am spending much less in the grocery stores lately, partly because I make fewer trips, and partly because I have such a great supply of vegies from SLO Veg! Today's foray into the grocery store took me over to the meat counter, where I found chicken and pork on sale. I stocked up on pork chops and country-style ribs, boneless chicken breasts, ground beef and a beef pot roast. I envision a pot roast with carrots and turnips in our near future! But back to the leftover turkey! I carved and picked off what was left of the breast meat and put the rib carcass into my large stockpot and set it to boil. As I cleaned off the legs and thighs, I separated meat from bones, adding more bones to the pot. I ended up with a nice bowl full of cubed meat, about 3 cups worth, and put it aside while I prepared the vegies. I sliced celery and carrots on a diagonal and put them into a wok. I also sliced a whole red pepper into strips and put that into the wok. To that I added about 3 Tbs grated fresh ginger, 2 cloves minced garlic, and one of those big green onions. Using 2 tbs of coconut oil, I stirfried the vegies for a few minutes. Then I removed all of the bones from the stockpot and disgarded them. Mmmmmm, that broth smelled good. To put it all together, I dumped all the stirfried vegies into the pot of broth, then added the mushrooms and bean sprouts. I also added on can each of water chestnuts, bamboos shoots and baby corn, drained of course. I turned the heat off, because the broth was already so hot and the vegies didn't need anymore cooking. Okay, now I was ready to give my attention to the meat. Since it was already cooked, I just wanted to warm it up and give it some Asian infusion. I put the meat into the same wok as I had used for the vegies and added about a half-cup of soy sauce. I stirred it around so the juice could soak into the meat, then seasoned it with ginger, garlic and Chinese Five-Spice--just a few light shakes! I have learned to not over-indulge in the five-spice! When the turkey meat was heated through, I put it into the vegie pot, and after a quick check of the rice in the steamer, announced to the boys that dinner was ready.
I