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Affordable Ways to Simplify Thanksgiving Day Meal Prep (and Save Money)

Published: Nov 10, 2022 5 min read
great savings on thanksgiving prep essentials
Amazon.com

If mentioning Thanksgiving brings up memories of tirelessly chopping, stirring and roasting all day … it’s probably time to rethink your meal prep. After all, Thanksgiving should be about rest, relaxation and family. It’s hard to appreciate a meal with loved ones when you’re exhausted from a long day sweating in a hot kitchen.

If you’re looking to simplify your Thanksgiving Day meal prep, thesekitchen deals will drastically decrease the amount of time and effort you’ll spend in the kitchen this year. Plus, you’ll probably be spending more on turkey at the grocery store this Thanksgiving, so these Amazon deals will help you save some cash that you can put toward holiday shopping.

The perfect dinner checklist

One of the most common mistakes of a home chef is forgetting ingredients. Nothing interrupts a flow in the kitchen like an emergency grocery trip because you forgot the parsley for your stuffing.

There are a couple of really easy ways to avoid these situations. If you’re someone who likes to keep things classic with pen and paper, we recommend a meal prep planner. This $10 option from Amazon is a great choice. The gold design and thick, luxury paper are a definite upgrade from the post-it notes you might have used in the past. Thick paper also means you can use your favorite Sharpie without worrying about it bleeding through.

The best part? It has a detachable, perforated grocery list that corresponds to each meal. Now, you can plan everything out at home and take the grocery list with you to the store. As an extra bonus, this planner is over 20% off right now, bringing the price down to just $9.99.

Invest in a stand mixer

Whether it’s potatoes or pie crust, you can waste a lot of time mashing and kneading everything by hand. A stand mixer can do all that with a whole lot less time and elbow grease. With a 300 watt motor and three different mixing attachments, this Hamilton Beach stand mixer can handle thick dough and soft icing all while maintaining a constant speed.

At 35% off, this stand mixer is currently priced just above $70, making it a highly affordable alternative to the ultra-popular KitchenAid. A KitchenAid Classic of similar size and attachments can cost as much as $330. With this Hamilton Beach mixer, you can get all the same capabilities and conveniences for almost one-fifth of the cost.

Smart ovens can do it all

The Nuwave Smart Oven is remarkably versatile, it’ll become your go-to appliance for a variety of cooking and baking tasks. Because this single machine can do everything from baking a loaf of bread to roasting an entire rotisserie chicken, there’s no need to deal with the hassle of storing a bunch of different appliances.

While most air fryers hold about 5 quarts of food, this one holds an impressive 15.5 quarts. That extra space will come in handy if you have a large extended family to cook for this Thanksgiving. It also has 4 different rack positions so you can cook multiple things at once — another feature that will be extremely useful when cooking large multi-course meals.

To make your meal prep even more simple, this smart oven comes with 100 pre-programmed menu presents for different foods. That means you won’t need to guess the temperature and time for each menu item or worry about burning your food.

If you attach the $10-off coupon at checkout, you can get this multi-purpose kitchen gadget for $143.90. A standard airfryer costs around $100 — but they only hold 5 quarts and offer far fewer functionalities. While those air fryers can be perfect for individuals and couples, you’re going to want more capacity and functionality if you’re cooking multiple dishes for a lot of people. Considering the large increase in both size and functionality compared to standard air fryers, the Nuwave Smart Oven is a steal.

More Amazon kitchen deals

With these three affordable kitchen deals, you can whip up a mouthwatering feast for your family without breaking a sweat. Combine these tools with some thoughtful preparation and make this year a Thanksgiving to remember.

If you’re still feeling overwhelmed by the prospect of cooking Thanksgiving dinner this year, don’t worry. Amazon has even more kitchen deals you can shop right now.

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