Need Menu Suggestions to Go with Turkey

Go with salads, limitless choices from layered spinach salad, or layered lettuce salads, can be creative with so many options, choose optional ingredients with fancy lettuces, green onions, red onions, celery, green pepper, red or yellow peppers, frozen peas, radishes, water chestnuts, fresh mushrooms, boiled eggs, bacon bits, choose from variety of shredded cheese, (cheddar, swiss, italian blend).

Spinach salad with mandarin oranges or strawberries and pecans, (have to look up the recipes) .

Jello salads that have veggies or fruit in them.
Apple/Waldorf salad.
Cole slaw, either creamy or vinegarette type.
Scalloped corn
Cranberry salad (grind orange with 1/2 peeling finely ground, 2 large or 3 smaller apples, cranberries , mix in 2 cup sugar, raspberry, or cranberry jello made with 1 cup boiling water, 1/2 cup cold water so it will "set firm").

LOL... I think I'm the only no-special-diet person I know. Everyone is else is vegetairan, pescatarian, vegan, kosher, halal, celiac, diabetic. All of these (save 2, but the modify to veg) are pure vegetarian dishes. So Just brainstorming:

Veg

Sauteed greens. Skip Collard and go with chard, kale, etc. Devein, slice, sautee with plenty of olive oil, garlic, finish with salt and pepper. Serve at room temp.

Ditto prep above, but Broccoli Raabe

Portobellow mushrooms; broiled. Just destem, drizzel gills with olive oil, season with salt and pepper, grill/broil (gills up, no matter which way the heat is... to hold in the juices). Done when juicy and soft. Cut into halves or quarters to serve

Artichokes roman style

Roasted veggies (I like white carrots, beats, fennel... some of the less common combos... but ANYTHING works)

Hot Crash Potatoes (think of them as Australian Latkes, but baked not fried) Wicked good. Great recipe for them here : http://thepioneerwoman.com/cooking/2008/06/crash-hot-pota...

ACTUAL Latkes. Mmmmm. Since you have the deepfryer for the turkey going....?

Tempura veggies (pick a veggie, any veg, dip in tempura batter, and deep fry for a minute or two until golden)

Radishes and kosher salt. Yep. That easy. Wash radishes well, cut off tops, serve in a dish surrounding a little dish of kosher salt. Dip in salt and eat

Similarly; fresh peas. Just a hint of olive oil, squeeze of lemon, sprinkle of kosher salt

Broiled jalapeno poppers. My fav is wrapped in bacon, but you can omit that part. For the cheese filling... herbed chev. Plain chev + fresh chopped chive is *brilliant* but an absolute pain to stir. Wear gloves to devein and seed jalapenos (hint, otherwise the next thing you touch... whether it's your eyes or a trip to the bathroom... will be very unhappy). For less heat, pre broil the Jalepenos a bit, let cool, THEN stuff with cheese before broiling. You can leave these just peppers and cheese, or leave "whole" wrap with bacon and broil (turning as needed to cook the bacon and peppers), or cook and then wrap with proscuitto and serve cold.

Pear & Bleu Cheese Tart. Pizza dough + pear slices + crumbled bleu cheese (my fav is Rogue Creamery Smokey Bleu... there's a smokey bacon like taste to it). Roll out dough (or toss) into circle. Brush lightly with olive oil. Layer with pairs and sprinkle over cheese. Bake in oven. Cut just like pizza

Cauliflower Au Gratin (Cauliflower blanched. Bechamel Sauce. Diced onion. Cheese - Cheddar is good, but so is just about anything added to bechamel). After blanching C's, drain and place in baking dish. Sprinkle in onions and half the cheese or more, pour over bechamel sauce. Add the rest of the cheese. Sprinkle over Panko crumbs. Bake at 350-400 until bubbly, melty, golden crisp crumbs.

___________________________________________________________

Salady but not

Fava bean (fresh or frozen, aka green), carrot, yellow squash, zucchini, & spinach saute. Sautee everything together *except* spinach. Add spinach for last 30 seconds or so. Serve at room temp.

