The average American can spend anywhere from 5-10 hours in preparation alone when hosting the annual Thanksgiving dinner. Why not automate Thanksgiving dinner this year and focus that quality time on the family?

There are plenty of food cooking professionals that can take over this tedious process for you. With dinner kits, automated tools, and easy cleanup strategies, you will be able to kick back with the family and say goodbye to stress.

You will be able to stay so organized and efficient with these tips, your tradition will never be the same again.

Keep in mind, most of the food options have deadlines in order to fulfill the orders on time, so don’t delay!

 

#1 Outsource Food Prep

Here are just a few ideas to automate Thanksgiving preparation or cooking altogether.  Many local restaurants and grocery stores commonly provide this service, so look around if these options aren’t available in your area!

 

Cracker Barrel

Hungry for a Thanksgiving meal with southern soul cooking? Cracker barrel will take care of the preparation, from the turkey all the way to the pie. Everyone loves their holiday meal too. This year they expect to serve up 652,000 lbs of turkey!

Order your meal kit here.

 

Boston Market

Let the pros at Boston Market treat you right this Thanksgiving. They will be able to pour all their popular flavors in each dish, making you want to come back around for 3rds (or 4ths!).

Feel free to have an order shipped to you or swing by a participating location to pick up your feast.

 

Buca Di Beppo

Wow your family with a hearty Thanksgiving dinner From Buca Di Beppo. This is a great option since they have locations nationwide. You deserve this easy option to automate Thanksgiving dinner.

You can order meal kits from their Small (3 servings) or Large (5 servings) options.

 

 

#2 Leverage Tools For DIY-ers

Wait, isn’t this article about automating dinner?  Well, I suppose some of you are going to go the DIY route no matter what we say… so here are some tools and tips that might make your life easier!

 

Buffet Warmers

Consider investing in a Buffet Warmer to keep everything warm.  Nobody likes a cold Thanksgiving meal, but it can be difficult to coordinate having all of the food warm at the same time, especially if you have people bringing items while you prepare items too.

 

Foil Power

If you’re running behind and need your turkey to cook faster, don’t raise the oven temperature!  You can seal the turkey with Heavy-duty foil (wide foil is ideal) in a pan to reduce cook time. Cooking the turkey this way will not give much of a browning effect, but you can still remove foil at the end for a few minutes to get browning on the skin.  This method commonly yields more turkey broth collecting in your pan, allowing for more gravy to be made with the juice.

 

Turkey Lifters

Buy Turkey Lifters for ~$10 to make moving your turkey a breeze (note: Butterball brand turkeys commonly include a string-based turkey lifter, but many other brands do not have anything to help with this).

 

Dual Microwaves

Consider getting a second microwave.  As silly as it may sound, sometimes just having a second, cheap microwave can make all the difference when you’re trying to get everything set up and hot at the same time.  It doesn’t need to be a nice or expensive one, just something small and with enough power to get to job done. Just make sure it is big enough (cubic ft. measurement) to fit your dishes!

 

#3 Automated Clean Up

My (and probably everyone’s) least favorite part of Thanksgiving!  Here are some simple tips to save a good solid hour or more on your meal cleanup this year:

 

Table Cloths

Invest $10 into a disposable tablecloth that you can roll up and throw away at the end of your meal instead of hassling with cleanup. This is an easy way to automate thanksgiving food/trash cleanup.

 

Plasticware

Get a huge return on your investment with paper/plastic plates and plastic utensils.  Some people may assume this to be a little tacky, but there are many options that look like real silver or fine china! Not to mention you will be saving hours of dish cleaning… sign me up!

 

Disposable Serving Dishes

 

Just like the plates, try leveraging disposable options for dishes.  Cleanup doesn’t have to be complicated – toss it in a trash bag and be done!  Your future self will thank you.

We know that some of these practices are probably not the best for the environment so please consider how often you practice this strategy and limit the waste to once or twice a year.

 

Read Also:  Buying household items like this in bulk in the future.

 

Bonus Tip!

For those of you who celebrate ‘Friendsgiving’, you can automate Thanksgiving dinner by using this helpful pot-luck organizer.

 

Ready – Set – Automate!

Let’s start today:

1. Choose a few options above to save you time and stress this Thanksgiving holiday
2. Let us know if you have any ideas we missed
3. Share with friends/family so they can automate Thanksgiving dinner as well!

 

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