Simple Thanksgiving Dinner for the Beginner

Thanksgiving 2020 has come and gone so why write a blog post about it now? Well, for one thing I am definitely not a cook and was not planning on cooking an entire Thanksgiving dinner from scratch on my own this year! We weren’t hosting and with my parents out of town, Matt and I were thinking we will just order catering for the four of us. But last minute I decided that I want our quaint Thanksgiving to be extra special. Plus, it was Matt’s birthday on Thanksgiving Day. It ended up being one of the most special Thanksgivings we have had! Pulling a full Thanksgiving dinner from scratch needs to be documented in my opinion. And with Christmas and New Year’s around the corner, you can recreate this simple menu for your quaint gatherings or for any occasion.

I searched recipes for “Thanksgiving dinner for beginners” and found this post from Budget Bytes on prepping and day-of timeline for making the perfect Thanksgiving dinner for beginners like me. I am here as proof, that I pulled it off and everything was delicious.

The recipes I used were:

Apple Roasted Turkey
Apple Walnut Stuffing – the recipe calls for two boxes of stuffing but one would have been perfect for our family of four.
Mushroom Herb Gravy
Maple Roasted Sweet Potatoes with Pecans
Lemon Butter Green Beans
Maple Brown Butter Pumpkin Pie

I also made two appetizers:

Baked Brie with Caramelized Onions from The Cozy Apron
Baked Brie Bites from Lately with Lex.

My biggest tip and what made the day-of stress free was prepping all the cutting, slicing, dicing, chopping from the night before.

I had the girls create a Thanksgiving Menu and we bought festive Thanksgiving paper products to set the table. I added some mini pumpkins and candles and voila!