This Thanksgiving Leftovers Casserole is a great way to use up all of those delicious Thanksgiving leftovers in a layered casserole dish full of comfort food.

This weekend I spent almost the entire weekend in the Kitchen.  I am so excited about the upcoming Thanksgiving and Christmas Holidays and all the parties and family get-togethers that we’re planning!

 I’m even hoping to host a few at our house.  So, I practiced a few recipes that I wanted to try out before serving it to our guests for the first time.

One thing that I usually don’t enjoy much about cooking around the holidays is the leftovers… until now. I decided to come up with an idea to use my Thanksgiving leftovers and out came this Thanksgiving Leftovers Casserole. So, if you’re looking for a way to use your dinner leftovers, look no further!

This was the first time that I ever attempted to make my own Cranberry Sauce too! I’ve always been totally repulsed by the idea of Cranberry Sauce, mainly because the only type I had ever seen served was that out of the can that looked like something even worse than jello, complete with ridges in the sides.

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So I made my own and turns out, I LOVE cranberry sauce a-top my Turkey!

If you’ve never attempted your own Cranberry Sauce, it’s super, duper easy.  Simply boil 1 cup of water and 1 cup of sugar, add a small bag of cranberries and gently boil for 10 minutes.  I chose to add a 1/2 tsp of Cinnamon and Vanilla and a bit of Orange Zest to give my sauce a little umph.

It was delicious! Mixed with yogurt, it truly is the magical ingredient in this leftovers casserole!

Within the Cranberry Turkey Casserole recipe, you’ll have the opportunity to use your Turkey, Cranberry Sauce, Dressing/Stuffing, and Mashed Potato Leftovers!  

The only extra ingredients that you need are Mozzarella Cheese and yogurt.  You’ll notice that there is NO mayonnaise in this recipe and here’s why…

Back to that magical ingredient – I mixed 1 cup of Cranberry Sauce and 1/2 cup of Plain Yogurt to make a delicious layer of Cranberry Sauce for the Casserole.

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The casserole is made up of 4 layers that will look like this:

1.  A layer of stuffing covers the bottom of your glass baking dish <— [this one is the perfect size for this dish!]

2.  Next, spread your leftover turkey all over the bottom layer of stuffing and cover with your magical Cranberry and Yogurt mixture.

3.  Mix together leftover mashed potatoes, 1 cup of Mozzarella Cheese, and 3/4 cup of Yogurt and spread over the Cranberry mixture.  Top with remaining Stuffing.

In a 350 degree oven, the casserole simply needs to warm nicely {and I love the stuffing to get browned and crunchy on top}, so 40 minutes is usually perfect!

You’ll be so pleasantly surprised by the combined tastes of all your Thanksgiving favorites in this casserole!  The cranberry and yogurt mixture are just the perfect compliment to all the tastes and give it a tiny bit of sweetness to compliment the turkey and potatoes!

My family gobbled this casserole right up! I think this Thanksgiving Leftovers Casserole is a unique way instead of simply making Turkey sandwiches with a side of potatoes and stuffing for the next few days after the Holiday! But don’t let the name fool you… you can enjoy this dish any day of the year!