Caprese Salad

Bulgar Wheat (this is my FAV super quick side, but here's the "fancy" version that only takes 10 minutes... like so many others it's served at room temp so super easy to make in advance.) Dice/chop 1 yellow onion. Sautee in butter (or olive oil if you've got vegans). Add onions to veggie stock (or vice versa) and add a dash of lemon juice and bring veggie stock to a boil. Add bulgar wheat, give a stir, and turn off burner and cover. Serve in a low sided bowl with tzatiki in the middle. Sprinkle a little parsley over if you have it on hand.
____________________________________________________________

Stuff on Bread:

Cannelini Beans: 1 can of Cbeans, rinsed and drained, 1sm purple onion dliced thin. Olive oil. More kosher salt than looks "right" (seriously, a LOT). MUST be kosher salt or Sea Salt. Less Sea Salt than Kosher, but still, rather a lot. Place all in bowl to marinate for about 1-4 hours. Mash lightly (most beans still whole). Spoon onto baguette slices

Tomato Basil Fresh Mozz

Hot Artichoke Crab dip, or just hot artichoke dip

Bread Pudding (well, that's more "bread in stuff" but whatever)

___________________________________________________________

These are amazing: http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/food-network-kitchens/...

Go great with mashed potatoes and asparagus.

Also, you can make them ahead and put them in the freezer! Just adjust oven time a bit.

1) Quinoa Salad. After cooking the quinoa, just add extra virgin olive oil/salt/pepper/lemon juice. The amounts are up to you and go by taste.
Add sliced grape tomatoes/basil leaves.

2) Brussels Sprouts. Martha Stewart's website has GOOD recipes for it. My family loved it. EASY. In fact, all of her "Everyday Food" recipes are good and fast and tasty.

3) "Namasu Salad". Which is a Japanese cucumber salad. Easy and good. There are MANY different versions of it. Just Google search it.
Here in Hawaii, this is a commonly made salad for any special occasion.
It goes with anything.

Roasted sweet potatoes or any other root vegetables - they are healthy and have some "heft" to them so they are great for vegetarians who are used to getting all kinds of salads. Peel the potatoes and slice into wedges, put on a cookie sheet and drizzle with olive oil and a little salt and pepper. Toss lightly, and bake. You can put butternut squash in there too, or delicate squash, turnips, beets, onions etc. Bake 20-30 minutes depending on the size of the pieces you cut up. You can google this on any good recipe sites like Recipes.com or Cooks.com.

It looks beautiful and it serves a lot of people for little money. Since you are already having mashed potatoes, I would add more veggies to this and not serve simply sweet potatoes. Or you could re-think the mashed potatoes and just add the white potatoes to this recipe. (You didn't want traditional Thanksgiving sides, so you can skip the mashed potatoes if you want.) You can also roast the asparagus in this mix too.

You can also make a great honey-ginger carrot mix - slice the carrots, steam lightly (can do ahead of time) for about 2 minutes, and cool them in cold water to stop the cooking. Then put in a buttered casserole dish with a mix of honey and ginger. For 2 pounds of peeled carrots, use 1 cup honey, 1/2 cup brown sugar, 2 tsp grated fresh ginger or 1/2 tsp powdered, and 4 tsp of grated orange or lemon rind, plus a little fresh ground black pepper. Put the carrots in a greased (butter/margarine) casserole, and mix the other ingredients in a bowl, and pour over the top when ready to bake. Bake 20-25 minutes at 350, turning carrots occasionally and gently to coat.

Instead of honey, you can use maple syrup (the real stuff) and the ginger & orange/lemon is optional.

we always do broccoli cas. so easy 2 bags of birds eye frozen broccoli FLORETS steam it in the fridge get cheese slices the real kind not the kraft cheese product melt it down in a pan with some milk pour over the broccoli crumble up some ritz or townhouse crackers on top stick in the oven for a few super easy super fast and cheap! also baked apples would be good

Explore allrecipes.com.
You can even type ingredients you want to use, and all kinds of recipes for those ingredients will pop up!

My mom makes this Three Bean Salad that is really good. Someone else mentioned allrecipes.com and it is on there. I use that website all the time. It is great!