8-Ingredient Small Thanksgiving Dinner

Two weeks until Thanksgiving! And in less than two weeks we'll be elbow deep in stuffing prep, right?

I will be, at least.

I've shared a few new Thanksviging menu recipes this year, and now is the moment that we get our Thanksgiving menu planning hats on and get to work. Lists, prep, groceries, etc.

This year I'm making two new menus - One that is going to be a traditional Thanksgiving dinner for larger groups, and one small Thanksgiving dinner menu plan for gatherings that are just you and some besties. It's Thanksgiving Menu 2020, COVID-style.

In case you've missed the last few Thanksgiving offerings, the theme this year for all of the dishes is peak-2020: small batch, very few ingredients, very familiar flavors. I've got sections in this Thanksgiving dinner plan for what I'd consider a full meal, some bonus point recipes for if you want to add on a little bit, and desserts and appetizers if you're into that sort of thing. You can make the meal as large or as small as you'd like!

The KEY for this menu is that all of the ingredients are super easy and basic and none of the recipes have more than 8 ingredients. Many can be made in advance, and all are super simple to make.

Full disclosure: I am not counting salt, pepper, water, and oil in ingredient counts because...I mean, right. So counting those, some of these recipes have up to 11 ingredients. They're still super easy Thanksgiving recipes!

Let's Go!

Dinner:

• Buttermilk Roasted Cornish Game Hens
• Potatoes Romanoff
• Cheesy Baked Broccoli
• Roasted Carrots with Bacon

Bonus Points:

• No-Knead Bread
• Drunken Cranberry Sauce
• Lemony Broiled Asparagus
• Greens Salad with Lemon Vinaigrette
• Bourbon Apple Cider Spritzer

Appetizers:

• Vegan Marinated Mushrooms
• Pantry - cheese, crackers, pickles, whatever you've got!

Dessert:

• Pumpkin Blondies
• STOREBOUGHT, hello.

As for how I'd organize all of this, here's how it goes:

• Now: Plan menu, figure out who will be there, who will bring what (aka what I'm NOT doing)
• 10 days out: Make grocery list, figure out what I already own so I'm not "I probably have brown sugar but just in case lemme get some more" overspending. Overspending is not very 2020.
• One week out: Shop! Or somewhere in this time frame because Thanksgiving ingredients tend to easily last for a week in the fridge.
• Three days in advance: Order anything I'm not making, bake potatoes for potatoes Romanoff (they stay in the fridge until the casserole is assembled), make the vinaigrette for salad.
• Two days in advance: Assemble potatoes Romanoff and broccoli, make blondies.
• Day before: Marinate mushrooms, start bread dough, Cornish game hens in buttermilk, wash, chop, prep any veggies.
• Day of: First thing in the morning bread bakes. 2.5 hours before eating start oven for game hens, bake them for one hour, casseroles in the oven while the game hens rest.
• While the game hens rest and the casseroles and carrots are in the oven: make drinks, toss salad (heh), slice bread, enjoy your life.

My favorite way to get all of this in is to start with when I want to eat and work backwards + do as much as I can in advance aka the casseroles taste NO difference if made two days in advance vs the morning of.

Spreading out the Thanksgiving menu planning keeps things a lot more manageable for me, but I know people that love doing everything all in one day and love it. FOR SURE the key is to work this anyway you think will be the most fun.

I need to know some things: What are you doing for Thanksgiving? Do you prep? Do it all in one day? Trying any new recipes this year? Tell me, tell me!