Easy Thanksgiving Recipes

Thanksgiving is only 2 days away! Many of us will be traveling over this holiday weekend to be with friends and family, some will be cooking at home, and others will be dining out. Whatever you may be doing, I pray that your Thanksgiving Day will be blessed with an abundance of food, love, and family/friends!

Now, if you are wondering what you can make to take to your "potluck" Thanksgiving, or just need an extra dish for your table, here are a few recipes that are quick, easy, and delicious! I hope you enjoy them as much as my family does.


HAVE A BLESSED THANKSGIVING!! :)

*Sweet Potato Casserole

*Green Bean Casserole

*Cornbread Dressing

*Pecan Pie

*Pumpkin Cake

*Pumpkin Bread

"Oh give thanks to the Lord, for He is good; for His steadfast love endures forever!" --Psalm 118:1

Dessert or Side Dish?

This has got to be one of my favorite things to have on my plate at Thanksgiving (or anytime for that matter!). It is so easy to make, and the fresh sweet potatoes make it taste so much better than if you use the canned ones. But would you classify this as a side dish or a dessert? It is very sweet, yet it is a potato. Hmmm...let me know your thoughts on this one!

Sweet Potato Casserole

3 cups mashed sweet potatoes
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 stick butter
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
2 eggs, beaten
1/2 cup milk
1 cup brown sugar
1/3 cup flour
1/3 stick butter, melted
1 cup chopped pecans

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Boil sweet potatoes, drain and mash. Mix next 7 ingredients together with potatoes. Pour into buttered casserole dish. Mix brown sugar, flour, butter, and pecans together and crumble over top. Bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes.

Another easy recipe for Thanksgiving

I give credit to Campbell's for this recipe (from their website), but I did change a few things to make it my own. :)

Green Bean Casserole

1 can Cream of Mushroom Soup
1/2 cup milk
1 tsp. worcestershire sauce
Dash ground black pepper
4 cups cooked cut green beans (about 3 cans, drained)
1 1/3 cups French fried onions (or more if desired)

Mix soup, milk, worcestershire sauce, black pepper, beans, and 2/3 cup onions in a casserole dish. Bake at 350 degrees for 25 minutes. Stir. Sprinkle with remaining onions. Bake for 5 additional minutes.

TIP: Use 1 large bag frozen green beans, 3 cans green beans or about 1 1/2 lb. fresh green beans for this recipe.

The first recipe in the Easy Thanksgiving Series

Cornbread Dressing

1 large skillet of cornbread
3 or 4 biscuits
1 cup celery, finely chopped
1 onion, finely chopped
Sage - Lots!!
Chicken broth (or turkey broth from the turkey)

Crumble the cornbread into fine crumbs. Pinch apart the biscuits (or put in a food processor) into small pieces. Add celery and onions and toss together. Sprinkle sage all over, a little at a time. Pour turkey/chicken broth over mixture a little at a time and mix well, folding all the ingredients together. Keep adding sage to your taste and enough broth to make a moist (but not to liquidy) mixture. You can eat it just like this or you can bake it for about 25 minutes on 350 degrees.

Makes about 10-12 servings or one 9x13 casserole dish.

An Easy Thanksgiving Dinner

On Monday evening, I hosted a cooking class for my Fellowship Group. Our group consists of ladies who are either Seminary students or Seminary wives of Billy Graham School students. We usually meet once a month and eat and have an activity, whether it be making jewelry to give to a local women's resource center or in this case a cooking class. Whatever it is, we always have a great time of fellowship and prayer.

On this particular occasion, we decided to have a "cooking class" since a lot of the girls love to cook but rarely have time to make a nice sit-down dinner. So, I chose some very simple recipes and we had an "Easy Thanksgiving Dinner" that each of us could easily prepare for our own families. Plus we got to eat what we made! How much better can you get?

So, I know you are wondering what we had for Thanksgiving Dinner. Brace yourself, and get a napkin because your mouth just might start watering!! Okay, here goes:

*Turkey
*Ham
*Dressing
*Green Bean Casserole
*Sweet Potato Casserole
*Cranberry Sauce
*Rolls
*Pecan Pie
*Apple Crumble

I told you to get that napkin! As soon as I round up all of my recipes I am going to post them so that you, too, can make an "Easy Thanksgiving Dinner" for your family this year! :) Stay tuned!!

It's as easy as ... PIE!!

Yeah right! We have all heard that saying before, but is pie really that easy to make? I mean, first you have to make the crust. Then you have to make the filling. Then you have to make the top crust or the meringue. Let's face it, that is absolutely too much work for a simple slice of goodness!! (well, depending on the pie, I guess). It would be so much easier to buy one of those "don't let your grandma see you buy that" freezer section pies... or a pie from the bakery at the grocery store...or if you are in Louisville, one of those scrumptious pies from the Homemade Ice Cream and Pie Kitchen. But wait, before you go running out to pick up one of the above mentioned pies, read on.


If you like pecan pie, I have an "easy as pie" recipe for you to try (and I promise, it is easy!). In fact, the recipe is from a kitchen magnet I picked up while I was vacationing in Savannah, Georgia last summer. I know! Isn't that neat? Who would have thought to put a recipe on a magnet? Anyway, here is my $1.75 magnet recipe:




At first, I was hesitant to make the pie using this "magnet recipe" - after all, it is from a magnet. Well, let me just tell you, I have made this pie about a dozen times and have found it to be very simple, very easy, and very delicious!! Actually, I just made this pie for one of our sweet professors at the Seminary. It took all of about 5 minutes to prepare. It takes a while for it to bake, though (about an hour), but the wait is definitely worth it. Just in case you can't see the recipe above, here it is:

Pecan Pie

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Beat 3 eggs, 2/3 cup of brown sugar, 1/2 teaspoon of salt, 1/3 cup of butter (the real stuff), and 1 cup of dark or light corn syrup. Cover bottom of pie shell with one cup of pecan halves or broken (chopped) pecans. Pour the syrup mixture over the pecans. Bake 40-50 minutes or until filling is set.

Now there are several options for the crust. You can either purchase a frozen crust (I think granny would be okay with this) - Mrs. Smith's is my personal favorite; a refrigerated crust (such as Pillsbury), a pie crust mix (Jiffy is the best), or you can make your own from scratch. I used the refrigerated one (Pillsbury) for the pie I made last night. Here is what the finished product looked like:

I was a little disappointed in the way the crust turned out (you can't tell it from the picture, but it is a little brown-er than I would have liked), but hopefully it tasted okay. I am still learning the "decorative edge technique" - haven't mastered that yet. Oh well, practice makes perfect!!