- 3 months ago
Make Thanksgiving a breeze this year with six easy, make-ahead side dishes that save you time and stress on the big day. In this video, Nicole shares her favorite holiday sides that can be prepped in advance — so you can spend less time in the kitchen and more time with family. From classic casseroles to fresh, flavorful vegetables, these recipes prove you don’t have to sacrifice taste for convenience. We start with a savory Make-Ahead Stuffing that’s perfectly seasoned and crisp on top, followed by a rich and creamy Sweet Potato Casserole that balances sweetness and spice. Next up is Cranberry Sauce Extraordinaire, a vibrant, make-ahead twist on a Thanksgiving staple. Nicole then shows how to make Slow Cooker Mashed Potatoes that stay warm and fluffy until dinner’s ready, plus Grandma’s Green Bean Casserole, the ultimate holiday classic. Finally, she finishes with Brussels Sprouts with Bacon Dressing, a flavorful side that adds the perfect crunch and smoky finish to your Thanksgiving table.
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00:00I'm tired of seeing my mom or my mother-in-law
00:02stressing out on Thanksgiving Day.
00:04They're always running around,
00:05and I'm like, everything should be done by now.
00:07Everything should just be in the oven
00:09and we should be sitting here having a cocktail.
00:10So that's the goal for today.
00:12Starting with the stuffing.
00:14This is called stuffing because this recipe was written
00:17to be stuffed inside of a turkey,
00:19although it's very reminiscent of a Southern-style dressing,
00:23which is what we have.
00:24And I'm just gonna go ahead and chop up my onions and celery.
00:28For the most part, seriously, everything can be made ahead.
00:31And it's not just the day before.
00:33You don't have to stress out just in one day.
00:34A lot of these things can be made three days before.
00:37So space it out.
00:39Make yourself a little to-do list.
00:40Now let's talk about the bread.
00:42This is just a variety of leftover bread we had laying around.
00:46So I just kind of popped it in a low oven
00:49just to like dry it out.
00:50So now it's like croutons, basically.
00:53I'm gonna take all of our dried out bread
00:56and just process it until it makes like chunky crumbs.
00:59This is also good to do if you have like flavored bread.
01:02You know, they have those hearty sourdough loaves
01:04that have rosemary or something in them.
01:05That would be delicious to do this with.
01:08All right, now we cook and bring it all together.
01:10If you've never made stuffing or dressing,
01:12let me tell you, this is like just a basic recipe.
01:15And I don't say that in a negative way.
01:17I think people have gotten too fussy with trying to make gourmet
01:20or, you know, kind of non-traditional sides.
01:24I like classic when it comes to my Thanksgiving sides.
01:28And I, for one, am here for the sides.
01:30So starts with a lot of butter.
01:33Then we're gonna saute our onion and celery in this butter.
01:36If you have any like leaves of the celery,
01:38include that in there, that's the best flavor.
01:40All right, so we're just gonna cook this
01:42until these veggies start to soften.
01:44And then I like to go ahead and add in the herbs.
01:48And we know like the fat kind of helps transfer the flavor
01:50throughout the whole dish.
01:51So go ahead and get that fat flavored.
01:54Poultry seasoning is something
01:56that I only see during Thanksgiving,
01:58but it does have just that distinct smell of Thanksgiving.
02:01And this recipe calls for a little additional sage.
02:03It also calls for dried thyme.
02:06And in case we have never met,
02:10I just don't like dried thyme.
02:12So I've got fresh.
02:13Dried thyme has like one place for me.
02:16And that is like in some Cajun cooking.
02:18I'm also gonna go in with some salt.
02:20That's gonna help these veggies soften.
02:21You want them to be soft before we add them to the bread.
02:23They're not gonna get much softer beyond this point,
02:26even when they bake in the oven.
02:27So I'm just gonna cook this down.
02:28This process is gonna take about 10 minutes.
02:31See how the onions have gone from like all white
02:34to semi-translucent.
02:36When they're translucent, you know that they've softened.
02:39And they're gonna kind of melt into the stuffing
02:41and not be like crunchy.
02:42Pour this flavorful goodness over our bread.
02:46Also have not added pepper yet.
02:48So I'm gonna go ahead and do that.
02:49And then you're going to start adding chicken broth.
