Inside: The whole lot it is advisable to find out about beginning a freezer meal swap group. Scale back “what’s for dinner?” stress and have enjoyable with your pals and neighbors.
It’s a weeknight. You’re drained and frazzled. Your individuals are hangry.
And you don’t have any thought what’s for dinner.
You’re able to hit speed-dial and order take-out, however then you definitely keep in mind the casserole tucked within the nook of your freezer.
You slide it into the oven, flop onto the sofa, and provides due to three-weeks-ago-you for squirreling that sucker away.
Wouldn’t it’s good to have that sort of security internet each week?
Meet the freezer meal swap!
A number of years in the past, a neighbor invited me to affix a freezer meal swap group. The way it labored: We every made two dinner recipes for each particular person within the group. Each month, we obtained collectively to socialize and swap dinners. And everybody went house with a cooler stuffed with do-it-yourself freezer meals.
It was a good way to fulfill extra mothers in my neighborhood and broaden our household dinner rotation.
It additionally demolished my dinnertime stress–as a result of two nights every week, I may pull out a do-it-yourself meal to reheat whereas I prepped just a few easy facet dishes. Out of the blue meal planning grew to become an entire lot simpler.
Sound like music to your ears? Wish to type your personal group? Listed below are my greatest suggestions for a profitable meal swap group.
Manage your meal swap group
Collect your group: An excellent group dimension is 4-5 members on your freezer meal swap. Greater than that, and it’s difficult to organize so many meals directly. (And at all times conform to seek the advice of your entire group earlier than inviting different individuals to affix.)
Make certain your cooking types and tastes align too. What are your loved ones’s favourite recipes? Do individuals within the group have comparable tastes? Do your group members like primary meat-and-potatoes meals–or extra elaborate dinners which may require journeys to specialty markets for elements?
Work out the small print: Work out the variety of meals you’re going to commerce. You possibly can begin by everybody cooking one meal for every particular person, and improve to 2 if that’s doable.
Speak to your fellow swappers about preferences and any particular dietary wants. Any allergic reactions, intolerances, or different different dietary restrictions? Any elements households don’t like? Are natural elements vital to group members?
Determine on recipes: Plan for a wide range of meals and a stability between dinners like soups, casseroles, predominant dish meats, and meatless recipes. It would go with out saying, however keep away from making an attempt a model new recipe for the swap. Take a look at it at house first to verify it really works and tastes good.
Set a swap date: We met each six weeks, which gave sufficient time for everybody to make use of their meals between swaps and never get a backlog of things of their freezer.
Make & pack your swap meals
Don’t overlook about your self: Whenever you’re cooking recipes for swap members, be sure you make sufficient for your loved ones too!
Pack them up: We packaged our meals in disposables like a freezer bag (pressed flat, to save lots of area) for dishes like soups and spaghetti sauce. Disposable baking trays are perfect for lasagna, casseroles, and enchiladas. However your group may additionally put money into reusable containers (glass or plastic) for the swap, or you could possibly return containers to one another each month.
For disposable packaging, write the date and cooking/reheating directions proper on the bag or foil with a Sharpie. Or you’ll be able to preserve a gaggle Google Doc or different digital file to share, so you’ll be able to at all times entry the directions.
Add up your prices: Calculate how a lot cash you spent in your meals, together with the portion you made on your personal freezer. Embrace any cash spent on gadgets like freezer baggage or containers. We didn’t rely some issues, like just a few teaspoons of salt, drizzle of oil, or a pair cloves of garlic. However take into account including a small quantity (like $1.00) to your whole for those who use lots of your spices, for example.
Alternate freezer meals
Use a cooler: On the day of the swap, deliver your meals packed in a cooler or insulated bag in order that they keep chilly and frozen.
Settle up: Deliver a tally of how a lot you spent in your meals. Examine prices and discover the common (obtain this free value sheet for a how-to), then settle up so it’s even–money, Venmo, no matter is best for the group.
Preserve observe: It’s useful to designate somebody within the group to be a kind of “membership supervisor” and preserve a report (paper or digital) of the completely different meals made, which of them had been hits/misses, and the common value per meal. When the group is stumped on what to make for the approaching month, you’ll be able to look again and see what went over particularly nicely.
Plan for subsequent time: Set a date for the following swap and determine which recipes you’ll make.
Take your meals house and get organized: Listed below are my greatest suggestions for organizing a backside drawer freezer and organizing a chest freezer. And right here’s a free freezer stock printable you should use to maintain observe of your stash.
Swap group suggestions for fulfillment
- Be sincere. If a swap meal wasn’t a success, make sure it’s not repeated once more.
- Preserve your inventory of swap group provides separate. If the group pays on your field of freezer baggage, for example, solely use them for group meals.
- Be versatile. The purpose of the group is to be a assist, not a stress. So if anyone wants an additional few days to get their meals collectively, roll with it. If the group desires to go on hiatus throughout the holidays or different busy instances, take a break and resume later.
- Be in contact with members’ wants. For instance, one particular person in our group wished much less meals and one other wished extra, so we made adjustments accordingly.
- Suppose outdoors the casserole: You don’t have to provide your complete meal. Making a key meal element is useful too, resembling taco meat, spaghetti sauce, or grilled rooster strips–which can be utilized in all types of various methods. Listed below are some concepts for this type of batch cooking.
Freezer meal concepts
These had been a few of our favourite meals from the freezer meal swap group, plus extra concepts:
Soups
- Lentil soup (recipes makes two batches)
- Rooster taco soup
- Rooster chili
- Italian wedding ceremony soup
- Butternut squash soup
- Beef stew
Casseroles
- Rooster Tetrazzini
- Lasagna
- Enchiladas
- Rooster pot pie
Meats
- Marinated pork tenderloin
- Pulled pork
- Sloppy Joes
- Meatballs
- Taco meat (recipes makes 4 batches)
- Marinated rooster for the grill
- Cooked, shredded rooster
- Marinated steak or rooster kebabs
- Filling for Baked Turkey Tacos
Miscellaneous
For extra meal swap concepts, take a look at my publish 30 Wholesome Freezer Meals and the cookbook Repair, Freeze, Feast.
I’m a participant within the Amazon Companies LLC Associates Program, an affiliate promoting program designed to offer a method for me to earn charges by linking to Amazon.com and affiliated websites.
