How a $7 Turkey Can Feed You for 3 Weeks

So my boyfriend is British. Have I not mentioned that? Really? I tend to mention that.

And because he is British, he a.) loves roast dinners, but b.) is skeptical of the validity of Thanksgiving as a holiday. In the absence of Thanksgiving feasting, his family across the pond takes the opportunity to roast a turkey on New Year's day. It's only their second big roast of the year, you see, and they're entitled as much as the rest of us. So now Stephen and I have gotten into the habit of roasting our own New Year's turkey.

I know what you're thinking: three massive roast dinners in one holiday season passed decadent a long while ago on the road to gluttony. But the thing is, when Stephen and I were shopping one fateful New Year's eve, we discovered something magical. Turkeys go on sale after Christmas! They do! They're really cheap! It's almost like people get sick of them after eating them twice within a month! And we gleefully went home with a 14-pound turkey in our arms, only seven dollars (seven dollars!) poorer, laughing at all of the people who foolishly cooked new things to ring in the new year.

We called around a bit to see if any friends wanted to come over for our last-minute feast, but everyone was predictably busy with their own New Year's plans. The following year, we dispensed with such excuses. Let's be honest--we didn't want to share the bacon-wrapped sausages anyways, and as it turns out, having a massive amount of leftover turkey is kind of awesome.

And now, we present you with a menu plan for enjoying a seven-dollar turkey* throughout the month of January:

January 1: Roast turkey dinner, with stuffing, potatoes, gravy, Brussels sprouts, bacon-wrapped sausages, what have you.

January 2: Leftover roast dinner (don't mess with a good thing).

January 3: Back-to-work turkey and stuffing sandwiches.

January 4: Take a few days off. Strip the carcass, and freeze servings of white meat and dark meat. Simmer the bones to make stock. Eat some salads/smoothies/sushi. Go on some guilt-ridden jogs. Curse the day you ever met a bacon-wrapped sausage.

January 8: Turkey soup with wild rice and ginger.

January 11: Turkey-walnut salad wraps. (I'm partial to alfalfa sprouts, here.)

January 15: Turkey and wild mushroom pot pie with puff pastry crust.

January 22: Shrimp, andouille, and turkey jambalaya.

January 29: Madras turkey curry. ("Turkey curry buffet!" Just imagine Mark Darcy wearing a terrible Christmas sweater.)

And this is just the beginning! There are so many things you can do with turkey!

*In the interest of full disclosure, I grudgingly admit that this year's turkey did not cost seven dollars. He came from Whole Foods, and so far as I can tell, Whole Foods is allergic to sales, turkey or otherwise. But the original New Year's turkey of yore really did cost seven dollars! And I'm not going to let scruples about accuracy stand between me and a good theme. I'm an English major, and we can get away with this sort of thing.