Start Early For Thanksgiving: 10 Make-Ahead Thanksgiving Dishes

Making Thanksgiving dinner can be stressful. You have to juggle appetizers, side dishes, desserts, and the Thanksgiving turkey. Most of the time, you're so focused on the turkey that other dishes have to wait until the last minute. With make-ahead Thanksgiving dishes, you can devote equal attention to all of the food you serve on Turkey Day.

When you're making Thanksgiving dinner, the last thing that you want to worry about is making dessert. You can make apple pie up to a week in advance. Make the filling, assemble to whole pie, and loosely put the pie in a plastic bag, and freeze. Bake when you're ready and you'll have a delightful dessert recipe on the day of Thanksgiving with no fuss.

For the Apple Pie recipe, click here.

Don't wait until the last minute to prepare and cook your turkey. Two days before Thanksgiving, make a brine with salt, light brown sugar, thyme, garlic, peppercorns, bay leaves, and enough water to completely cover the bird. Brine your turkey for 24 hours so that it absorbs the flavor. Then, on the eve of Thanksgiving, put your turkey in the oven on low and allow it to cook all night. When you wake up you'll have a beautiful turkey ready, so you can then focus on the side dishes.

For the Brined Turkey recipe, click here.

This is the perfect make-ahead appetizer. Make the creamed spinach up to three days in advance and on Thanksgiving morning stuff the spinach inside the mushrooms and bake. You can even serve the creamed spinach by itself as a simple side dish.

For the Creamed Spinach-Stuffed Portobello Mushrooms recipe, click here.

For this recipe all you have to do is assemble the casserole about two days in advance and when you're ready to bake put it in a 350 degree F oven for 30 minutes.

For the Crunchy Layered Potato Casserole recipe, click here.

To prepare your green bean casserole ahead of time, mix together cream of mushroom soup, green beans, breadcrumbs, and onion, and leave in the fridge for up to three days before your dinner. When you are prepping the rest of your sides, take the mixture out of the fridge and put in a 350 degree F oven for about 30 minutes. Top with more onions and cook for another 10 minutes.

For the Green Bean Casserole recipe, click here.

Cranberry sauce it possibly the easiest Thanksgiving side dish to make. Put cranberries, sugar, cinnamon, and orange zest in a pot and let simmer until the fresh cranberries pop. After your cranberry sauce is made, put it in an air tight container in the fridge — the sauce can last up to one week. You can even make extra, put it in Mason jars, and give them to your guests as presents.

For the Homemade Cranberry Sauce recipe, click here.

For this recipe, you can cut the butternut squash two days in advance and leave it in the fridge. This cuts down on prep time when make the salad on Thanksgiving.

For the Roasted Butternut Squash and Cranberry Salad recipe, click here.

Spinach and artichoke dip is the perfect make-ahead recipe. Make it the night before and rewarm it when your guests arrive for a delicious appetizer.

For the Spinach and Artichoke Dip recipe, click here.

Biscuits are a great make-ahead side dish. Prepare the biscuit dough in advance, shape the biscuits, and freeze until you are ready to bake them on Thanksgiving Day.

For the Southern-Style Biscuits recipe, click here.

Make this dish the night before and when your guests arrive rewarm it in a pot with cream.

For the Thanksgiving Garlic Mashed Potatoes recipe, click here.