- 3 months ago
Get ready to make a full Thanksgiving feast that’s easy, delicious, and totally doable on a budget! In this step-by-step video, Nicole shows you how to cook Thanksgiving dinner from start to finish — all for under $100. From savory sides and a perfectly roasted turkey to a cozy fall cocktail and dessert, this menu proves that you don’t need to spend a fortune to serve a crowd-pleasing holiday meal. Nicole starts with a comforting Cornbread Dressing, then makes a classic Green Bean Casserole and her MawMaw’s Candied Yams, a sweet and nostalgic family favorite. For the main course, she roasts a flavorful Turkey and Chicken Drumsticks that deliver all the Thanksgiving flavor for less. To finish on a sweet note, Nicole bakes a warm Pumpkin Dump Cake, serves up Hawaiian Rolls and a gooey Baked Brie Appetizer, and shakes up a festive Apple Cider Margarita.
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00:00Did you know you can make this entire spread for Thanksgiving dinner for under $100?
00:04And this is for more than just a small family of four. I'm going to show you that you can feed
00:08at least eight people with a complete Thanksgiving dinner, including appetizers and a festive
00:15cocktail. I'm starting with the dressing. I like dressing. Some like stuffing. This is actually a
00:21combination of both in one and it's super affordable. The dressing starts with a larger
00:26base of cornbread and I've made that cornbread with two boxes of Jiffy cornbread mix. And these
00:31two boxes are about 65 cents each. So come on. And as usual with all these recipes, pantry staples
00:38don't count against the price. I have taught you that you should have a stocked pantry and that
00:43includes things like eggs, milk, spices, oil. I did include butter as something I had to buy because
00:52you need butter throughout this whole menu. Also with all of these recipes, it does depend on where
00:59you shop. You cannot get everything that I'm going to make at Whole Foods and stay within, you know,
01:06under $100. So I'm going to start by chopping up some onion and celery and you buy a bag of onions
01:11and a bunch of celery together. That's about $5, but you're going to use it in several dishes on
01:16Thanksgiving day. So a couple of stalks of celery and I like to include a little bit of the leaf.
01:21This is where all the flavor is. That smells like Thanksgiving alone. Prep, very simple. We're just
01:27going to soften these in some butter. A whole stick of butter. You're not looking to really get any
01:32color, so I can somewhat crowd the pan. To help soften this, I'm going to go ahead and go in with
01:37some salt. Salt's going to draw out some of that moisture and help speed this process along. This is
01:42what you want. The onions are nice and tender. It's really buttery. This is going to add so much flavor
01:47to our stuffing. Now we start mixing. In goes your chicken broth. It's going to take this whole quart.
01:53I went ahead and put the chicken broth in first. That way my eggs don't scramble in that hot celery
01:58and onion mixture. The eggs are just going to kind of lighten it up so it's not so dense. A little bit
02:03of sage. All right, now we add in our cornbread. Crumble up your prepared jiffy. Then I'm adding in
02:10some stuffing mix. Again, I love the mixed textures and this is just an easy shortcut. This is just toasted
02:16bread, but it also has a lot of seasonings in here like rosemary and stuff, so it's going to add flavor
02:21to our dressing. And then finally, our saltine crackers. I'm going to crush up one sleeve and
02:27add it in. This also adds good saltiness. I consider this a pantry staple. You do have milk on hand,
02:32don't you? You want it to be pretty damp because it's going to absorb all of this liquid. I'm going
02:38with just a little more salt and pepper. I'm going to go ahead and put this in my casserole dish.
02:43So it doesn't dry out. I cook it covered at 350 for about 30-35 minutes and then I uncover it for
02:50the last like 20 minutes or so. This is one of the icons of Thanksgiving right here. We do have money
02:55in our budget to add in some fresh herbs, so I'm going to take like just some fresh thyme,
03:02maybe a little parsley, and just kind of dress it up a little bit. Now it's ready for our turkey
03:07and gravy. So the green bean casserole, I'm doing the old school grandma's way green bean casserole
03:15because let's be honest, it is the cheapest way to go. So I take the classic recipe, which is two
03:20cans of green beans. These were like 78 cents each, but then I add in an extra can because
03:26I like the green bean to be the star of the show, not the creamy mushroom soup. Then I did get a can of
03:33cream of mushroom. Now a tip when you're saving money is to buy the store brand versus the name
03:39brand. You want to drain these well. I've made many other versions of green bean casserole, using fresh,
03:45using frozen. There's lots of good ones out there. Today's mission was just to save you money. I'm
03:50going to add in a little more salt, some pepper, and it's not in the recipe. A little bit of onion
03:58powder and garlic powder. Give that a mix. Now each can of green beans has like three to three and a
04:04half servings. So technically this is enough for nine to 10 people. So then you put half of your
04:11fried onions in here and then you save the rest for the top. That's it. Now we just put this into our
04:17casserole dish. If you don't want to use canned green beans here, frozen are pretty affordable and
04:22probably a little more affordable than the fresh. Another one ready. This takes about 35 minutes. You want
04:27to uncover it during the last 10 minutes so that the onions don't burn on the top.
