How to Make Thanksgiving Dinner Easier

Thanksgiving is a wonderful holiday for you to enjoy spending time with your friends and family. But, to some, Thanksgiving can be such a stressful and busy holiday. Especially if you are the one who is having to cook the Thanksgiving dinner. The traditional Thanksgiving dinner is a huge affair in most households. You are expected to cook the most perfect turkey as well as create a huge array of side dishes and desserts to go along with it. Here are a few tips on how to make Thanksgiving dinner easier for those of us who are in charge of cooking that yummy feast.

The first way to make Thanksgiving dinner easier is to NOT try to cook everything on Thanksgiving Day. It's busy enough with greeting and feeding everyone without forcing yourself to get up before dawn and start the day with cooking. If you are anything like me, your stomach wouldn't be able to handle all that food so early in the morning anyway. The best thing to do in making Thanksgiving dinner easier is to cook and prepare as much of the day's dishes ahead of time. I always cook my turkey the day before Thanksgiving and then we heat it up before serving it on Thanksgiving Day. This keeps me from having to wake up around 4am in order to have the turkey done before we have our Thanksgiving meal at 1pm. Since the kids are usually out of school the day before Thanksgiving, it keeps me from having to run back and forth to school while my turkey is cooking. You can also cook your dressings, potatoes (salad or mashed), deviled eggs and anything else that will stay well in the fridge until the next day. Doing this makes life so much easier on Thanksgiving Day. It also gives me time to actually enjoy watching the Thanksgiving Day parade on television instead of missing it all while cooking.

Another easy shortcut to make Thanksgiving easier is to buy already prepared foods for your big meal. Your local supermarket usually has many freshly prepared foods available....especially around the holidays. The deli usually has things like potato salads, macaroni salads and sometimes mashed potatoes already prepared and just waiting for you to pick them up. An alternative to this would be to buy easy to fix foods, like instant potatoes, stuffing in a box and canned gravies and cranberry sauces.

If you would prefer home made foods over the store bought foods, you could have a potluck Thanksgiving dinner. Have each of your guests bring a side dish of their choosing to the dinner. By doing this you will tremendously cut down on the amount of time that you have to cook and the amount of foods that you would need to purchase. If you would prefer to not be suprised by what your guests bring you can always assign items for them to bring instead. During my family's Thanksgiving dinner, my relatives always bring something assigned. My mom always brings her fabulous dressing and homemade rolls, my sister brings macaroni and cheese and some drinks, my grandmother brings green beans and whatever else she wants to bring. Everyone has their particular side dishes to bring that we agree upon ahead of time. This definitely saves time when I'm the one hosting Thanksgiving dinner.

My last suggestions to make Thanksgiving easier is to buy complete precooked meals. There are many stores and even online shops where you can purchase a complete Thanksgiving dinner with turkey and side dishes of your choice for one price. By doing this you will tremendously cut down your cooking time and energy and you will still get a beautiful and very tastey Thanksgiving dinner to share with your family.

As for desserts, you can do the same as any of the above suggestions. You can make them ahead of time. You can have some of your guests bring a variety of sweets. You can buy frozen pies and cakes from your grocery store. As well as freshly made ones from your grocer's deli. You can even order desserts online and have them delivered straight to your door for your Thanksgiving dinner.

I hope that these suggestions are helpful and that they will help reduce your stress during the fantastic Thanksgiving holiday!