Our Favorite Thanksgiving Recipes

We hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving! Some of the writers of The Dynamic Damsels have gotten together to collect their favorite recipes from this past week's family gathering. Enjoy and get ready for your mouth to water!

Nikita

Thanksgiving is all about the carbs, and bread is irresistible, but potatoes actually have my heart! I love me some mashed potatoes, but recently, I discovered a new recipe for roasted potatoes that blew my mind. It's so easy to make, and believe me, it tastes amazing! The perfect side to add to your Thanksgiving meal.

Here are the ingredients:

• baby potatoes (I like to cut them in half so they're easy to eat.)

• rosemary (2-3 sprigs)

• garlic (4-5 cloves, but you can adjust according to your liking)

• paprika (1 tsp)

• sea salt

• black pepper (freshly cracked is ideal)

• olive oil (2-3 tbsp)

Directions:

1. Once you cut the potatoes, place them in a big mixing bowl.

2. Add each of the other ingredients and mix well.

3. Once everything is mixed, transfer the potatoes to a baking sheet lined with parchment paper.

4. Then, bake the potatoes for 20-25 minutes at 400 degrees, and voila, your side dish is done!

The best part is that you don't even have to worry about washing the baking sheet because you used parchment paper. How easy was that?!

Amelia

This was my first year making my sweet root vegetable medley for Thanksgiving! I normally just make this dish for my own yummy food throughout the week. Everyone who had it said it was one of the best dishes on the table!!! So if you want to give it a go, this dish can be for any day of the year or for your next holiday party.

Ingredients:

• 3 medium to large parsnips

• 3 large carrots

• 4 medium sized beets (golden or purple)

• 1 tbsp coconut oil or ghee

• 1 tsp cinnamon

• 2 tbsp maple syrup

• 1/8 tsp sea salt

Directions:

1. Peel and slice the veggies.

2. Heat a large cast iron pan on medium heat and melt the coconut oil in the pan.

3. Place the veggies in the heated and oiled pan. Begin sautéing and stirring.

4. Once the veggies start to soften, sprinkle in the salt.

5. After about 8 minutes of roasting on the stove, add in the maple syrup and half the cinnamon.

6. Let the veggies continue to cook until they are a medium texture, not too firm and not too soft (or to your liking.)

7. Sprinkle on the last of the cinnamon and serve!

Katelynn

I thought I would share something (that I feel is) a little out of the ordinary for this blog. The first is pumpkin bread. Also, let me admit that the picture above is not an actual picture of our bread because we ate it all before I remembered I wanted a picture (whoops).

My mom bakes two loaves of pumpkin bread every year to have for breakfast on Thanksgiving. It is truly a staple for this holiday. I love it because it’s not too sweet or pumpkin-y, and you can totally argue that it’s healthy since it has real pumpkin in it. We change up which recipe we use every year, but most recipes are very similar. This year we used the following.

Ingredients:

• 1 3/4 cup all-purpose flour

• 1 teaspoon baking soda

• 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt

• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

• 1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg

• 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger

• 1/4 teaspoon ground cloves

• 1 cup pumpkin (not pumpkin pie filling)

• 3/4 cup packed light brown sugar

• 1/4 cup granulated sugar

• 2 large eggs, at room temperature

• 1/4 cup melted butter, slightly cooled

• 1/4 cup canola or vegetable oil

• 1/4 cup water

• 1 1/2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract

• Turbinado sugar, for sprinkling on bread

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease an 8 x 4 x 3 -inch loaf pan generously with nonstick cooking spray or butter. Set aside.

2. In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger, and cloves. Set aside.

3. In a large bowl, whisk together the pumpkin, brown sugar, sugar, eggs, melted butter, oil, water, and vanilla extract.

4. Add the dry ingredients and stir until just combined. Don’t over mix the batter.

5. Pour the pumpkin batter into the prepared loaf pan and smooth with a spatula. Sprinkle generously with turbinado sugar.

6. Place the loaf pan in the oven and bake for 45 to 60 minutes, depending on your oven. The loaf is done when a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.

7. Remove the pan from the oven and place on a cooling rack. Cool for 10 minutes in the pan. Use a butter knife to loosen the bread in the pan. Turn it over and carefully remove the bread from the pan. Let the bread cool completely on the cooling rack. When cool, slice with a serrated knife.

The other recipe I wanted to share was my grandma’s seven-layer salad. When I was in middle school and finally discovered that I liked salad, I would beg my mom to make this every year. We make it for Easter as well.

It’s got a few ingredients that are a little different from your run-of-the-mill salad. Also, you can change the first few layers to be whatever you want. I don’t like onion or tomato in my salad, but if you do, you can 100% use them! My grandma made the salad this year and decided she didn't want broccoli. If you want to use a spring mix or spinach leaves instead of plain lettuce, you can do that as well! You can truly make it your own. It is best to use a taller trifle bowl so you can see all the layers though.

Ingredients:

• Lettuce

• Carrots (shredded)

• Broccoli

• 1 bag of frozen peas, somewhat thawed

• About 1 tbsp of sugar

• Mayonnaise

• Sour cream

• 1 packet of ranch

• Shredded cheddar cheese

• Bacon bits

Directions:

1. Layer the lettuce, then carrots, then broccoli in the bottom of the bowl.

2. Rinse the peas until they don’t have any ice/aren’t stuck in chunks anymore, but not so thawed that they smush easily. Dry them, then spread them out on top of the broccoli.

3. Sprinkle the sugar evenly over the peas.

4. Mix mayonnaise, sour cream, and the packet of ranch to make the dressing. You can use as much or as little as you like. I use about 2-3 large spoonfuls of each. You can also use ranch dressing instead of a packet.

5. Sprinkle the cheese and then bacon bits over the top.

6. Enjoy!

Martha

Alright guys, Thanksgiving isn't complete without cranberry sauce (and not the canned kind). So here's my favorite recipe for easy but incredible chunky cranberry sauce made my mom every year!

Ingredients:

• About 12 ounces of fresh cranberries

• 1 cup of water

• 1/4 cup of lemon juice

• 1 cup of sugar

Directions:

1. Put everything in a pot and cook on medium heat until it looks like all of the cranberries have popped. You may need to squish some on the side of the pot with your mixing spoon.

2. Done! It's that easy. You can eat it warm or cold, it's completely up to you! However, cold is my preference.

Let us know in the comments what your favorite Thanksgiving recipe is!