02:51And you're gonna do that
02:52until this whole mixture is moistened.
02:56I like to do about a cup at a time.
02:58I like it super moist when it's like going in
03:01because after it bakes, it tends to dry out a little bit.
03:05So I go a little heavy on the stock.
03:08You can, at this point, put it into Ziploc bags
03:12and keep it in your freezer.
03:13And then it's ready to go into your casserole dish
03:15when you're ready, or you can stuff it inside of your bird.
03:19I'm gonna go ahead and put it in a casserole dish.
03:22Tempted to just put a little more butter on top.
03:25Stuffing is ready for Thanksgiving day.
03:26You can stick it in your fridge or your freezer
03:28just like this also.
03:30But because we can't wait that long,
03:31I'm going straight into the oven.
03:32Reminder though, when you pull this out of the fridge
03:35after you've made it ahead a couple of days,
03:36it's going to be ice cold throughout.
03:38So you want to pull it out like at least a couple hours
03:42before you want to put it into the oven.
03:43If you put it in while it's ice cold,
03:45you can almost double the cook time.
03:46Hot and steamy, but the smell, mm.
03:50This is still pretty moist.
03:52I don't even know if I need gravy.
03:57Mm.
03:59Using the flavored bread, good idea.
04:01I know I said I chose like a basic one,
04:03but it's really kind of perfect.
04:06Let's see what it looks like with a little gravy on it.
04:10Mm.
04:11This is the perfect bite of Thanksgiving.
04:13Great, make-ahead stuffing recipe.
04:15Add this one to your file.
04:17Next up, sweet potatoes.
04:20I'm doing just an easy, again, classic sweet potato casserole.
04:24So the recipe calls for mashed sweet potatoes.
04:27The easiest way to do that is just to bake
04:29your sweet potatoes whole instead of peeling, cubing,
04:33and boiling them, which is a lot of work.
04:35The flavor on these is a lot better.
04:36It's more concentrated.
04:38It's like a deeper, rich sweet potato flavor.
04:41You just cut the skin, and then the flesh
04:42will just slide right out into your bowl.
04:45You might see a little browning on the sweet potato flesh,
04:48but that's good because that means some of those sugars
04:51in the sweet potato have caramelized,
04:52and you're just gonna get better flavor.
04:54See how easy that is?
04:55It's way easier than peeling.
04:56In your cleanup, it's just that easy.
05:01All right, now we mash.
05:03In goes sugar.
05:05I don't necessarily always want mine to taste like dessert.
05:08I don't like it to be super sweet,
05:09so I'm gonna cut the sugar back a little bit.
05:12Little bit of milk, melted butter.
05:14Gotta have something salt and your something sweet.
05:17And a little vanilla.
05:18And now these ingredients kind of cooled off the sweet potatoes,
05:21so now I can add in the egg.
05:23And the egg just kind of lifts this up,
05:24so it makes it, you know, a little like a souffle.
05:27You don't wanna scramble those eggs,
05:29so make sure your sweet potato has cooled off slightly.
05:32And then that's it.
05:33This goes into your casserole dish.
05:35While it appears to be a little loose,
05:36when it bakes, those eggs are gonna help it, you know,
05:39kind of come together.
05:40This one is at the point where it is ready
05:42for the fridge or the freezer.
05:45But also, we're gonna go ahead and make the topping.
05:47Topping is going to be a cup of brown sugar.
05:50Also going in with a little flour.
05:52This is gonna make like a streusel-y topping.
05:54I'm over the marshmallows, you know.
05:56Some pecans, more melted butter.
06:01I could just eat this with a spoon.
06:04Being that this is make-ahead,
06:05you would go ahead and add it to a Ziploc bag.
06:08Cover your sweet potatoes.
06:10You wanna keep these separated,
06:11because when they come straight from the fridge to the oven,
06:14the casserole's gonna take a little longer to cook.
06:16You don't want the topping to burn if they cook at the same time.
06:20So, give your sweet potato casserole a little head start
06:22in the oven, then top it halfway through,
06:25and finish the baking.
06:26Sweet potatoes been chillin'.
06:29I'm gonna get these in the oven,
06:30since they're cold inside, and give them a head start,
06:33and then I'll add the topping.
06:34That was 375 for about 20 minutes,
06:38just to give it a head start.
