My family goes overboard on Thanksgiving food every single year, and honestly, we do it on purpose. We’re hosting this time around (we swap houses with family each year), and we’re making two turkeys because everyone wants a drumstick. Thursday dinner is great, but then I’m stuck eating turkey for days afterward. After a few rounds of sandwiches and turkey à la king, I hit a wall. Either the food goes bad, or I just can’t look at turkey anymore. This year, I’m putting my Mesliese Vacuum Sealer Machine to use for the leftovers, and I think it’s going to save me.
Why Thanksgiving leftovers are such a challenge
The race against the clock
The post-Thanksgiving timeline is predictable. Thursday is the main event. The next day (while I’m shopping Black Friday tech deals) is turkey sandwiches for lunch and a full leftover spread for dinner. Saturday, we have Thanksgiving with the other side of the family. And on Sunday, I start throwing turkey into whatever casserole recipe I can find. By then, when I open the fridge, I genuinely question whether I even want to see turkey again and if I need to deep clean my refrigerator.
Here’s the thing: the USDA gives cooked turkey three to four days in the fridge. Four days. That’s all you get. And when two turkeys leave you with a fridge full of meat, four days disappear fast. And when you’ve cooked two birds specifically because everyone wants a leg, the sheer volume of breast meat and other cuts becomes almost comical.
Beyond food safety, there’s the psychological side of it. And even when the food is still safe to eat, who wants turkey for the fifth time in three days? I don’t. But throwing it away feels terrible, too. I’ve tossed too many containers of “I’ll definitely use this tomorrow” leftovers over the years, and it never sits right with me.
There’s a better way than forcing yourself into a four-day leftover sprint.
How a vacuum sealer changes the game
Keeping food good for months instead of days
I used to throw stuff in regular freezer bags and call it good. The problem is, after a couple of months, everything tastes like freezer. The texture changes, the flavor dulls, and eventually, you toss it because nobody wants to eat it. Vacuum sealing fixes that. I’ve pulled meat out of my freezer a year later, and it tastes like I just bought it. Removing the air makes all the difference.
I’ve owned my Mesliese vacuum sealer for a few years now, and it’s become one of those kitchen tools I reach for constantly. My primary use has been handling bulk meat purchases. I buy the big packs of chicken drumsticks from Costco pretty regularly. I cook what we need for dinner, then seal up the rest and freeze it. Three months later, I pull out a bag, and it’s just as good as when I bought it. No rush to use them up, no weird freezer taste.
My other go-to is sous vide cooking. I season steaks, seal them up with butter and thyme, and drop them in my Instant Pot. The bags don’t leak, and I’m not scrubbing containers afterward.
It finally hit me that I should be doing this with Thanksgiving leftovers, too. Why force myself to eat turkey until I hate it when I could just freeze some for later? A few weeks later, turkey will actually sound appealing again.
What I’m vacuum sealing this Thanksgiving
Strategic portioning for future meals
I’ve been thinking through what I’ll actually want to eat later and portioning accordingly. I slice some of the breast meat thin for sandwiches. The rest I cube up for throwing into soup or a casserole down the road. Whatever dark meat survives Thursday dinner—usually some thigh meat once everyone’s grabbed their drumstick—gets sealed separately for future dinners.
Some sides freeze better than others. Mashed potatoes hold up fine in the freezer, and the stuffing actually reheats better than I expected. Cranberry sauce is a no-brainer since it’s basically already prepped for freezing. Green bean casserole turns into a soggy mess, so I skip that one now.
The trick I’ve learned is making the portions match what I’ll actually eat. A lunch-sized bag for sandwiches, a dinner-sized bag for a real meal. I write the date on everything with a Sharpie, so I’m not playing guessing games later. Future me has never once regretted that extra ten seconds of effort.
Come December, Thanksgiving feels like ages ago, and turkey sounds good again. I grab a bag, warm everything up with some gravy, and that’s dinner. We get (almost) a full Thanksgiving meal with minimal effort.
Why this vacuum sealer works for me
The right features at the right price
The Mesliese unit I use runs around $70—sometimes less when it’s on sale. That puts it in accessible territory without sacrificing the features that actually matter.
The 90kPa suction power handles everything I’ve thrown at it, from raw steaks to cooked turkey. The 6-in-1 functionality sounds like marketing speak, but the modes I actually use work well. The Dry and Moist settings matter more than I initially expected. Moist mode is essential for anything with liquid content, like marinated meats or foods with natural juices. There’s also a seal-only option for when you just need to close a bag without pulling a vacuum.
Mesliese includes bag rolls and some pre-cut bags in the box, which is nice because you can start using it right away. Cleaning is easy—just wipe down the stainless steel, and you’re done. The footprint is pretty small, too. I measured mine at about 15 inches, and it slides into my cabinet next to the toaster oven without taking up much room.
I bought this thing a few years back, and it’s still going strong. Look, it’s not some restaurant-grade machine. But it does the one job I need it to do, and it hasn’t broken yet. For what I paid, I can’t complain.
Turkey in December sounds pretty good to me
A $70 vacuum sealer might seem like an odd Thanksgiving prep purchase, but the math works out quickly. I’ve easily saved $70 in food I would have thrown out otherwise. And having freezer meals that actually taste good months later? I’ll take that trade any day.
Thanksgiving dinner is going to be great this year—I’m looking forward to it. But I’m also already thinking about some random Saturday next month when I don’t feel like cooking. I’ll pull out a bag of turkey, heat up the gravy, and eat a full holiday meal in my sweatpants while watching the next niche/weird sci-fi movie on my streaming list. That might be the best part of the whole thing.