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2024 Thanksgiving Menu and Meal Prep Timeline

2024 Thanksgiving Menu and Meal Prep Timeline


These past few months have been busy for our family, especially since our oldest joined a local swim team. Between juggling our work schedules and balancing school with practices... we're all pretty wiped out.

Although it's a lot of work, I'm looking forward to Thanksgiving. Preparing the holiday meal for our family fills my heart with joy, and I can't wait to get started.

To make things easier for me, I don't deviate much from our first Thanksgiving as a family. The dishes I make are familiar ones, and the recipes for them live at my fingertips. Keeping the same menu year after year means I don't have to spend time researching recipes or planning a new one.

Here are my tried-and-true Thanksgiving recipes, as well as my prep timeline for the big day!

2024 Thanksgiving Menu

  • Roast Turkey with Pan Gravy

    Roast Turkey | Taste As You Go

    When it comes to the turkey, I use this recipe as the starting point. To make the bird extra flavorful, I make an herb compound butter to spread underneath the skin instead of melting the butter to pour over it. 

  • Apple Chestnut Stuffing

    Apple Chestnut Stuffing | Taste As You Go

    My favorite part of the Thanksgiving meal is this stuffing. While it's the stuffing my parents made when I was a kid, I've tweaked it over the years.

    And now that my own kids are older, they can help me roast and peel the fresh chestnuts ahead of time.

  • Green Bean Casserole

    Green Bean Casserole | Taste As You Go

    I was tempted to change things up this year... to skip this classic recipe in favor of a different dish featuring green beans as the star.

    But then I think about how disappointed I'd feel if the casserole was missing.

    So it stays. 

  • Mashed Sweet Potatoes

    Mashed Sweet Potatoes with Marshmallows | Taste As You Go

    This is one of the easiest ways to make sweet potatoes, and the recipe is next to impossible to mess up.

    Most of the time, I serve them as is... but a layer of marshmallows on top takes the sweet potatoes to the next level of awesome.

  • Orange Maple Cranberry Sauce

    Orange Maple Cranberry Sauce | Taste As You Go

    Everyone in the family loves my cranberry sauce. I'm trying to convince them that a double batch is plenty for Thanksgiving, but they're begging me to triple the recipe.

    It's that good.

Thanksgiving Meal Prep Timeline

  • Monday, November 25
    • Put turkey in refrigerator to thaw

  • Tuesday, November 26
  • Wednesday, November 27
    • Choose serving dishes and utensils
    • Put butter for compound butter on the counter
    • Chop onion and celery for Apple Chestnut Stuffing
    • Peel and chop apples for Apple Chestnut Stuffing
    • Make Orange Maple Cranberry Sauce

  • Thursday, November 28
    • Make compound butter for the turkey
    • Roast turkey
    • Assemble Apple Chestnut Stuffing
    • Assemble Green Bean Casserole
    • Peel and chop sweet potatoes for Mashed Sweet Potatoes
    • While the turkey rests
      • Separate fat and drippings for the pan gravy
      • Bake Apple Chestnut Stuffing
      • Bake Green Bean Casserole
      • Make Mashed Sweet Potatoes
      • Make pan gravy

Need more Thanksgiving inspiration? Check out:



    Posts from the Archives | Taste As You Go

    Twelve years ago: Pumpkin Pie Pancakes
    Fourteen years ago: Featured Friday, Volume 1.13
    Sixteen years ago: Simple Spicy Spaghetti Sauce

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