Leftover Soup

Last week I roasted a turkey for the first time for our dinner guests (I officially don't know what the fuss is over roasting a turkey. Just make sure it's defrosted, then follow the directions.) With it, I made a sweet whiskey-maple sauce and a pomegranate-cranberry sauce to go on the turkey. The pom-cran sauce didn't quite thicken how I wanted it to, but it was still yummy. (It was just Ocean Spray juice and the juices from the pan, essentially.) We had lots of leftovers, so I thought I'd whip up some soup. Earlier in the week I used the leftover pom-cran sauce and low-sodium chicken broth, added some chopped carrots and celery and some pasta, all heated together til the pasta was cooked and the veggies were just tender. It was really good. Today I thought I'd make soup again, as it would be a great way to use up turkey leftovers. I put water, a vegetable bouillon cube, and pomegranate-cranberry juice in a big pot, dumped in roasted turkey cut into bite size pieces, the remainder of a bag of baby carrots, and about 1/3 bag of barley, plus some garlic powder, chili powder, and a bay leaf (which William insists makes a difference but I don't think it does at all.) I let it all cook on medium low heat for 2 hours, added a smidge of salt at the end to bring the flavors together, and we enjoyed it for lunch along with some rye crackers. If you find yourself with lots of leftovers after Christmas, this is a fun, healthy and economical way to use them up. I think this recipe would work with traditional cranberry sauce in the soup, leftover green beans, spinach, etc.
Side note: I make my own stock usually but am currently out. The next best thing is College Inn brand, and the next best thing to that is vegetable bouillon cubes because it usually doesn't have added msg or high levels of sodium. Always read the ingredients though.