With mandates across the country, and the U.S. at the epicenter of the pandemic, a lot of Thanksgivings are looking smaller this year. Even if you are able to see your pod or family you may not want to be eating turkey sandwiches for the next week, or may not have the space to cook or store huge amounts of food. Below are quick, small, and most importantly inexpensive meals to get you through the holiday.

1. My personal favorite sweet potato recipe and it only requires 4 ingredients, if you include salt and pepper. I used to make these all the time in grad school and reheat with some sort of protein. The slow roasting caramelizes the natural sugars and you can even make these the day before Thanksgiving and reheat in the oven with whatever else you are making. https://smittenkitchen.com/2018/02/slow-roasted-sweet-potatoes/

2. Super easy green bean recipe from Minimalist Baker and you can make it even easier and put the same marinade on your Brussels sprouts and throw them both in the oven at 400 degrees. Add slivered almonds to the green beans, balsamic vinegar and/or bacon to the Brussels sprouts and no one will know it’s the same recipe https://minimalistbaker.com/1-pan-garlicky-green-beans-with-slivered-almonds/

*Note as green beans generally cook faster make sure the vegetables are separate on the tray so you can take the beans off faster, usually around 15 minutes for green beans and 20-35 minutes for the sprouts

3. This isn’t the cheapest, but if you are hosting a Thanksgiving in a cramped apartment this Damned Delicious sheet pan dinner includes turkey, sweet potatoes, Brussels sprouts, and stuffing in less than two hours and on just two sheet pans. Easy clean up for the win! https://damndelicious.net/2019/11/09/sheet-pan-thanksgiving-dinner/

4. Bacon makes everything better, and one of my favorite simple sides is bacon wrapped asparagus. It’s pretty simple to make especially when you forget that you were invited to a socially distant food swap and need to whip up something on short notice, but all you have is keto ingredients in your fridge. Just snap the wooden ends off your asparagus, drizzle on some olive, salt and pepper, wrap in bacon and bake at 400 degrees for 12 or so minutes. We recommend not overlapping the bacon too much on the asparagus, or the asparagus in the pan, or it can get soggy https://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/rachael-ray/bacon-wrapped-asparagus-bundles-recipe-1915631

5. Nothing says fall like cornbread, my personal favorite is a simple cornbread recipe with a nice sweet butter spread. Some people go for an apple butter spread but that is too much work for me and I just mix honey and butter in a 1:3 ratio. https://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/classic-cornbread-3363366 and if you really need a honey butter recipe https://www.allrecipes.com/recipe/24768/honey-butter/

6. As a huge fan of rich desserts, cheesecake has always been very high on my list. With it being Thanksgiving a bit of a festive touch is required, and adding pumpkin provides a fantastic bit of flavor. Be careful though, make sure to save a portion for breakfast before it’s all eaten! https://natashaskitchen.com/pumpkin-cheesecake-recipe/

 7. 1 cup eggnog, ½ cup spiced rum. That’s it.

2 Comments

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