Picture a busy postwar household juggling work schedules, school runs and evening television programs. Amid this shifting pace of life, one humble kitchen innovation quietly promised to simplify supper for millions of families across the country. What began as a clever solution to leftover Thanksgiving turkey soon reshaped grocery aisles, freezer habits and family routines and even changed how households gathered, or didn't gather, around the dinner table each evening. Decades later, its influence still lingers on plates nationwide.