Kudos to Whole Foods for providing a very good Thanksgiving dinner

My family descended upon us this year for Thanksgiving. My parents, brother, his wife and their two school aged kids--oh, and our 17 month old, too. So, while I love to cook, I did not want to tackle the Thanksgiving feast. Instead, I took advantage of Whole Foods' holiday meal service and dialed for our dinner.

Rather than ordering everything a la carte, I went for the "dinner for 8" and upsized to the largest turkey size. Cost: $140, which includes the bird, stuffing, mashed potatoes, cranberry sauce, green bean casserole, roasted veggies, gravy and dinner rolls. Whole Foods' customer service was awesome. Last week our store called to let me know that Diestel (the turkey grower) did not produce 16-17 pounders this year and would it be okay if they gave us a smaller (15 lb) bird plus extra breast. Perfect. Most of our crew favors the white meat anyway.

Bottom Line: It was a wonderful meal. The best part was the turkey. If you are thinking about what to do for Christmas or another holiday meal, I'd happily recommend Whole Foods. (And we have plenty of leftovers for another 1 to 2 dinners.)

DETAILS ABOUT THE MEAL
Turkey: Diestel is awesome. We've raved about their nitrate-free deli meats before. And while the fully pre-cooked bird did take nearly 3 hours to warm, it was moist and flavorful. The whole group gave it a HUGE thumbs up.

Stuffing: We opted for the cornbread "flavor", but I also ordered one side of the apple & mushroom. We preferred the later--better flavor and more moist. But, the cornbread stuffing was very good.

Gravy: The vegan mushroom was great! Loads of flavor. I'd eat it with any meat. So much better than a grocery store basic--which we also had.

Cranberry Sauce: We loved the cranberry mango relish. The meal came with a natural cranberry side which was also very good.

Mashed Potatoes: Great flavor. Clearly these spuds had lots of unhealthy help, but they were really good.

Green Bean Casserole with the crunchy topping: Also very good. Big green beans and the sauce was not overpowering.

Roasted Veggies: Not so good. By far this was the weakest link of the meal. The veggies were bland and super greasy. We're glad that the portion was fairly small.

Cheers! And here's to working off the pumpkin pie!