Shoot. Okay, so I caved and I made this Shepherd's pie using ground turkey because we had company over and I just knew that my girlfriend's husband would have soiled his freshly pressed True Religion jeans if there was an ounce of tofu in sight.

So, I cowered through Whole Foods (which I hate now, to be posted soon) and purchased a $15 1lb. slab of turkey. Thankfully, the ground turkey was from Diestel Turkey Ranch, a family that I grew up with in my hillbilly home town.

The meal went off fabulously and my little one who is mostly vegan as well, truly enjoyed the meal. So much so that for the last week she has been pretending that everything that she eats is turkey.

Turkey is everywhere. Turkey sandwiches.  Turkey soup. Turkey eggrolls. Turkey in my oatmeal. There is a lot of turkey goin' on 'round here. Tonight I took some of the turkey and transformed it into fall off the bone shredded brown sugary BBQ sweetness. Oh yes, I did.

BBQ shredded turkey is so delicious. You can stuff into a tortilla of between two slices of crusty bread topped with pickled red onions and apple cider vinegar coleslaw.  My favorite thing about this recipe is that  you can put it together in the pot and let it sit for 3-4 hours without doing anything. 

The key to this recipe is to have homemade BBQ sauce on hand so you can be super lazy and watch the meat shred itself in a pot of sauce. Mmmm. Oh and I did I mention that I add carrots and onions to my shredded meat? Mmmm...Keep reading to get the BBQ sauce recipe.

Once you have made the recipe, add it to 3 cups shredded turkey, 1 diced, sauteed onion and a diced carrot.

Thanksgiving left a lot of food in my fridge -- mostly turkey -- turkey wings; turkey legs ; turkey everything...turkey carcass...yup. I used the turkey bones to make a rich, marrowy stock that served as the base for the soup that I made last night. The soup is so easy -- you can use veggie leftovers and add new veggies to the soup for a rich, winter stew. It features spinach, carrots, potatoes, corn and ditalini pasta.

I love this recipe because you can eat it immediately, store some in the fridge and freeze the rest in heavy-duty bags for another night. The stew will last 3-6 months in the freezer if properly packaged.

This soup pairs well with crust bread and butter.