Are you that person like me who loves Thanksgiving but hates the cooking part? You don’t love spending all day in the kitchen to make one meal? Don’t worry. I have the best simple Thanksgiving dinner idea for you! I’ll show you how to cut your cooking and preparation time in half with my ultra-tricky trick!
Okay, you want to keep traditions alive for your family, and you’re willing to do it for them. You know, as a kid, I remember watching my mother painstakingly prepare the Thanksgiving meal every year. She seemed to love it! But, it was the one time of year that she actually cooked because she worked during the dinner most days of the week. That made Thanksgiving even more meaningful for her and for us. It was her one annual big feast that she offered up to us with love.
On the other hand, my older sister was a hostessing queen. She loved to cook and entertain every holiday for large gatherings.
BE WHO YOU ARE
But . . . That’s not me. I really don’t like cooking or being a hostess! And… that’s okay. If cooking and hosting aren’t your thing, you can still have a great Thanksgiving dinner, and I will tell you how.
THANKSGIVING DINNER IS A LOT OF WORK!!!
Think about all the work and preparation that goes into it:
- Grocery shopping
- Pre-cleaning the entire house
- Pre-cooking
- Same-day cooking all day long!
- Afterward, you’ll be cleaning up for days.
If you DON’T love that idea, you can do Thanksgiving another way.
MY #1 SECRET FOR SIMPLIFYING THANKSGIVING DINNER
Order your Thanksgiving Dinner from a local restaurant or fine grocery store!
That might sound out of the question for you, but give it some thought before you dismiss the idea. Over the years, this is how we did our Thanksgiving meals. No one was ever disappointed!
We had extended family members who wanted to come for Thanksgiving, and every year. . . they invited themselves. Of course, we loved them and wanted them to come. I always said, “Yes, we’d love to have you come for Thanksgiving!”
Since they were coming from quite a distance away, they were the ones who suggested that we buy our Thanksgiving meal from Whole Foods Market. They were fans of Whole Foods, so they knew that the quality of the food would be excellent.
Usually, we cooked the turkey at home and just got the side dishes from Whole Foods, but there were also years when we purchased the entire meal.
There Will Still Be A Lot of Work!
You’ll notice in the intro that I said that this hack will cut your prep and cooking time down by half.
You might have thought that it would be more. The truth is, it will still be a lot of work. That’s another reason to use this secret hack (no one has to know)!
You’ll still have these things to do:
- Grocery shopping – You’ll have to buy drinks and snacks.
- Pre-cleaning the entire house.
- Same-day prep and heating – You’ll still need to transfer all the dishes into presentable serving dishes and heat everything.
- Cleanup should be easier, but with so many dishes, it can still be a lot of cleanup.
HOW TO DO IT ECO-FRIENDLY
Buying prepared food is not inherently eco-friendly. Just think about all of the packaging waste that is created when you buy take-out. But, there IS another way to simplify the entire “take-out” Thanksgiving meal, and that is to ask the deli to put the food directly into your serving dishes or portable containers.
Additionally, if you plan to use portable containers that can be heated up in the oven and double as serving dishes, then that would be optimal to save time, effort, and cleanup.
WHERE TO BUY PRE-COOKED THANKSGIVING DINNER
(No affiliate links are used in this blog post.)
BELOW IS THE LINK TO WHOLE FOODS MARKET’S HOLIDAY MENU
WHOLE FOODS MARKET: https://holiday.wholefoodsmarket.com
- Many local restaurants offer fully cooked turkeys and side dishes.
- Many grocery stores have a deli section that offer Thanksgiving Dinner Specials once a year.
- Check the refrigerated or freezer section of your grocery store for fully cooked dishes that are already pre-packaged and ready to heat up.
- Your local grocery store. Look for stores similar to Whole Foods Market, Safeway, or Von’s.
- Your local restaurant chains. Look for restaurant chains similar to Coco’s and Marie Callender’s.
- Costco. Costco has a range of great-tasting side dishes ready to pop in the oven.
HOW MINIMALISM FITS
While we did this for years, I never considered it an act of minimalism. But thinking about it now, I do.
Anything you do to ease the pressure and do less is simplifying and, therefore, an act of minimalism. But I also love the idea that minimalism is a great excuse to be a non-conformist, to do things differently. We all get so wrapped up in what’s right and wrong and in following social norms.
Minimalism is synonymous with non-conformist! I love it! Minimalism is your permission slip to be you, to be more simple.
Happy Thanksgiving!
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