Salad for Thanksgiving

I think the best Thanksgiving salad is what I like to refer to as a 'fall' salad. you take a bag of mixed baby lettuce and add a dried fruit (cranberries/cherries) a sliced fruit (pear/apple) and a crumbled cheese (blue/gorg/feta) and a nut or seed (walnut/pecan/pepita). You can dress it with an oil/vinegar type dressing-I like to add a splash of OJ. Or here is an easy cranberry vinegarette:
2 tablespoons olive oil (preferably extra-virgin)
2 tablespoons frozen cranberry juice concentrate, thawed
1 tablespoon white wine vinegar

This kind of salad just goes the best with the traditional TG meal IMO.

Get some nice bagged greens (no iceberg!). Slice up some pears, add pecans and crumbled blue cheese. Get the Ken's Raspberry Pecan dressing. Toss. Super yum, light but rich. Minimal prep work.

It sounds like your family is looking for a "green salad" and no, pasta salad doesn't "go" with Thanksgiving... there are already enough starches on the table!

Why not do a warm spinach salad! It's very easy... open a bag of prewashed salad greens, add sliced hard-boiled eggs (you can buy these pre-made if your skills are really that basic), pre-cooked bacon crumbled over the top. You can either make or purchase a balsamic vinegarette and warm it up before serving. Pour it over the salad and toss! I have also added toasted walnuts "crunched" and crumbled bleu cheese to this salad. In this case, maybe some dried cranberries would be nice!

How about a Ceasar Salad? That is always enjoyable! Let me know if you want the recipe.. it's quite simple and SO delicious! I'm actually going to make one myself this Thursday!
hugs,
A. www.amyfreundbodytalk.com

Easy enough...Do a green salad. Keep it simple...I use iceberg, spinach and romaine lettuce. Mix it all up in a bowl. Use some colorful veggies like carrrots and peppers. Sprinkle some salted almonds or some other crunchy salad topping and take two salad dressing choices. If you have salad lovers this will be great...but I do have a feeling that on Thanksgiving, the meal is mostly about the turkey, stuffing, and taters oh and probably some side dish that has been passed down from generation to generation in the family....Don't sweat it and take something simple.

I personally wouldnt want a pasta salad w/ my Turkey and Stuffings! lol Why dont you grab a BUNCH ( sounds like this is going to be a BIG family get together) of bags of Caesar salad kits! SIMPLE easy and delicious - cant really mess it up and your brothers will have no reason to be mean to their little sister (at least not for the salad)! HAHA BUT be sure to mix it all up At HOME before you get there - OR get there early and put it all together before everyone else arrives. Happy Thanksgiving !

Just buy some bags of the premixed salad, add some iceburg lettuce and topping. We do hard boiled eggs, crumbled bacon, tomatoes, cheese, crutons, green peppers and cucumbers. Dice up some of the toppings and mix with the salad. Leave some bigger pieces and arrange them on the top so it looks pretty.

If you have a pretty, glass bowl... a punch bowl works well, this is a very pretty and festive salad.

7 LAYER SALAD
Printed from COOKS.COM

1 cucumber
1 head lettuce, broken in pieces
1 white or yellow or bunch green onions, sliced
1 sliced green bell pepper
1 cup Celery, sliced (cover layers)
1 (10 oz.) pkg. frozen green garden peas, uncooked
1 c.vegannaise or mayonnaise, ½ c. sugar put on the top of the mayo more if you want sweeter
Enough mayonnaise to cover top (1 quart or 32 oz on bigger salad bowls)
Spread four cheese Mexican cheese or cheddar on top
Fried bacon or bacon, sprinkled on top about 2 lbs. crumbled

In bowl or large cake pan, layer lettuce, celery, green pepper, onion, cucumber, and peas on top of each other. Add Hellmann's mayonnaise over ingredients to seal adding sugar next. Spread four cheese Mexican cheese or cheddar on top and Fried crumbled bacon on very top. Do not toss. Cover and chill up to 24 hours.
Optional - Sprinkle on 1/4 tsp. garlic powder.

California Caesar Salad

Ingredients
Dressing:
*1 egg yolk
1/2 lemon, juiced
1 tin anchovies
1 tablespoon chopped garlic
1/2 cup olive oil
1/2 cup canola oil
1 tablespoon Dijon mustard
1 teaspoon sea salt
1 teaspoon cracked black pepper
Salad:
1 bag romaine hearts, rinsed, patted dry and chopped (3 heads of hearts)
2 avocados, pitted, peeled and sliced
5 slices bacon, cooked crisp and crumbled
1/2 pound jumbo lump crabmeat
Croutons:
1 loaf focaccia bread, cubed
2 tablespoons olive oil
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
Directions
Preheat oven to 425 degrees F.
For the dressing:

In a food processor, add egg yolk, lemon juice, anchovies, and garlic. Pulse until there is an even consistency. With the machine running, slowly add olive and canola oil until emulsified. Add the mustard, salt and pepper and pulse to combine.