04:31Green bean casserole. Look at this. That's your childhood right there. I'm going to top it off
04:36a little bit of cracked pepper. You want these to sit so they come together, but I'm going to dig in.
04:46Even though it seemed minimal, the little extra zhuzh of spices that we added on the inside
04:51make a difference. And for just right around $7 for all this, makes it taste that much better.
04:57For the sweet potatoes, I'm not giving you a casserole. I'm doing my grandmother's
05:01candied yams. I kind of like this on Thanksgiving because it's like you have so many casseroles and
05:06then just like a nice like chunk or two of sweet potato is what you want. This bag was like $3 and
05:14something. So I'm going to wash and peel. Yes, I wash them even though I peel them. All right,
05:19so I'm just going to peel these and then I like to slice them in kind of like thick slices. The only
05:24thing you really have to buy for this are the sweet potatoes because the other things to make
05:29it are definitely pantry staples. All right, this is plenty and I still have potatoes left in the
05:34bag. So this is less than $3 of potatoes. You want to get your potatoes going in water just to like
05:41soften them and then they're going to finish in the oven. Just enough water to cover and I like to add
05:45just a little bit of salt here. Bring this to a boil and cook it until it's fork tender. So I'm going
05:51to put them in a baking dish. I'm not just draining them because I'm going to use some of that water and
05:56we're going to make a little like thin glaze to put over them and my grandmother always used the same
06:01water that she boiled the potatoes in. All right, so I've got some butter, about six tablespoons, some of our
06:07sweet potato water and some brown sugar. I'm just going to get this all melted and the sugar dissolved over here.
06:14If you want, you can add in a pinch of cinnamon here. I don't remember if she put cinnamon in it or
06:18not. I'm just going to go with just a pinch. Now it's smelling like fall. Just heavenly. I'm going to
06:26put in one more pinch of salt. This is going to pour it right over the sweet potatoes and then it just
06:30bakes in the oven until they're like caramelized and you'll baste it kind of throughout the process
06:35just like with a little spoon just kind of spooning this mixture over. Sweet potato. Maw Maw's sweet
06:41potatoes. I'm telling you these are so good. They're like the perfect sweet but they don't
06:45taste like dessert and as this sits for a little bit that sauce underneath is going to thicken
06:50slightly so it just kind of it's like a very thin glaze. Can't wait to make the perfect bite with
06:56this. It's turkey time. So what I'm doing is a turkey breast and chicken drumsticks. As we get closer
07:05to Thanksgiving the prices are super cheap. So you can start to get your turkey for like
07:1189 cents a pound or something. Turkey breasts are also going to be less expensive. There are some
07:17people like my husband, my kids who like the drumstick but when you get a big turkey there's only two
07:25drumsticks so these are more manageable. So I'm just doing six drumsticks. These were $1.99 a pound. It
07:30was right around like $5 for this and the turkey breast was about $26. That's about $31, $32. Now
07:37this is the most expensive thing of the day but it is the star of the show. You've seen me do a turkey.
07:43If you want to see the whole turkey you can watch the other video of Thanksgiving start to finish.
07:48To me this is just less intimidating to cook. It's going to be just a little bit easier. It still
07:53is the crowd pleaser. This is going to be plenty to serve eight people. It's going to take up less oven
07:58space. It's the part that everybody likes the most and it's just as affordable. You want to dry it so
08:05that your seasonings will stick really well. I'm going to season this the same as the chicken and
08:09we can just use a simple 9 by 13 roasting pan. You don't have to have a big old thing. I'm going to
08:14create a little roasting rack in here with some foil and vegetables. This will just keep it a little
08:19elevated from the pan so that the bottoms can still get browned and not just steam in the bottom.
08:25Then I'm going to cut up a little bit of onion for flavor and a little of that celery. Now we season.
