My Ideal Thanksgiving (Full Thanksgiving Dinner with Sides Made Easy)

My Ideal Thanksgiving—Think Thanksgiving dinner, but on a budget and with time constraints. Of course, not everyone loves being in the kitchen the whole day or maybe even days before the delicious holiday dinner.

Don’t get me wrong—I love a tasty Thanksgiving dinner, but sometimes, you don’t need all the extra stuff. Just give me the easy sides (read that as dinner rolls and mashed potatoes) and a few extra things, and I am good to go!

Plus, you don’t always have the money to make everything under the sun when you are on a budget.

With this list of delicious side dishes and the main course, you can have a perfectly delectable Thanksgiving dinner that the whole family will rave about and devour without spending too much.

The Best Thanksgiving Dinner Recipes (Made Easy):

Side dishes:

• 

  Homemade Cranberry Sauce

  Difficulty: Easy

  I love making Homemade Cranberry Sauce to add to my Thanksgiving spread. It’s so delicious and fresh and takes almost no effort to make.

  11 votes 4.5 Cuisine: American, Thanksgiving

• 

  Traditional Thanksgiving Stuffing

  Difficulty: Easy

  1 vote 5.0 Cuisine: American

• 

  Easy One Hour Dinner Rolls

  Difficulty: Easy

  These One Hour Dinner Rolls are super soft and pillowy and can be made from start to finish in under 60 minutes.

  10 votes 5.0 Cuisine: American

• 

  Baked Mac and Cheese

  Difficulty: Easy, Medium

  This delicious Baked Mac and Cheese is such a tasty mix of cheeses in the perfectly creamy cheese sauce to make the ultimate comfort food.

  35 votes 3.2 Cuisine: American

Main entree:

• 

  Juicy Slow Cooker Turkey with Mashed Potatoes

  Difficulty: Easy

  Juicy slow cooker turkey breast with creamy mashed potatoes and homemade gravy to make the best home-cooked meal for the family.

  1 vote 5.0 Cuisine: American

Dessert:

• 

  Pumpkin Pie Bars

  Difficulty: Easy

  Traditional pumpkin pie but make it into a bar — pumpkin pie bars. The best buttery crust with a creamy pumpkin filling!

  2 votes 5.0 Cuisine: American

More to add to Thanksgiving Dinner:

Obviously, these are not the only recipes you can make for your Thanksgiving dinner. However, it does cover all the delicious basics.

Plus, when it is just me and my family, I know we will all enjoy these easy Thanksgiving dinner recipes.

If you want more ideas of what to serve at your holiday table, give these other recipes a try. Sometimes, it’s great to have options if you plan to serve a crowd.

• 

  Deviled Egg Pasta Salad

  Difficulty: Easy

  Deviled Egg Pasta Salad is a crossover of two of my favorite side dishes.

  7 votes 4.6 Cuisine: American

• 

  Southern Sweet Potato Casserole

  Difficulty: Easy

  Cuisine: American

• 

  Apple Cranberry Christmas Dump cake

  Difficulty: Easy

  The best Fall dump cake recipe — Apple Cranberry Christmas Dump Cake has the best combination of apple pie and cranberry sauce flavors!

  Cuisine: American

• 

  Pumpkin Crumble Dump Cake

  Difficulty: Easy

  The best fall recipe, pumpkin dump cake! It will give you all the pumpkin pie spice vibes, in the form of an easy cake recipe.

  14 votes 4.7 Cuisine: American

Either way, no matter what you make this holiday season, the best thing you can do is try not to stress and let the meals be the added benefit to the time spent with family and friends.

And of course, let me know if you made any of these easy recipes in the comments!

Quick links for making dinner easy:

• Family meal plans
• Tools for the kitchen and more
• The best cookbook for family dinner recipes
• FREE budget meal plan
• Cooking videos to watch

If you give these recipes a try, make sure to tag us on Instagram @julia.pacheco.cooking and let us know how much you liked the recipes!