If you are among the millions of Americans that will be buying a frozen Thanksgiving Day turkey, a University of Illinois Nutrition Educator has some things to keep in mind as you prepare for the big day.

Caitlin Mellendor at the DeWitt, Macon, and Piatt County Extension offices says there are four options for thawing the festive bird - and the most efficient is to refrigerate it leading up to next week.

According to Mellendorf, you can microwave thaw or soak the bird in water. She says if you're going to thaw it in water, you want the water to be constantly flowing and if you're going to thaw it in the microwave, you'll want to make sure you end up getting the bird into an oven to cook it to completion.

A challenging technique is going to be cooking directly from frozen. Mellendorf explains this could present several issues primarily because of the size of a Thanksgiving turkey. For those tips, she points anyone in that situation to the USDA for their tips.

Over one million people in the United States are sickened by bacteria in turkeys while around 23,000 are hospitalized. We'll hear more from Mellendorf in the days ahead leading up to Thanksgiving.