Let Someone Else Cook Thanksgiving Dinner: A List Of Ready-Made Meals

With Thanksgiving just around the corner, perhaps you need some assistance in the kitchen. Turkey, stuffing, gravy and pumpkin pie is the usual fare you’ll find at the holiday table and sometimes coordinating all of those dishes with one oven can be tricky.

Here’s a list of places who are willing and able to pre-cook or prep your meal for you on November 28 so that you can enjoy the company of family and friends. Or at the least, enjoy very little prep beforehand. A 16-22 pound turkey is available at Aldi’s.

With that size, you can feed about a dozen or more people. Their deal includes the bird, gravy, and stuffing mixes, two kinds of potatoes, celery, and onions, and seasoning, as well as the cream of mushroom soup, green beans, rolls, and mac and cheese. If you have a table for 10 people, this $47 ingredients bundle is a deal.

Another popular grocer, Whole Foods Market offers a meal that simply needs reheating once you get it home. You can serve a smaller group of 4 people for $100 or a dozen people for $240. You’ll get a whole turkey, potatoes, stuffing and gravy.

Kroger, who also owns Ralph’s, Fred Meyer and Fry’s, also offers a heat-and-eat meal of turkey, ham, stuffing, gravy, 2 different potatoes, green bean casserole and cranberry sauce for $160. This deal will serve 8-10 people.

Big box stores are getting in on the feeding frenzy. Members-only Sam’s Club will provide the bird, potatoes, and mac and cheese, as well as Brussels sprouts and pumpkin pie for $100 for 10 people. Target has a smaller turkey available with the rest of the ingredients as a bundle, including potatoes, stuffing, the ingredients needed for a green bean casserole, and of course gravy. This will serve four people for only $20. Walmart has all the fixins, including a 10-16-pound turkey that serves eight people. The rest of the meal includes green bean casserole, potatoes, muffin and gravy mixes, rolls, and a frozen pecan pie. All of this and more for $52.

Of course, when most of us think about Thanksgiving, we think “turkey.” However, Honey Baked Ham offers a choice of variety with its heat-and-eat offer, which serves a large group of 18 people. For $175, you get an 8-pound ham, turkey, and your choice of 4 frozen sides.

Restaurant chains want you to think outside of the grocers. Bob Evans is offering a 10 person meal for $160 which includes turkey and ham, dressing, potatoes, green beans, rolls and dessert. Italian restaurant Maggiano’s Little Italy goes against the grain, by putting their signature pasta on the menu, while also offering the usual turkey, gravy, stuffing. If you’re looking for a bit of a change from turkey, try their deal with spaghetti and meatballs, caesar salad, cheese ravioli and chocolate cake. Cracker Barrel sticks with the country-style meal of turkey, sweet potato casserole with pecans, cranberry relish, rolls and pecan pie. All of this can be had for $175 for 10 people.

Better Homes And Gardens gives advice on how to make sure you have enough at your table, while also leaving room for both dessert and leftovers the next day. Things like white meat and dark meat or birds with the bone-in can vary and change how much you need on your plate. Buying the right size turkey is also important as most birds in the stores range from 15 pounds up as large as 30 pounds.

Thanksgiving is the second most popular holiday in the US, following Christmas. Nearly 90 percent of Americans celebrate the holiday, and 46 million turkeys are consumed each year. Butterball turkeys are the bird of choice for many tables across the country and should you find yourself in the kitchen that Thursday morning in need of help, they offer a Butterball Turkey Talk-Line with a live chat with a turkey expert.