Thanksgiving is almost here. And if you're hosting a
gathering, it's definitely time to get started. So
joining me today is lifestyle editor and food expert,
Lisa Moriello with some tips for preparing your feast on
a budget. Lisa, thank you for joining.
Thanks for having me, Chris. All right.
When should people start buying the items that they need
for Thanksgiving? If they want to try to get
a deal, you can start now. I mean
, you can definitely start in the planning stages.
One of the big tips I always give is to
shop online and to utilize delivery, it may sound
counterintuitive. But when you do that, you're able
to sort prices, fill up your cart a little
bit more uh a little bit less stressed than you
are in the stores. You can start adding items
, prices probably won't fluctuate too much between now and
Thanksgiving. But your staples and all of those things
that aren't specialty that you want to pick out.
Go ahead, put them in your cart and you
can uh wait a few days and then have them
delivered so that you are ahead of the game.
Ok. So how should we handle a guest who
has dietary restrictions. There's a lot of those these
days and the important thing to remember is first off
safety. Right. So, get clear on what
exactly that restriction is. Are they allergic to tree
nuts? But not peanuts? Like my niece,
is it eggs? Are they vegan? So,
once you know that keep your food prep station,
first of all safe, but you don't have to
go and make a whole second meal. Ask that
person what they want to see at your table,
something special you can make and I, I promise
you, you can find some sort of alternate recipe
online and maybe even include some vegan or nut free
options and substitute something you already make again. So
you're not buying double, making double, but you're
still making something really delicious that everyone can enjoy.
What about promotions? Uh that will help people save
? I know we talked about getting deals a little
bit earlier, shopping online, considering delivery, those
sorts of things. What else can you tell us
though? Well, obviously cash and on those points
you've been saving all year, get your free turkey
or ham. The frozen is fine. Just give
it enough days to thaw. They say three,
I say get it a week before. But your
stores are gonna be offering competitive prices because they want
you to be happy. They want you to see
. Oh, wow, that's on sale. I'm
so happy. I shopped at Xy and Z.
So you will see some competitive pricing. But you
all want to take advantage of the apps, the
stores provide right? Clipping, digital coupons, couponing
with paper is still alive and well. But digital
honestly is of course, the easiest and then buy
in bulk, right? So if you see that
, for example, butter is on sale every time
I see butter on sale, I buy it,
I put it in the freezer. So I'm not
frantically running, you know, the night before Thanksgiving
, um, you know, to go and get
some. So if you do the shopping have it
delivered, get some of those bulk items to have
on hand, gives you some money savings and stress
savings. Yeah, the freezer is definitely a helpful
friend. Any time it's like your pantry, consider
it your pantry. It is an extension. It
is a place for those staples. Definitely. Absolutely
. Ok. What is something that people usually spend
too much on every year that usually doesn't get eaten
, maybe someplace where they can cut back. I
may upset a few people. I say dessert.
Um, it's my brother's favorite. So we'll have
like five kinds of pies, 20 kinds of cookies
. But I mean, everyone is so full by
that point, you know, you know, you
don't need that much, but if you really have
your heart set, maybe cut on your appetizers,
right? Boards are huge right now like charcuterie boards
. Um, but think about maybe six amplifying a
little bit. Look for what's on sale. Again
, be flexible, right? A soft cheese,
a couple of hard cheeses, take your cranberry sauce
that you're having for dinner. Put a little bowl
with some crackers, whatever's on sale, doesn't matter
. Just some things that when people show up starving
, they're not, you know, in your face
, in the kitchen waiting for you to serve them
. But then again, you do want them to
enjoy that meal that you spent so much time and
money on. So keep the snacks really simple.
Don't fill up on chips and dip and have something
to kind of sop up those cocktails. Um,
but don't go overboard. So I would say apps
and dessert, especially with meats and cheeses like that
. Um Just be flexible. Ok, that's good
to know what needs more focus during this day,
especially if you're hosting, timing, timing, timing
, timing. So your oven is your prime real
estate for this, right? So I actually make
a schedule, you know, it sounds a little
crazy, but I have a written out schedule of
what goes in, what time, what time it
comes out? Once you do that every year,
it gets really easy. So you kind of count
backwards and you want the things that are supposed to
be served hot to be served hot. So don't
worry about reheating like casseroles and, and you know
, Brussels sprouts that kind of gets a room temperature
instantly anyway, make sure your mashed potatoes, your
stuffing, your gravy, your mac and cheese,
all of those are counted backwards so that you're serving
them hot and then everything else can kind of sit
to the side until you're ready to, you know
, to serve everything. But definitely timing and that
oven real estate of knowing when it should be in
when it should be out. Yes. Ok.
So let's say you're not going to host, you're
not gonna cook, you're not going to someone's house
to actually enjoy, uh, the holiday. But
instead you wanna go out, you need to make
a reservation. How soon should people be making these
reservations? It depends on where you wanna go.
I mean, I would say call today, you
know, once you're done watching this call up your
, uh, you know, your favorite restaurant or
where you expect to be going first, you want
to find out if they're open. If they're like
a local family establishment don't take for granted that they
don't give their employees possibly the day off. And
they may also have like a prefixed menu that maybe
you're not too keen to or that you're just not
used to. So I would call, I would
see what they have available, ask them for the
like max amount of people you're going to expect because
it's always easier to detract a little bit than it
is to add five people, but then keep in
contact with them, don't leave them hanging and apps
like open table resi those are a great place to
make an online reservation, super easy to change,
you know, as things change, but check the
cancellation policies because it's more common now that they take
a credit card and they will charge you probably,
especially on a holiday. So just make sure that
you're on top of it and you know the cancellation
policy if that applies. All right. Uh Lisa
, thank you so much. Great information for our
viewers, whether you're hosting or dining uh to make
it less stressful.