Make Thanksgiving Spectacular with Whole Foods Market Dinners and Williams Sonoma

Thanksgiving can be incredibly delicious and simply amazing with Whole Foods Market dinners and Williams Sonoma dinnerware.

Growing up, Thanksgiving was always huge.  Like, people sitting on bar stools in the dining room huge.  More than just a kids table huge.  Standing room only huge.  You get the point.  It was big.

We would spend days before the big day prepping food.  To begin with, we would chop vegetables, thaw the turkey, prepare the ham, get the stuffing ready, and make whatever beverages we would serve with dinner that night.  Then there was the cleaning.  SO much cleaning.

If only a magic wand could be waved to help with all this preparation.  Although they can’t help with the cleaning, Whole Foods Market and Williams Sonoma can help with all the other preparations for your family’s holiday dinners.

My local Whole Foods Market invited me and several other influencers in my area to sample their current top ten wines and have a Thanksgiving dinner.  Since I totes love Whole Foods (by the way, when y’all coming out to Manassas) I jumped at the chance!  I mean, their bulk food section alone is amazing.

Then again, it wasn’t just Thanksgiving dinner.  In this case, it was the Whole Foods Market Traditional Turkey Dinner.  To top it off, Williams Sonoma was there showing us how simple, yet elegant, Thanksgiving dinner can be.

There were 11 wines that we sampled.  There were 5 whites, 5 reds, and one sparkling.  The hubs and I enjoyed the Fleurie from Chateau de Roches and the H&M Hofer Gruner Vetliner.  Since we loved the Gruner Vetliner the most, we brought it home to have with our holiday dinner.  It’s the first time I tasted a wine that had a bottle cap top.  I even asked Mom our family wine aficionado, and she hadn’t seen one either.  And she’s had wine all over the world!  Because of this event, she’s going to look for that particular wine to try for herself.

I know you’ve seen the ads in their store or in your local newspaper or television for their holiday meals.  I’ve seen them, too, for years.  I always wondered how good it really could be.  Would it truly hold up to my skills in the kitchen?  Can their turkey beat my turkey?

I am here to tell you that I might just have to purchase their Traditional Thanksgiving Dinner.  The turkey was amazing.  It had the perfect flavoring of fresh herbs and spices.  The turkey was moist, delicious, and had that turkey flavor that you remember from all your holiday dinners past.  Since you cook it yourself make sure to use your thermometer so it’s not dry.  The bird even comes in a pan that you cook it in.  Just unwrap, cook, and eat!  Simple as that.

I know what you’re saying, “What about the sides?  Thanksgiving is more than just the turkey!”  They’ve got those, too!  The Traditional Turkey Dinner comes with gravy, traditional sage stuffing, home-style mashed potatoes, organic orange cranberry relish, and your choice of two vegetables or two casseroles.

The mashed potatoes were buttery and creamy delicious.  I could, without a doubt, eat a plate of the stuffing all by itself.  Unfortunately, homemade bread stuffing is mushy to me, but the Whole Foods Market stuffing wasn’t mush.  It tasted like bread stuffing should taste with the bread, sage, and rich broth flavor I always hope for, but never taste.  I WANTED to eat the cranberry relish; not just put it on my plate and push around to appear as if I’d eaten some like I usually do at Thanksgiving.  The cranberries are fresh and kicked up by the orange flavor.

In additional to the main meal, we tried the green beans with roasted shallots, maple carrots with pecans, and butternut sweet potato casserole.  The green beans are fresh and crisp with wonderful roasted shallot flavor.  The maple carrots taste like grown up candy.  Finally, the butternut sweet potato casserole was creamy and sweet but not too sweet like that other sweet potato casseroles I have had.

Everything we tried was light and refreshing.  It wasn’t overly salty or overly sweet.  The flavors were incredible.  There was just enough garlic flavor in the butter, the perfect amount of sage in the dressing, and the light touch of sweetness to the pumpkin pie.

Oh yeah.  I didn’t mention the pie.  I was so eager to taste it, I forgot to photograph it pre-bite.  The hubs said the apple pie was light and packed with apple flavor.  I had the pumpkin.  Now, my issue with pumpkin pie is the overdose of sugar and spices.  You can’t taste the pumpkin.  Unlike some, I like to taste the pumpkin.  This pie had the perfect amount of sweetness and spice to allow the natural flavor of the pumpkin to be the star of the pie show.  By the way, they’re on sale.

Here’s the kicker, if you order your Whole Foods Market meal any time between now and 11:59 PST on November 22, you get $10 off your order.  That’s a meal for 6 to 8 family members for $79.  Not only do you get the turkey and side dishes for that price, but also peace of mind.  And a little extra free time for decorating.

With that free time, you can head to your local Williams Sonoma and add a few pieces from their transferware style line called Plymouth Dinnerware Collection or just a few key pieces from their Open Kitchen collection.  I couldn’t help but fall in love with the country style of the table setting including these adorable napkin rings and chargers.

Together, Whole Foods Market and Williams Sonoma can make your holidays stress-free, incredibly delicious, and simply gorgeous!  I hope my post inspires you to order your meal from Whole Foods Market in time to get the discount and put that savings into a few key pieces to make your table stunning for the holidays.

Have you considered ordering your holiday dinners?  What special decorations or dinnerware do you use during the holidays?

Disclosure: This post is sponsored by Whole Foods Market, however, all opinions expressed here are entirely my own including my thoughts on homemade bread stuffing.