How to Prepare a Quick and Easy Thanksgiving Meal

Most of the items needed for a Thanksgiving Meal can be found almost completely prepared at a local grocery store. While store-bought Thanksgiving items are not as good as home cooking from scratch, they are quick and easy.

Dishes you can get with negligible preparation:

Snacks: Olives, crackers, nuts and baby carrots can be simply opened and arranged to provide guests with finger food to snack on before the big meal.

Pie: Pumpkin is traditional for Thanksgiving but other pies are also common. Many of these pies can be found fresh in the bakery or frozen next to the ice cream in the freezer section.

Cranberry Sauce is a staple in the Thanksgiving meal and the easiest way to have it is out of a can.

Dinner rolls are essential for mopping up all the yummy but runny Thanksgiving flavors. If you get to the store early enough you can buy them fresh, otherwise pick up some crescent roll tubes and bake them quickly and easily in the oven.

Dishes that will require light cooking:

Stove Top stuffing, instant mashed potatoes and gravy packets are all quick and easy to prepare. It isn't quite as easy as open the package and you're done but still a lot easier than the traditional recipes for Thanksgiving dishes. These can be cooked on the stove even in the microwave.

What about the turkey?

The turkey is usually the most time and energy intensive item on the Thanksgiving dinner menu. Some people slave in the kitchen for hours over their turkey. Every year my family frees up space in the oven by using the pressure cooker instead. Check out the article "How to Cook the Thanksgiving Turkey in the Pressure Cooker" for complete details about how you can get juicy, flavorful turkey quickly and easily in a pressure cooker.

Extra credit side dishes:

Having a couple honest to goodness homemade dishes can really fill out a Thanksgiving meal that is otherwise focused on the quick and easy. If you have all of the above you have achieved the bare minimum of true Thanksgiving flavors. There are a couple of side dishes that are relatively simple that can help your Thanksgiving meal seem more impressive.

Yams

Yams or sweet potatoes are often associated with Thanksgiving dinner. Many young adults, such as myself, don't cook with them except during the holidays. While there are a lot of recipes for making Thanksgiving yams this is my favorite article because it provides a lot of background information about yams and includes an easy recipe

Green bean casserole:

Like with the yams there are a lot of easy recipes out there for green bean casserole. My favorite recipe can be found here.

Resources:

Personal Experience

http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/2361688/how_to_cook_the_thanksgiving_turkey.html

http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/1031210/sweet_potato_recipes_lets_get_creative.html?cat=22

http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/1188434/green_bean_casserole_recipe.html?cat=22