For the salad:
Combine all the salad ingredients and toss with dressing until evenly coated.
For the croutons:
Place cubed bread into a large bowl. Drizzle with olive oil, sprinkle with salt and pepper and toss together. Place on a baking sheet and bake for 5 to 10 minutes or until brown and crispy.
Serve salad with croutons on top.

*RAW EGG WARNING
Food Network Kitchens suggest caution in consuming raw and lightly-cooked eggs due to the slight risk of Salmonella or other food-borne illness.
To reduce this risk, we recommend you use only fresh, properly-refrigerated, clean, grade A or AA eggs with intact shells, and avoid contact between the yolks or whites and the shell

I second what Mallory P. said below. I love the combination of mixed lettuces, dried cranberries, sliced apples, crumbled goat cheese and a raspberry vinaigrette. This is, in fact, what we're having for our salad tomorrow night! If it weren't for my daughter's nut allergy, I'd throw in some toasted pecans or candied walnuts...

Mixed lettuces, little pieces of tomatoes, slices of cucumber, green apples, almonds and walnuts, a little bit of red onion, Parmesan cheese. Toss it, and add a mixture of light olive oil, salt and lemon. Mix it very well. You can also use the Ceasar Salad dressing and taste very good too.
I understand you so much when you say you don't like cooking. I don't either.
Happy Thanksgiving!

Google Apple snicker salad. It is good.:) Happy Thanksgiving!

It wouldn't be Thanksgiving without the 7 layer salad! The recipe you have below is good, except we don't put cucumber or celery in ours and we DO put bacon bits as one of the layers and water chestnuts as another. Either way it would be yummy! It's also SO easy! You toss it immediately before serving it. I also use Duke's mayo, but I'm not sure you can get it in Iowa. If so -try it. People who have been making this salad for years rave when they have mine, and it's because of the Duke's!

I love all the great suggestions for the tossed salads.

IMPORTANT TIP:
Please bring the dressing for your tossed salads with you. Don't add to the actual salads because the leaves will go limp if left sitting too long.

Have a Happy Thanksgiving.

Make a lettuce salad. Pick up a couple of kinds of lettuce, iceberg, red or green leaf lettuce, romaine etc, some tomatoes, a green pepper, cucumber, radishes, sweet onion ( red onion or vidiala) or whatever you like in a good salad. Then get a couple of bottles of salad dressing. Cut it all up and place in a big bowl, cover. Leave the dressings off let your family decide what dressing they want when it is served.
You could also go to the deli in your grocery store and pick up about 4 lbs, figure 1/4 lb for each person, of any salad they have take it home and put it in a big bowl and pretend you made it.
As far a cooking goes, think about it this way, you deserve to eat good healthy food 3 times a day. If you continuely eat out or have prepared foods you are eating too much sugar, salt and fat to be really healthy. You can take a basic cooking class and self teach from there. It's not difficult.

I'd go with the pasta salad

Trader Joe's makes a fantastic ready-made salad that would be great at Thanksgiving. If you don't have one in your area, it would be very easy to recreate:
baby spinach leaves
dried, sweetened cranberries
crumbled blue cheese
candied (sugared) pecans
raspberry vinaigrette

I think a "salad"is just salad with different lettuce,bring baby tomatoes,carrots,croutons salad toppings with different dressings..
I'm bringing ice burg lettuce bags mixed with romain lettuce (SAMS) baby carrots,cranberries,Dorothy Lynch dressing this seems to please all my family since they all were brought up on Dorothy Lynch

My second salad is for the kids mainly but we love it too fruit salad
fruit cocktail drained,mandarin oranges drained,thawed Cool Whip,added marshmellows stir & refrigerate overnite will be ready by tomorrow you can pretty much eyeball this I have a big family so 4 cans of each fruit 2 containers of Cool Whip 1 bag of mellows

My third is Cranberry dressing bag of fresh cranberries (frozen) then chopped in a hand mixer to fine course add in cored apples again chopped in hand mixer 1 cup of sugar,half a cap of Tang or other orange aid product (this is to taste too much will cause dressing to become tangy if so add more apples & sugar)so here again I eyeball this 2 bags cranberries 6 apples 11/2 cups sugar a little bit of Tang stir set in fridge till is sets & chilled overnite stir again taste to see if it sweet enough not too tangy then put in bowls..

My fourth is Apple pies very easy receipe I do..

My fifth is a cream cheese & cranberry balls get a box of cream cheese roll it into a log place dried cranbberries init roll again then roll in more cranberries so for it fills the inside outside..serve with whatever crackers you like my choice is Ritz snowflake crackers

Also brownies,Jello,sticky buns(hubby will do this & stuffing)
well I better get to work have much more to do have fun ...

I have a salad recipe that we make every year only on thanksgiving and it's really good. You can use either baby spinach or green or red leaf lettuce, then you add 1-2 cans of mandarin oranges, a small jar of marinated artichokes chopped, toasted walnuts, and either a jar or 8 oz of sliced fresh mushrooms....then you toss it with poppyseed dressing....it's really good