06:39The original cook time is 30 to 45 minutes,
06:41but that's when it's not cold at all.
06:43So, I'm gonna start with about 25 to 30 minutes
06:47from this point forward.
06:48I like the amount of topping to sweet potato casserole.
06:52Back in we go, 375 for 25 to 30 minutes.
06:56Look, look at this.
06:58Does that not look divine?
07:01You're gonna wanna let this sit
07:02for about 10 minutes or so before serving.
07:04Creamy, crunchy, sweet, and salty.
07:07This one's gonna have it all.
07:11Mm, mm, and why do I, I keep saying perfect,
07:18but I feel like it's perfect.
07:20I'm glad we added that salt in there,
07:22because it balances the sweetness perfectly.
07:25The topping is also sweet, but ironically not too sweet,
07:28even though it has, it's like mostly brown sugar.
07:30I still don't know if it's dessert or side dish,
07:32but whatever it is, it's delicious.
07:34Next up, the cranberry sauce.
07:36You've gotta have cranberry sauce.
07:38Now for me, we're for sure gonna have
07:40the slice and eat can, but also it's nice to have
07:44the fresh made cranberry sauce,
07:45and this one is not your typical.
07:47This one is called Cranberry Sauce Extraordinaire,
07:50because it has so much more than cranberries in it,
07:52and the reviews, I mean, some people just eat it
07:54with a spoon, you can serve it over cream cheese,
07:56you can do whatever you want.
07:57So it calls for cranberries, fresh or frozen or fine.
08:01The cranberries frozen are the closest thing to fresh,
08:04but also in this goes pear, an apple,
08:09and some oranges chopped up.
08:11In the reviews, I saw that like,
08:12this one's kind of like a sweeter cranberry sauce,
08:14so they wanted to keep some of the tartness,
08:17so they suggested use a Granny Smith versus a sweeter apple.
08:21While I'm doing this, I can get my simple syrup going.
08:24The recipe calls to start by boiling some sugar and water,
08:27which is a simple syrup, equal parts.
08:30I'm gonna go a little shy on the water,
08:32since I'm using frozen cranberries,
08:33and those are gonna have a little bit extra water in them.
08:35Just get this heating up while I finish chopping my fruit.
08:39All right, it also calls for an orange
08:41that has been pureed.
08:43I just really don't feel like pulling out a food processor
08:47to puree an orange, so I'm just gonna finely chop it up.
08:50All right, it also calls to add in a cup
08:52of dried mixed fruit.
08:54I think that's open to whatever you want that to be.
08:57The things that I thought would be good,
08:59some dried pineapple, raisins,
09:01but I chose the golden raisins,
09:02and then cherries because, duh.
09:05And these are tart cherries
09:06because I don't want it to be too sweet.
09:08I still like that tartness in the cranberry sauce.
09:11Nature's candy.
09:13Chop this up, and then we just throw it all in the pot.
09:15So you want your sugar water mixture to come to a boil,
09:18just until the sugar dissolves,
09:19and then we throw everything else in.
09:21First in, the star of the show.
09:24Add in all our chopped fruit,
09:26and this is really gonna be good.
09:28Also going in with some chopped pecans,
09:32a little bit of salt,
09:33and then some cinnamon and nutmeg.
09:35So when the cranberries start to cook,
09:38they're gonna pop,
09:39and they're also gonna release some pectin,
09:42which is really gonna help thicken this whole mixture up.
09:44That's it.
09:45So we bring this to a simmer,
09:47and we cover it,
09:48and then just let it go for about 30 minutes.
09:50This cranberry goodness smells so good.
09:54And you can see all those cranberries have burst.
09:56It's turned that deep red color.
09:58This is gonna be one of those things
09:59that's gonna thicken as it cools.
10:01So I'm just gonna take it off the heat
10:02and let it cool completely before we serve it up.
10:05Look at this cranberry sauce.
10:07See how it's thickened?
10:08Now that it's cooled, everything has settled.
10:11It's that beautiful red color.
10:12You can see all the texture.
10:13I'm just gonna take one little taste.
10:15I'm not gonna eat that whole bowl,
10:18even though I probably could.
10:19I already know I'm gonna like,
10:20my mouth just started like tingling.
10:25Mm, that is good.
10:27It is tart still.
10:28Plenty of tartness from the cherries.
