Thanksgiving Meal Menu: Best First Thanksgiving Meal Ideas

If you are planning on a thanksgiving meal menu for the first time in your life, then my suggestion would be to go for recipes, which are simple but traditional. The best first thanksgiving meal ideas should not deal with complicated recipes, as you might mess out everything. On the other hand, the traditional thanksgiving meal menu would help you to prepare dishes, with which you are quite familiar. Cooking a new dish requires some amount of expertise, which you may not acquire at this level.

Herb-Roasted Turkey

For the first time, you should not go for stuffed turkey, as it requires quite a bit of expertise. Instead, you can cook your turkey by following this easy method. Simply brush the turkey with the mixture of olive oil, garlic powder, ground sage, dried basil, salt and pepper and put it for roasting inside the oven. Select comparatively smaller sized turkeys as these are easy to manage. If one is not sufficient to feed all of your guests, then buy in multiples.

Jazzed-Up Gravy

This simple gravy will take maximum of 15 minutes to cook. Get readymade gravy jar of your choice like chicken, turkey, beef or pork and season this in a pan of sautéed onions, thyme and pepper.

Sausage Stuffing

As you are not stuffing your turkeys, you should serve the traditional sausage stuffing in side of the turkey. Cook the sausage in butter or margarine and keep aside. In the remaining butter or margarine, you should sauté the onions and celery. Now, add the bread cubes and cooked sausage to this mixture. Stir well and season with salt, pepper and your favorite seasoning.

Mashed Potatoes

The most convenient thing about the mashed potatoes is that you can make this 1-2 days ahead of the celebration. To prepare this, use firmly boiled potatoes and mash them by mixing cream cheese, onion powder, sour cream, butter, salt and pepper. Refrigerate this mixture and on the Thanksgiving Day bake this lightly before serving.

Sauteed Green Beans

This is another vegetable side dish, which will bring little change in the texture as well as the taste. Cook the bacons and almonds to be browned, one at a time. Remove the bacons and crumble or chop them to bring back into the skillet. Add the green beans and cook until they turn tender. Season with salt and pepper and serve.

Yam Casserole

It is one of the most traditional but simple recipe ideas. Roast the yams and then remove the skin. Now beat this smoothly with eggs. Gradually add the brown sugar, butter, salt and spices like allspice, nutmeg, cinnamon etc, while beating on the mixture. Bake this in the oven by sprinkling pecans on top.

Pumpkin Pie

You can bake the pie crust at home, but for the first time it is better to use readily available pie crust. In a large bowl, combine cold milk, instant vanilla pudding mix, canned pumpkin, pumpkin pie spice and frozen whipped topping. Beat this mixture well and then pour this into the pie shell. Put this inside the refrigerator for at least 3 hours and allow it to set.

Buy readymade rolls or bread and cranberry sauce to serve with this delicious, simple but traditional thanksgiving menu.

Image Courtesy: startswithabang.com, worldsbestcookingmenu.blogspot.com, womansday.com, find.myrecipes.com, scienceblogs.com