Ordering

I called their holiday hotline number and talked with a very nice girl. She said that she had done Safeway’s turkey dinner before and it was yummy and easy, all I had to do was heat everything up. The turkey would need to go in the oven for a couple of hours though (they already cooked it but then froze it to keep it fresh) and everything would be defrosted if I picked it up on Thanksgiving Day. I scheduled my pick-up for 3:30 pm on Thanksgiving, gave my first and last name and my phone number. Easy peasy.

Pick-up

Picking it up took under 5 minutes. I went to the deli and told them I was there to pick up the turkey dinner I order, I made sure to emphasize ‘the cooked’ one. No way did I want to get stuck with a bunch of useless frozen stuff. They went into their walk-in, grabbed it and asked if I wanted to pay at the deli. H*ll yeah, Safeway check-out lines suck. I used my Safeway Club Card (which gives you the advertised price of $39.99) and paid with my credit card—why not earn rewards while I’m at it. That was it, it was almost too easy.

What You Get

♦ Fully Cooked Turkey, 10-12 lbs.
♦ Stuffing, 2 lbs.
♦ Creamy Mashed Potatoes, 3 lbs.
♦ Homestyle Turkey Gravy, 24-oz.
♦ Holiday Cranberry Sauce, 15-oz.
♦ Dinner Rolls, 1 Dozen
♦ 8″ Pumpkin Pie
♦ Cooking Instructions

Putting it all together

The paper said that everything except the rolls was perishable and to keep it in the refrigerator until you were ready to heat it (aside from the cranberry sauce which doesn’t need heating). I went ahead and left out the pumpkin pie as well, but the instruction sheet said you could heat it up if you wanted it warm. I preheated the oven to 325 degrees and scramble to find something to cook the turkey in, I got so lucky.

I didn’t have a roasting pan (or whatever you cook turkeys in) or anything, but I managed to find what looks like a cookie sheet but has sides that come up about 3 or 4 inches. I popped the turkey in it and removed the exterior bag, there was another bag inside that keep it in to cook. Awkward, but not difficult. The instructions said to cook it for about 10 minutes per pound, it was between 10 and 12 pounds, so I set the timer for 1 1/2 hours. I planned to check the turkey’s temperature then and guess how much longer to cook it for. I ended up getting 160 degrees after the hour and a half and put it back in for 30 more minutes.

When the turkey was done, I took it out and set the oven temperature to 350 degrees and then wrapped it up in foil (after removing the interior bag filled with turkey juices) to keep it warm while everything else was getting ready. The mashed potatoes and stuffing both need to be heated at 350 degrees, so that worked out nicely. I put the mashed potatoes on a large cookie sheet and set the timer for 10 minutes, then I threw the stuffing in and cooked both for 35 more minutes. It was odd that the mashed potatoes should cook for 35-45 minutes and the stuffing for 25-35 minutes, but doing it this way made it easier to keep the food hot. If I would have started them at the same time and then removed the stuffing, it would have needed to be reheated again. That would just be silly.

When the mashed potatoes and stuffing was almost done, I dumped the gravy into a pot and put it on medium. The instructions just said to heat it slowly on the stove. While I was heating the gravy, I threw some corn into the microwave. I thought it was odd there wasn’t an actual vegetable dish included, I’m not sure what they were counting, but I wanted corn with my mashed potatoes. The mashed potatoes and stuffing got done and I threw in the rolls for 3 minutes, and everything was ready to go.

Overall

It might have taken me a few hours of “heating”, but I’d rather do that then spend an entire day running around like a crazy chick. The servings were generous for the three of us, and my husband and daughter have had many meals of left-overs. The only thing we didn’t feel there was quite enough of was the mashed potatoes, you gotta have lots of mashed potatoes. So next year, I’ll probably make the mashed potatoes myself (I’m sure I can manage that much) and just use the ones they give us for left-overs.

The food was good, price was decent for all the meals we got from it, and it wasn’t difficult to prepare. The instructions also included microwaving directions for most of the dishes, obviously not the turkey though. On a scale of 1 to 10, I’d give it an 8.5, and I’ll definitely be calling Safeway’s holiday hotline next Thanksgiving.