What side dishes do you make on Thanksgiving?

I love your menu. Try modifying some of your recipes to be just as tasty but less harsh on the health.

Bake the Sweet Potatoes in a real oven instead of microwave or boiling. The sweetness is incredible. You will need less sugar.

For example, I mix cauliflower in my mash potatoes and macaroni + cheese. Break the flowerettes into small bits. Cook the cauliflower in milk to give it a mild taste. Mash about 1 part cauliflower with 2 parts boiled potatoes.

Substitute about 1/3 of the cauliflower flowerettes for cooked mac. Make recipe as usual.

Make your own cranberry sauce using fresh cranberries and undiluted frozen apple juice to taste. Cook cranberries in apple juice until reduced to desired consistency. The juice is still 'sugar' but it is a natural sugar. You can add some orange peeling to one of the bowl of this cranberry sauce to give your a choice.

Try these before the big day to see if they work for your palate.

Add love and serve! Have a great holiday

Well you pretty much have them all. haha

What you could do is improve on what you already have. Instead of plain string beans, make it a casserole using a can of cream of mushroom soup and those crunchy French's onions.

If you like seafood, try an oyster stuffing, my mother did that a few years ago and it wasn't half bad.

Try a home made cranberry sauce rather then the stuff from a can.(add orange zest for an interesting but pleasant flavor)

You can add pumpkin bread or a pumpkin roll to the roster.(check the source for the recipe)

If you are still without any ideas head to www.recipezaar.com and search for side dishes, I am sure they have more then what I provided.

Happy cooking.

we have a pretty traditional thanksgiving dinner. christmas and easter are the dinners we get a little creative with.

roasted turkey

stuffing

dumplings

candied yams or sweet potatoes

green beans

mashed potatoes (sometimes)

corn

rolls

deviled eggs

cranberry sauce

desserts-

pumpkin pie

dirt cake

lemon meringue pie

coconut cream pie

blueberry pie

cherry pie

Yummm!! My favorite Holiday!! Every year, we do the classics--similar to your menu. We do these also-

Green Bean Casserole

Yeast Rolls

Pumpkin pie/pumpkin cheesecake

Baked Carrots

Sweet Potato casserole (with the nuts/brown sugar)

Corn Souffle

Then, each year, we also do something totally new/different-- last year our new thing was a pomegranate/mustard glaze on the turkey-- delicious!!

For an appetizer you could make this cream cheese pumpkin dip I saw on our local news segment. Take an 8oz. package of cream cheese, softened, and a small (15 oz.?) can of pumpkin and mix them well. Add about a tablespoon of pumpkin pie spice and a handful of sunflower seeds. Mix it all together well and serve with crackers. It tastes a little like pumpkin pie, but the sunflower seed give it a different flavor and an interesting crunch.

for something new to try?

wax beans are good-so are collard greens, or turnip greens, or kale

or you could stir-fry some vegetables like red bell peppers, onions, mushrooms, baby corn, broccoli...

i, personally, REFUSE to serve 'mac 'n cheese' at thanksgiving dinner...not really fond of casseroles, although broccoli casserole IS the best of the bunch...green bean casserole is just plain nasty, IMHO

fried cabbage? hmmmm...interesting, might have to try that!

what do we serve?

turkey

venison

country ham (smithfield are THE best)

mashed potatoes

corn

green beans

broccoli

baby peas (with pearl onions)

stuffing (cubed)

giblet gravy

venison gravy

yeast rolls

pickles

olives

deviled eggs

cranberry sauce

pumpkin pie

apple pie

chocolate pie

When I make a turkey everyone loves this side dish. It's mashed carrot and turnip.

Boil carrots and turnips together, when they're done drain and mash them add butter and brown sugar. pretty much as much as you like, but taste it as you go. It's so good, and sweet and everyone loves it.

I'm making:

Dressing

Gravy

Mashed potatoes

candied yams

green bean casserole

rolls

cranberry sauce

and I guess that's it. Hmmm it doesn't seem like much does it. I think you already have a pretty good list going on there.

Oh yeah - Fruit salad. We are having that. You don't have that one on your list yet. It's a nice addition.

You could start with a nice soup. I make homemade cheddar cheese bread and this year I am making Carrot Soup with Dill to go with it.

Normally i would just say fruit, but i think both. I really like the sugariness of the fruits but i love the piquancy and kick the vegetables bring