In the words of Clark Griswold, “I did it”…. Lol now if you don’t know what Im talking about then I suggest you watch my all time favourite Christmas classic- National Lampoons Christmas vacation and you’ll get it ! HA!

Bring you up to speed my hubby and I hosted a huge Thanksgiving dinner for 48 people. Are closest family and friends attended and man it was awesome! So if you wondering why would I want to do this or how much would that cost, then i’ll explain 🙂

First off I love Thanksgiving it has to be one of my favourite holidays! I love bringing my closest family and friends together over FOOD, my love in life 🙂

Why would I want to do that is simple I love family and togetherness, Im an only child so being around family has always been super important to me since I had no brothers and sisters growing up my cousins and aunts became like a second family to me.  So I’m thankful!

Ok So just like meal prepping for the week,planning a big dinner is no different. Lists and planning what to make and what you can make in advance is key. Now I know that turkeys here in Canada usually go on sale the beginning of October, so this is when I call up every save on food grocery store near by and ask for the biggest turkey they have.

I picked up two turkeys, one a 32 pound bird the other a 15 pound bird (feeding that many I needed a second) and at 99 cents a pound I bought them both for just under $50 bucks !

The rest of my shop was done the Monday prior where I picked up most of the dinner items : Potatoes(4 pound bag ) , 3 loafs of bread , 1 bag of carrots, 3 packs of sausage, 2 heads of cauliflower, 2 heads of Broccoli , 2 packs of eggs, 1 large Ham for roast (on sale as well, 99 cents a pound) 2 bags of cranberry’s (No I don’t use canned and I never will, and to be perfectly honest I use the recipe on the bag its so easy, I do sub in for brown organic sugar instead of white sugar ) I also bought cups and dishes for the dinner I know that sucks with paper plates but honesty I don’t own that many dishes nor would I want to clean that! So my total for that bill was $246.

I picked up the reminder of my fresh veggies such as brussel sprouts and veggies for my vegetable platter on the Thursday prior, which was another $28 bucks. Each night from Tuesday until Sunday Thanksgiving dinner I prepped ! Making broccoli bakes one night , peeling carrots and potatoes, making the cranberries , even making my stuffing for the turkeys in advance. I cooked my smaller bird on the Saturday and the big bird on the Sunday , which I was up at 4am to do .. Brutal lol

The more you can make ahead of the big day the better!  Another bonus I asked my family members if they could bring an appie, salad or desert to dinner. In my family we have always brought a dish of some sort to a family event, it helps the host and its a way to be creative and make your favourite dish.