08:32So I've got softened butter and I'm just going to flavor it up. Press some garlic in there. Salt and
08:38pepper. Some sage because it's just the smell of the season. You could also use poultry seasoning here
08:43if you wanted. There's the seasoning blend. This is an Italian medley but it's got a lot of the things
08:48you want. It's got oregano, parsley, rosemary and then a little bit of paprika for color. Some of this
08:54is going to be for the chicken and some of this is going to be for basting the turkey. So you won't
08:59put it all on at this point. Spread it on best you can. Of course as soon as it hits the oven it's going
09:05to start melting down. Now set him upon his throne. Okay just one more little sprinkling
09:11some on the inside. All right this goes into the oven 350 degrees until it's done. It's going to take
09:18about two hours and then we're going to baste it as the liquids start to come out. It'll form a little
09:23liquid in the bottom. You want to baste it you know 30-45 minutes. Chicken legs are not going to
09:27take near as long so I don't have to go in with them yet. I'm just going to make sure they're dry.
09:33You can just keep them just like this in the fridge until you're ready to go. I'll go ahead and top them
09:37with a little of the butter. Once the butter starts melting on these in the oven I'm going to like
09:43twirl them around just so they get browned and roasted on all sides. You could also pop these in the
09:47air fryer if you wanted. Then when it comes time to cook them I'm going to cook them on a wire rack.
09:51The wire rack is going to let them get crispy on all sides. I'll also cook these at 400 degrees.
09:57I have a feeling these might be the hit. These might take over the turkey. They're like colored
10:01beautifully. That skin is good and crispy. Now all the kids get one and some of the adults and let's
10:08not forget they were five dollars. All right turkey time. All right it has been right about two hours.
10:15I've basted every 30 minutes or so and I put the foil on after about an hour and 15 minutes because
10:25you don't want it to get too too brown but look at that. You want it to rest like at least 15-20
10:30minutes. It'll carry over cook and those juices will settle in. So I'm going to go ahead and move
10:36it off of here because I'm going to need those drippings for the gravy. All right so I'm going to
10:40drain this off but I'm going to show you a really easy cheap gravy that we're going to make with
10:44this. So we're going to use the main flavor from that but take a little shortcut. I'm doing it.
10:51I'm doing it because this is about a dollar. I'm going to add the packet to a pot and to that the
10:56recipe calls for a cup of cold water. I found that to be a little too thick so I'm going to do the cup
11:01of cold water but I'm also going to add in our drippings so it's going to stretch it out a little
11:05further. You want to whisk it into the powder while it's cold because then it dissolves better.
11:10All right then we just pop it onto the stove and let it come to a simmer. Of course it's even cheaper
11:15if you make your own gravy from scratch because all you need is flour which you have on hand so
11:19then you don't even have to spend that dollar. But I had room to spare. All right it's come to a
11:24simmer so it started to thicken already. Now I'll go in with the drippings. That'll thicken up and it'll
11:30continue to thicken even as it sits out you know for your company. Off the heat I'm just going to
11:35whisk in a little bit of butter. It's just going to give it a little more richness. All right and
11:39then back to those fresh herbs that we bought. Thyme is perfect here if you don't like fresh thyme you
11:43could do rosemary, sage. Great is done. For dessert pumpkin pie was so last year. Okay we are doing
11:56pumpkin dump cake because those two words immediately mean easy and this is going to feed more people.
12:04So it starts with a can of pumpkin puree. Again going with the store brand because the only ingredient
12:09in here is pumpkin. Also a can of evaporated milk, three eggs, a cup of sugar. Also going to add in
12:16a teaspoon of cinnamon. So these are all the flavors. It's very similar to how you make the filling of a
12:21pumpkin pie. Then we mix this up. It's going to be very runny. That's what you want. And then my favorite
12:26kind of desserts include a box mix. It just makes it easier right off the bat. So we're going to pour this
12:32directly into our 9 by 13. All right then we just sprinkle the cake mix over the top just like in
12:37every kind of dump cake. You just want to go evenly. We're not going to stir it in. You just want like
12:42an even layer over the top. This is a spice cake mix to really kind of mimic those fall flavors.
12:48Gets topped with two sticks of butter. I know it sounds like a lot. It is a lot but I don't make the
12:54rules and it's Thanksgiving. Are we really watching calories? Just going to pop it in the microwave and
12:59then drizzle it over. This goes into the oven 350 degrees for about an hour. Oh my gosh this smells
13:07divine. Slight jiggle. That's what you want. Now I'm going to clean up these little sides and I'm
13:14going to serve this one straight from the pan. You know most dump cakes, hence the name, are not
13:19beautiful and you're not going to get like the prettiest of slices. This one is a little something
13:24special. Look at that. You can already tell with that buttery crackly cake top but then the creamy
13:32pumpkin pie underneath. It's like a strudel meets a pumpkin pie.