10:30All those other fruits
10:31have just kind of blended in with the cranberries.
10:33You really can't like pick them out too much.
10:36There's not a huge difference in texture.
10:38It's just the nuts that give you the texture.
10:40I will be making this this year.
10:42You should too.
10:43A dish that does not take up your stove or oven space
10:47and can be totally prepped ahead of time.
10:49The mashed potatoes.
10:51These are creamy slow cooker mashed potatoes.
10:54Now the recipe does call to boil your potatoes
10:57and then finish everything in the slow cooker.
10:59We're doing it all in the slow cooker.
11:01We're gonna cover these in water.
11:02Just enough to cover.
11:04And then you're gonna drop in four chicken bouillon cubes
11:08or you can do like a tablespoon of the paste.
11:10Then cover it up and then just stick it in your fridge
11:13just like this.
11:15When the time comes, pop it in and crank it on high.
11:18Get this started early in the day
11:20because it's gonna take a while.
11:22It's a good eight hours,
11:23but I kind of cut mine a little large.
11:28I suggest cutting them into like half inch pieces
11:31and then they're gonna cook a lot faster, but we did it.
11:34You wanna reserve a little bit of our cooking liquid
11:38in case we need it.
11:39And I'm gonna drain the potatoes,
11:41add it back to our slow cooker.
11:43All right, back in and we add our butter and cream cheese.
11:47And we are not gonna be skimpy here.
11:48The butter has been softened and so has the cream cheese
11:51and that's gonna make this a lot easier.
11:52I like to mash it while it's all melting
11:55because the heat from the potatoes
11:56is gonna continue to help melt all this.
11:59And if it gets too thick, you can, you know,
12:01add a little of that cooking liquid.
12:03The cooking liquid is because we're not using milk in here.
12:06We have enough creaminess from the cream cheese
12:08and the sour cream.
12:09It's a pretty easy way to do your mashed potatoes.
12:11I know I'm gonna need more salt and pepper.
12:13Okay, one final zhuzh.
12:16Recipes suggest that you can now turn them on low
12:18for two to three hours.
12:20It might, you know, fluff them up a little bit
12:22with all that cream cheese and sour cream in there.
12:25Oh yeah, oh yeah.
12:28If you keep your Thanksgiving casual,
12:31then you could serve it straight from here.
12:33Just give your little edges a white
12:35and then you could garnish it right inside the slow cooker.
12:38And that might be your easiest way
12:40to ever make mashed potatoes.
12:42Does take a while, but when you have them cut up
12:44and ready to go the night before, then you're good to go.
12:47I like that cream cheese in there.
12:52You already get a little bit from the sour cream,
12:54but that cream cheese gives it a whole different flavor.
12:56While you could serve these up with your Thanksgiving gravy,
12:59to be honest, it really doesn't need it.
13:02I feel like you're for sure gonna do this one, right?
13:06No Thanksgiving menu is complete
13:08without a green bean casserole.
13:09And what you're gonna notice about this
13:11make ahead green bean casserole,
13:13is that there will be no cans involved.
13:15No canned green beans and no can of cream of.
13:18And we're gonna start with melted butter.
13:19This recipe is interesting
13:20because instead of adding milk or something
13:24to make our cream of, we're just gonna use sour cream.
13:27So I've got my butter melting.
13:28I'm gonna go ahead and add my onion now
13:30to help flavor this part.
13:31And you just cook this for just a couple minutes.
13:34Also gonna go in with the seasonings,
13:36some salt and also a little bit of sugar.
13:39And now a little bit of flour.
13:41And then you just cook this down for about a minute.
13:43And then a cup of sour cream,
13:45which I've never done this before.
13:47It's like cream of sour cream.
13:49I guess the main purpose here is that that flour
13:51will just kind of absorb any liquid from the green beans.
13:54I got the frozen French cut green beans
13:58because they're just closer to the fresh
14:00and they're a little less like mush.
14:02So as these thaw, they're gonna release a little liquid
14:04and it'll blend in with that roux.
14:07Once this comes together, that's basically it.
14:09I do wanna add a little some pepper in there.
14:10Really, you can put in whatever you want here.
14:12So we are ready for the casserole dish.
14:14And this one, we're gonna go ahead and top cheese
14:17and then the good stuff, crushed buttery crackers.
