Thanksgiving Dinner Success: 3 Side Dishes You Can Make Ahead Of Time And Freeze

Hosting Thanksgiving can be a real chore. You have to decide on who you will invite, send out invitations, prepare a menu, decorate the home and prepare the food. In the end, it is always well worth it. However, the problem really arises when you need to get all of the food prepared, ready and on the table at a certain time. To help reduce the chaos on Thanksgiving day, consider preparing a few tasty side dishes that can be made ahead of time and frozen. Here are four of them:

1. Seasoned Green Beans

For this recipe, you'll need green beans, chopped onions, minced garlic, chopped sweet bell pepper, dried basil, salt, pepper and olive oil. Throw it all together in a bowl and freeze it. When it's time to prepare, simply empty the contents of your bag into a skillet with two tablespoons of oil and sauté for about 10 minutes. Transfer the green beans onto a Thanksgiving platter and sprinkle with parmesan cheese, if you'd like. You could also roast them at 475 degrees F for 10 minutes.

2. Mashed Potatoes with Cream Cheese

Cook five pounds of potatoes like normal and drain them. Combine them with eight ounces of cream cheese, half a teaspoon of garlic powder, one egg, and one teaspoon of salt. Mash with an electric mixer or by hand. Once mixed, place in freezer bags and freeze until needed. When you're ready for the mashed potatoes, thaw completely and then empty the bag contents into a casserole pan and drizzle three tablespoons of melted butter over the top. Add some paprika if you'd like some color. Cook for roughly 35 minutes at 375 degrees in the oven.

3. Spinach Balls

For this recipe, you'll combine all ingredients together in a bowl. These ingredients include one finely chopped small onion, four eggs, 20 ounces of frozen spinach (drained), two cups of pre-seasoned bread crumbs, ¾ cup of melted butter, ½ cup of grated parmesan cheese, half a teaspoon of garlic salt and ¼ teaspoon of pepper. Once combined well, roll into two-inch balls (about the size of a walnut). You can then freeze them. When ready to prepare the spinach balls, thaw them completely and then bake for 20 minutes at 350 degrees.

If something comes up and you don't have time to prepare a full Thanksgiving meal, you could always consider heading out a restaurant with your family and friends or have a catering service bring the dinner to you. 

To learn more, contact a company like Hegedorn's.