Adventures making Turkey Noodle Soup

So, I was made a turkey yesterday.

I have to say — I don’t have a lot of experience in turkey making, and none at all on my own — it was ridiculously easy. Pretty much you rinse the bird, pat the bird down, stuff the bird (that was the hard part) and then rub her down with olive oil and salt, pepper, thyme. Then stick her in the oven for 5 hours.

$6 bought enough (healthy) food to feed us for, I don’t know, the next week? CRAZY!

After I roast the turkey, I cleaned off all the meat, which filled a 3 gallon  container. I took all the non-edible bits and put them in the crock pot, covered the carcass with water, and set the pot on high for 4 hours. I strained all the solid parts out and threw them away (sorry, dogs) and put the stock in the refridgerator.

Today I come home to make tasty turkey noodle soup. Just as good as chicken noodle soup, right? I put the pot on the stove and start shredding some turkey to throw in the pot.

I didn’t look at the pot until I threw the second handful in. The first handfull was sitting in the top of the stock.

Gross , I thought. There’s so much fat in the stock that the turkey is sitting on top of it. I thought I had skimmed it all off before I put it in the fridge …

So I put my spoon in the stock to spoon off the fat and — GASP — the whole thing had this gelatinous consistency. The whole thing can’t be fat … I thought. I strained everything in the pot like, four times.

After some Google Foo, I found out that its actually a good thing if your turkey stock is gelatinous after its been sitting in the fridge.

And, indeed, after I heated the stock backup, it was a smooth liquid again. I put it in the freezer, thinking I could skim the extra fat off the top, and went to the gym for an hour.

I got back and there was no fat at the top. Oh well. Maybe I got it all.

I threw in a pound of egg noodles, about a pound of roast turkey, 4 carrots, 2 celery stalks and about a half cup of chopped parsley. Seasoned with salt and pepper and thyme — amazing!

Today’s workout — strength training:

— 10 minutes easy run (warm-up)
— 3 sets of 12 reps

  •  incline chest press (45)
  • leg press (200)
  • tricep extension (50)
  • calf extension (130)
  • sit-ups (lv. 1)
  • oblique-ups in Roman chair (body weight)
  • back extensions in Roman chair (body weight)

— Stretching cool down

Total time spent at the gym — 30 minutes. Strength work feels like cheating.

I signed up for a program revamp with the trainer at Planet Fitness tomorrow. The program I usually do (this one, above) is the same one I’ve been doing for almost three years now, and I feel like my goals have changed. Or at least, like I don’t have much direction. I haven’t bothered to increase the weight very much, and I haven’t been very consistent with it — the last time I did machine weights was Oct. 30, according to my chart.

I’ll let you know how it goes tomorrow!

 

 

Pattie Reaves

About Pattie Reaves

I'm a new mom and renegade fitness blogger at After the Couch. I live in Brewer with my husband, Tony, our daughter Felicity, and our two pugs, Georgia and Scoop.