I love sitting down to eat Thanksgiving dinner with the rest of my family. At our average family holiday dinner, we can have anywhere from 6 (myself, my wife and kids) to 18 people eating food from our table. We have found ourselves running out of food far too early, and we have found ourselves with so many leftovers that we have no idea what to do with them all. Wouldn't a guide explaining exactly how to plan out how much food you will need based on how many people you are expecting make things a lot easier?

Here is what you need to know.

For turkey, you should buy a turkey that has 1.5 pounds of uncooked meat per person who will be at your dinner. If you have a lot of big eaters, bump that weight up to around 2 pounds per person.

When you are talking about gravy, which is always a hot commodity at a holiday dinner, you should plan for at least a 1/2 cup of brown gold per person. Even then you may run out fairly quickly, this is just a baseline.

Another favorite on the dinner table, for mashed potatoes you should have around 1.5 uncooked medium potatoes per person. That should also leave me you with a little bit left over for the next day.

This is my personal favorite dish on the Thanksgiving dinner table. Stuffing is damn delicious, and sometimes people take more than their fair share. When it is all done and ready to be tabled, you want to have around a 3/4 cup of cooked stuffing per person.

Personally, I think cranberry sauce is gross, and if I had it my way it wouldn't be on my table, but some people do enjoy it. If you want to have it ready to go, aim to have a 1/2 cup per person.

Green beans are fantastic. They need to be on your table come Thanksgiving. If you want to have a fair share of beans, you should have a 1/2 cup of cooked beans per person sitting down at your table.

I know people have a wide variety of other items on their table, but if you're looking for just the "basics" this is the safe way to go. Here is to wishing you and your family a wonderful Thanksgiving dinner.

What unique items do you like to have with your turkey?