Growing up with a vegan chef (my mother), I’ve had the most wonderful vegetarian Thanksgiving experience. Our table would be loaded with the most creative and delicious dishes made from seasonal fruits and veggies, grains, legumes, nuts and seeds. We’ve put together vegetarian (and even some vegan) options for Turkey Day—and you don’t have to be a vegetarian to enjoy them.

Whether it's your first Thanksgiving or your fortieth, feeding a holiday meal to a crowd can be intimidating. Here's how to get a head start, minimize stress and even get your guests to help.

After some brainstorming and recipe testing, I’ve planned out my Thanksgiving menu. My mouth is watering just thinking about it.

If Thanksgiving means serving up classic dishes, a traditional menu is probably what you're after. If you're the chef, you can still serve guests the same seasonal flavors in healthier, lower calorie Thanksgiving dishes.

Every year, we get questions on how to pair wine with Thanksgiving dinner; it’s a nice dinner you’ve gone to great lengths to prepare, and you want to drink something nice with it. This is both a hard question to answer and an easy one, because turkey itself is a blank canvas — you can pair it with pretty much every wine in the world and it’ll work pretty well — so it’s never so much about the turkey as it is about the seasonings and sides. The problem here is actually that there’s too much choice.

As you start brainstorming your Thanksgiving menu, be sure to work Food Network's Brussels sprouts sides into the lineup.

Sure, the classics are great — but spice is also nice!

She is cooking everything. And we do mean everything.

Get the first look at what's to come on Food Network's Thanksgiving at Bobby's, hosted by Bobby Flay.