Trying to keep Thanksgiving dinner tasty and affordable this year, so I’m looking for some inspiration. What’s your go-to budget-friendly dish that always gets compliments? Mine is boxed stuffing leveled up with crispy bacon, caramelized onions, herbs, and a little broth. It’s cheap, easy to make, and always one of the first things to disappear from the table! How about you?
What’s your best cheap-but-delicious Thanksgiving dish?
byu/millionstories inFrugal
Posted by millionstories
37 Comments
Sweet potatoes with a crumble topping.
I always have the crumble ingredients on hand and sweet potatoes are generally very affordable around thanksgiving. I just got 3 pounds for a dollar on Saturday.
Scalloped corn. I looked up a few recipes and don’t remember the scalloped corn I had growing up having cheese or onion or anything “exotic” like that in it. Corn, crackers, milk, pepper, maybe adding a can of creamed corn to flesh out the flavor a bit and that was about it. Everyone loved it.
I mean, mashed potatoes are pretty cheap. a 10-pound bag is pretty affordable from Aldi, between $3-$4.
Corn casserole. One can drained corn, one can creamed corn, one cup sour cream, 1/2 cup butter, and one box of jiffy yellow cake mix (trust me, use this instead of corn bread mix). Half a cup of cheddar cheese if you want, but it’s not necessary. Bake at 350 for 40 min.
Homemade focaccia. If you’ve got time, oil, flour, yeast, and some herbs, you can make some impressive and delicious focaccia. I’m very meh in the kitchen and I hate cooking but this was a hit when we hosted a couple of years ago. Criminally easy to make and there are recipes all over the internet.
Roasted multicolored carrots with a drizzle of hot honey. The bag of fancy carrots doesn’t cost much, you can mix with a regular bag of orange carrots to bulk up.
Scalloped potatoes. You can use substitute ingredients to make it super cheap, under $1 a serving.
The best way uses fresh herbs and higher end cheeses, but you can use cheap cheeses and it’s still really really good.
A descent sized bag of cranberries is like $2. Add some an orange for another $1 and some sugar, and you have homemade cranberry sauce.
Macaroni and cheese. Cook the pasta. Turn the heat to medium and drain most of the water out of the pan. Add a little milk; less is more, and you can always add more later if necessary. Tear up and melt individually wrapped cheese slices in the pasta.
I’ve always said that if I want it to look fancy, I’ll put it in a casserole dish, top it with a mix of bread crumbs and melted margarine, and bake it at 375° until they’re toasted. I’ve never understood making that persnickety roux version no one can get right.
Cranberry relish. One whole pckg of raw cranberries, frozen. One apple deseeded, can be granny smith or a red one. One orange, deseeded peel and all. Put in food processor and mix. Sugar to taste.
On tiktok look up Thanksgiving dollar tree dinner!! She’s great for budgets and has an entire Thanksgiving dinner for $20
Rolls, sweet potato rolls, banana bread, sourdough loaf
All pretty cheap to make and delicious
Jellied cranberries. Fresh cranberries, sugar, water, and citrus juice (preferably orange).
Creamed onions. Peeling the onions is a pain bc they’re small and you need a lot but they’re cheap. A little parmesan, cream, and nutmeg, oh man.
Requires some pre thought and effort, but stuffing. Save and freeze chicken bones as you get them. Make a bone broth when you have enough to. Measure, package, and freeze that as you make batches. Visit store bakeries and ask if they have old crusty or dense breads, and if not, pick a stuffing pack. Then chop and season up whatever bread you find and make it with the broth you made. The stuffing will be denser and have some substance to it beyond just hot mushy bread.
Turkey? I just bought one for about $7. I’m debating going back to the store tomorrow to fill up my freezer, actually.
Green beans and al fredo sauce
Stove Top Sage Stuffing Mix.
Deviled eggs
Sauteed Sweet potatoes and apples in cognac glaze.
Stove Top brand stuffing.
I don’t understand all these people posting they spent $400 and still have to buy things. I guess I can probably host TG for less than $150 if you don’t rely on premade sides. $5 bag of potatoes, $3 loaf of bread if you make it or could buy it from the day old section. $7 brussel sprouts, $5 sweet potatoes if thats your thing, turkey dripping for gravy or else chicken bouillon plus drippings $5 if you buy bouillon. $5 cranberries to make sauce, $10 green bean casserole. Plenty of money for drinks.
Stove Top stuffing with bacon and chestnuts. Also, my gravy is, according to my bf, the best gravy he’s ever had. It’s Pioneer brand powdered gravy that I make with turkey drippings and butter.
Fresh green beans sautéed in a little olive oil with a shallot. After 4 minutes of sauté. Squeeze in the juice of a mandarin orange. Delicious and easy.
Sweet potatoes, cubed, tossed with ol , garlic , and rosemary. Roast . Or toss in oil and cinnamon and roast. Stir in a bit of syrup while they are still warm
Turkey. I check all the flyers and find where it’s on sale. Usually find it for 2 dollars a pound. Otherwise it’s super expensive.
My go to’s are casseroles – corn casserole, broccoli casserole, potatoe casserole, green bean casserole. All are relatively simple and relatively cheap. Except the broccoli casserole, I use cheese whiz and that is not cheap. But you could probably make it with a different/cheaper fake cheese. Potatoe is probably the cheapest – 10lbs potatoes peeled, boiled, mashed. Mix with butter cheese and bacon bits to taste, or whatever you want to mix into your mashed potatoes, put in a casserole dish cover with cheese bake till cheese is melty and browned.
Smoked sweet potato. You just smoke it. It costs whatever a sweet potato costs. Little salt, little butter, brown sugar if you want, and that’s it. It’s sissy’s delicious and requires zero effort.
Mashed carrots and rutabaga – use a lot of butter
I make a cranberry pear & walnut relish. I heat chopped walnuts in the bottom of a sauce pot just to toast them, add some canned pears in juice until they’re warm (cut in bite size pieces) & mix into the pot a can of whole cranberries. Let cook for like 10 minutes on low so they’re blended together and done. Super easy & yummy.
You can use whole bagged cranberries, but then you have to add sugar to it and then you have to measure and not everybody likes it the same way but if you use the ocean spray can they’re already sweetened so you don’t have to deal with that.
Green bean casserole, corn pudding.
Do condiments & appetizers count?
Cranberry relish (with oranges & jalapenos)
Deviled eggs
Corn pudding! 2 cans of creamed corn, a box of jiffy corn bread mix, some eggs & butter. Mix it all together and bake for like 40ish minutes. So delicious!
Green bean casserole. Inexpensive to make and a Thanksgiving staple as far as I’m concerned!
Making rolls from scratch, homemade bread is so much cheaper than store-bought. I’m using a King Arthur recipe and following their guidelines to make ahead and freeze. Day of, the rolls get thawed, rise, and baked.
Shredded potatoes, cover with heavy whipping cream and Lowerys. So simple, not expensive and delicious.
Deviled eggs