13:42That's amazing. I'm telling you that buttery crust. Like this could be not only dessert but also
13:48breakfast the next day. If you're not a pumpkin pie lover we have tons of dump cake recipes but also
13:54you could do this with like apple pie. I love doing it with the spice cake cake mix. That was a good
14:00move. To round out the meal for about five dollars the rolls and the cranberry sauce. Now at other places
14:08these are cheaper. Now to make them just a little more elevated. Not that anybody's going to think
14:12they're humane but you know. I like to take some melted butter, add a little bit of garlic, pinch of
14:17salt, brush it right over these rolls and pop them into the oven for just about five minutes. It's just
14:23the perfect little vessel to make yourself a little turkey slider or to just soak up all that good gravy.
14:30Did you know you can bake it right in this little container right here? Pop it on here. 325 for about
14:36five minutes. Bread's done. All you have to do is separate them and throw them in your basket.
14:41I request the slice and eat kind of cranberry sauce at my Thanksgiving table. That might not be your
14:48thing. The whole berry cranberry sauce is the same price. I'm going to serve that up in something
14:54different. And then you just slice and serve. I've made my own cranberry sauce plenty of times.
15:06There's a time and a place but this is what I really want on the table. Okay the meal is complete
15:13but I promised you a festive cocktail and an appetizer because we gotta you know sip and snack
15:20before we dig in. Listen it was still on the budget and I don't know about y'all but we're not just
15:26gonna come straight to the house and start eating unless it's an appetizer. We gotta have a little
15:30cocktail. We gotta mingle a little bit. So baked brie with just a little baguette. Kind of pop it in
15:39the oven get it crispy and we're gonna make it a little special. So where I like to shop,
15:45Aldi, this is like $3.99 and you can bake it right in its cute little thing. I'll put it here
15:52for insurance and then straight to the oven it goes. All right and when it comes out I'm gonna top it with
15:57some other cranberry. This is the whole berry cranberry sauce. I'm just gonna zhuzh up this
16:03little can of cranberry with some jalapeno because it just works. We'll have our sweet, our spicy,
16:10our creamy, a tiny splash of balsamic vinegar and a little pinch of salt. I'm just gonna slice it up
16:16and then I like to bake it for about five minutes just to toast it. You can trim the top off of your
16:21brie if you want to. I don't think it's necessary. We're just gonna put our cranberry jalapeno
16:27situation right on top. But I'm gonna go ahead and have a sample of this one.
16:33All right time for the cocktail. At this point you've got about $15 left and this is what I
16:39chose to spend it on. You could get another dessert or whatever you want to do. I'm making apple cider
16:44mimosas. Happy fall y'all. So you're gonna rim your glass with a little cinnamon sugar and then
16:50pour in your mimosa. You know how we like our mimosas? A little bit of juice, a lot of bubbly.
16:55These people that do half and half I don't understand. I hate to give it just like a baby
16:59stir and a little apple garnish.
17:05Now that is fall in a glass. It's time to get the party started.
17:09We did it. Less than a hundred dollars right here on the table. Let me just throw a disclaimer out
17:16there. You can go without the cocktail or the appetizer and add a whole nother one or two side
17:22dishes if you want. If you want another something green, some brussel sprouts or something, you can
17:27always trade one of these out. Slicing a turkey breast is just so much easier than the whole turkey
17:31and a whole lot less messy. I'm gonna add in our dressing slash stuffing. Listen with me. It's okay if
17:38your food touches. I mean, it barely fits on one plate, so it's enough to me. Look at that.
17:43That's how to do Thanksgiving on a budget. Now, how did we do? Start with our dressing.
17:50Mm-hmm. Flavor, dead on. Love the mix of textures in there. Perfectly seasoned. This is reminiscent of
17:59my mom's dressing. Turkey. When I was slicing it, I could tell. I mean, it was so tender.
18:0710 out of 10. That green bean casserole.
18:12Still good. You know, I had to sneak that bite earlier. And the sweet potatoes. Look at that.
18:16Perfectly tender. A little glazy on top.
18:19That reminds me of Ma Ma right there. And that's it. I mean, we know the cranberry's good.
18:23I'll show you my perfect bite of Thanksgiving.
18:25Okay, get you a little turkey. A little dressing. And then a little of that canned cranberry.
18:33Perfect bite. Happy Thanksgiving.
18:38Mm. I feel like y'all are jealous because you haven't had your Thanksgiving dinner yet.
18:42I'm getting to enjoy it a little early. And I'm very grateful for that.
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