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Why I Won’t Be Cooking a Thanksgiving Dinner

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When it comes to hosting Thanksgiving, it can be downright overwhelming.  First of all, if you’re like me, you feel obligated to clean your house.  We’re talking really clean, like cleaning the light fixtures and baseboards clean.  When guests walk in your door, you’re secretly hoping to portray that your house is always in this perfectly decorated and pristine state.  But on top of cleaning, there’s another matter that’s even more time consuming and stressful – the food.  The first year I hosted Thanksgiving at my house, I literally spent hours combing the internet for the best recipes with the best reviews.  If I was going to make dinner I was going to get it right!

I didn’t want to go broke buying all the groceries, so I looked at the ads from 4-5 local stores to find the best deals.  This  in turn meant that I had to go shopping at all these stores – requiring another couple of hours of my already precious time.  Then after I got all the food home, I still had to cook it.  With the help of my step mother-in-law, I cooked my first Thanksgiving dinner, which required me to be in the kitchen literally all day.  At the end of the day, I was beyond exhausted and most of the day I had been obsessing about the food (not spending time with the family who was visiting).

Since that time, I’ve had two kids and have come to the realistic conclusion that spending a ton of time making a grocery list, grocery shopping, and cooking all the food, in addition to cleaning my house simply is not going to happen.  But I still host Thanksgiving at my house.  Want to know my not-so-well kept secret?

I cater it in.

You might be thinking that catering in Thanksgiving is expensive or the food won’t be good – but let me tell you, you are wrong my friend.

Here are the 5 reasons every mom (especially if you have young kids) should consider catering in Thanksgiving:

1. It’s affordable.  The last two years I’ve had a chef that runs a huge catering business in St. Louis cater my food.  The year I cooked dinner and bought all the groceries at rock bottom sale prices, I spent $100 for a meal intended to serve 10 people.  Catering in a full meal that included a 14 pound turkey, 2 starches, 2 vegetables, a dinner salad, rolls and dessert costs me $175.  But as I look through the current ads of grocery stores, I see prices much lower, around $125.
2. It saves you so much precious time. I don’t have to spend hours making a grocery list.  Or hours out shopping in the stores that are crazy busy.  Or hours in the kitchen trying to throw together a gourmet meal.  In addition, I don’t have a ton of dishes piled in my sink at the end of the day from chopping, mixing, and simmering things all day long.
3. It’s delicious. I get my meal catered by a pretty well known chef.  He’s been through culinary school.  I guarantee his skills in the kitchen are better than mine.  Besides, he gives me options, like whether I want an herb roasted, smoked or a fried turkey.  This means that if I want to try a fried turkey, I don’t have to buy a turkey fryer and figure it out myself.  Also, the leftovers are just as good whether you made the meal yourself or got it catered.  (Perhaps even better, because doesn’t food always taste better when someone else makes it or is it just me?)
4. It’s convenient. My Thanksgiving dinner gets delivered to my house the day before Thanksgiving, with my turkey all ready to go.  The turkey comes in a roasting pan that just needs thrown in the oven for a couple of hours.  Everything else just needs to be thrown in the microwave.  After heating things, I usually put things into my nice serving dishes, which still means my table looks nice.
5. It allows you to focus on what’s really important; enjoying your time with family and friends. Isn’t that what the holiday is really about?  It’s not about stressing out over cleaning your house or cooking the best Thanksgiving dinner that anyone has ever had.  It’s about celebrating time with your family and being grateful that they are with you.

Hopefully this article might inspire you to consider catering in your Thanksgiving dinner.  I know that when you think of Thanksgiving you might picture spending the day in the kitchen cooking with family.  But I also know that for you moms out there with little kids, it might be an unrealistic option for the next several years.  So I encourage you to check out your grocery store ads and check around at local caterers to see what it will cost you.  You might be surprised how reasonable their prices are!

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Happy Thanksgiving!  Now get out there and rock your busy mom life!

 

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