Thanksgiving and Less is More

I learned a valuable lesson this Thanksgiving - "less is more." Not less food, mind you. Just less effort. And strangely, I got more compliments from my husband this year about my Thanksgiving meal than in years past. Go figure. I made nothing from scratch this year, not even pumpkin pies, and I have to admit, it was kind of nice to not be tied to the kitchen for half the day. Maybe this is the beginning of a new Thanksgiving trend.
Even though I bought a relatively small turkey for the four of us (just under 11 pounds. Of course that's what happens when you wait until the day before Thanksgiving and all that's left are gargantuan 30 pound turkeys or little small turkeys) we still had plenty of leftover turkey that I had to deal with the next day. Since the day after Thanksgiving was snowy and certainly felt like winter had arrived, I decided it was the perfect day for soup. Turkey noodle soup to be exact. Now I've made quite a few variations on chicken noodle soup and turkey noodle soup over the years, but I think this year, I stumbled across the perfect recipe - chunky with a big turkey taste that I've found to be lacking in other recipes. The secret? Two packages of instant turkey gravy mix. It gave the soup a depth of flavor that was just perfect. I came across the recipe in one of my Taste of Home cookbooks titled "The Big Book of Soup" (how can you go wrong with a title like that?). I modified the recipe just a bit and increased the water to five cups and added two bouillon chicken cubes. The original recipe also called for frozen egg noodles but I used dry.
Ingredients
2 cans (14.5oz) of chicken broth
5 cups of water
2 chicken bouillon cubes
1 3/4 cups sliced carrots
1/2 cup chopped onion
2 sliced celery ribs
1 package (14.5 oz) wide egg noodles
3 cups of chopped turkey
1 can of baby peas
2 envelopes of chicken gravy mix
1/2 cup cold water
In a large saucepan, bring the broth, water, bouillon cubes, carrots, onions and celery to a boil. Reduce heat, cover and simmer for 4-6 minutes or until vegetables are crisp-tender. Add the noodles and cook according to package directions. Stir in turkey and peas. Combined gravy mixes and cold water until smooth and stir into soup. Bring to a boil and cook and stir for two minutes or until thickened.

It was perfect with a salad and some left over Thanksgiving day rolls. I won't keep this recipe for just Thanksgiving though. I can see using a grocery store rotisserie chicken in place of the turkey without sacrificing any of the flavor.