14:22All right, a little melted butter.
14:24Another casserole done.
14:26I'm covering with oil because after it's cold throughout,
14:30I'm gonna wanna cook it covered for the first part
14:33and then uncover it.
14:34Another one.
14:35All right, it's still really cold.
14:37So I'm just gonna pop this green bean casserole in, 350.
14:41I'm gonna go about 20 minutes
14:43and then I will uncover and go about another 20 minutes
14:47or until it's browned and bubbly.
14:48Hot bubbly green bean casserole.
14:52It smells indulgent, cheesy, crunchy, buttery.
14:56And the fact that we did not open up a can,
14:59it's pretty impressive.
15:01You can tell by all the piping hot liquid
15:04that we should let this sit and come together.
15:06So I'm gonna let it sit for about 10 minutes
15:08before we dig in.
15:09But it is super creamy, just with one cup of sour cream.
15:14I love a green bean casserole.
15:20Mm-hmm.
15:21I love using the frozen
15:23because they still have a little bit of crunch to it.
15:25And of course, as it sits,
15:26it's gonna be less like runny.
15:27It's gonna be thicker.
15:28Flavor is amazing.
15:30And that little crunchy, cracker-y, cheesy top.
15:34Skip the can this year.
15:36This is a great green bean casserole to make ahead.
15:38It wasn't until I got older
15:40that I started loving having something cold and crunchy
15:44to balance out all those casseroles.
15:47So Brussels sprout salad is the perfect solution.
15:49This, while it is a salad,
15:51is somewhere between a salad and a warm vegetable,
15:55because it comes with a bacon dressing,
15:58a warm bacon dressing.
15:59So the good news is it's not gonna take up any oven space.
16:02So these have been washed and prepped,
16:05and I'm just gonna keep them in a Ziploc bag.
16:08All right, get out all the air so they don't turn brown.
16:11Pop this in the fridge.
16:12All right, we are making a warm bacon dressing.
16:15But Nicole, how's it gonna be warm the next day?
16:19Well, you just pop it in the microwave.
16:21So I'm gonna start by cooking the bacon.
16:23I'm gonna go ahead and add in a little oil
16:25to help render the fat out of the bacon.
16:27And then starting the bacon in a cold pan
16:29is the easiest way and the best way to render out the fat.
16:32Because as the pan heats up,
16:33the fat, you know, slowly gets pulled out.
16:36All right, bacon is good and crispy.
16:38And now it has created all of this oil,
16:40and that is the oil for our vinaigrette.
16:43Gonna add in some brown sugar.
16:45And then about a third cup of the apple cider vinegar.
16:48So this one's gonna be a pretty tangy vinaigrette.
16:50It's almost as much vinegar as it is fat.
16:54The juice of a lemon.
16:55And it says to bring this to a boil for one minute.
16:58I'm also gonna season with a little cayenne
17:00and then salt and pepper to taste.
17:02That's just to dissolve.
17:03Make sure that sugar's dissolved, which it is.
17:06And then boiling it will just thicken it slightly also.
17:09And that's it.
17:10So this would go directly over your Brussels sprouts.
17:13And I'm just gonna let it cool in here.
17:15And then when you're ready to serve,
17:17you can just pop the top off,
17:18pop it in the microwave to warm it up, and pour it over.
17:21Serve up this deliciousness right here.
17:23Even though it's covered in bacon-y goodness,
17:25I still think of this as a healthy side.
17:28This will be a hit.
17:31I mean, all my kids would eat this also.
17:33They love crunchy salads like this.
17:38Mm.
17:39The dressing is like a sweet and sour,
17:41so it kind of balances out the bitterness
17:42that you find sometimes in Brussels sprouts.
17:44And then you get that kind of like salty crunch from the bacon.
17:47But the best part,
17:49see like the little nooks and crannies
17:51that are within the Brussels sprouts?
17:53All that dressing is like getting in there.
17:56So when you bite into it,
17:57you kind of get the burst of that vinaigrette.
18:02Mm-hmm.
18:03The perfect, like healthy crunch
18:06to pair with all those indulgent casseroles.
18:08Will be the easiest one if you make that a hit.
18:11I've proven that you can make incredible side dishes
18:15way ahead of time.
18:16That way you can enjoy the day or focus on the turkey.
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