Freezer Meals

For the past six months I've been involved in a freezer meal group. A lot of people have asked me about it so I thought I'd share the details here!! We have done it a variety of ways and there are pros and cons to each!! The idea is--you get a group with 10 people. Each person makes 10 meals and then you meet and pass the meals out to everyone. The first way we did it was each person was given a recipe and the ingredients (purchased by a couple members in the group and individual members). Then we made the 10 meals and all met at someone's house with a cooler to swap the meals. I made manicotti that night---what a long night!! The next time we had two people do all the shopping (another person picked all the meals we would make) and we all met at the local grocery store's "classroom" where we put together our OWN meals. Because we didn't purchase all of our food items at the grocery store, we couldn't use it anymore, so the next time we had two shoppers (I was one and that was a nightmare)...and we all met at the church to put our meals together. The two times we all met and put our meals together was fun---we were out very late, but it was a social get away and we have fun. I didn't particularly like when I put the 10 (actually 14) manicotti meals together--we do have the option to double our recipes--so really I got 20 meals each time. The last two months we have been dividing up into groups of 5. We have the option to join 1, 2 or 3 groups. I've been in two groups both times, so I get 10 meals. We choose our own recipe--do our own shopping and stay within a budget of $35-40 per group. So--this week I made 10 Taco Soup meals. Five are for the first group I'm in and five are for the second group. Last night I met with one group and gave my Taco Soups to everyone and they gave me the meal they made. Tomorrow, I'll meet with the other group and give them their Taco Soup and get my meals. So, I'll have two Taco Soups and 8 other meals. I did have the option of making two separate things (that is what I did last month), but for the sake of time and not wanting to come up with another recipe, I did the same one for both.

Freezer meals have changed my life! Seriously! I love that I have dinner in the freezer and I just have to set it out and cook it. Even if I forget to set something out (because we all know we can't always be that prepared, right???) I just defrost it in the microwave and it works! With my kids' busy schedules, a night class Wednesdays, Greg working swing shift and homework--I never have time to cook a good, healthy meal. We have had some great meals (some not so great, too), but it still saves me money, time and my weeknights are so much easier when I already know what I can choose from. I sill have my quick meals like spaghetti, baked potato bar, waffles (one of those I don't want to cook nights), etc. that I can pull out so we don't have freezer meals straight for 10 days. It is nice to be able to sit down and eat a good meal as a family among all the craziness!

I highly recommend organizing a freezer meal group with your friends. Even if there are only five of you and you start small to see what works best for you---those are five meals you have ready in your freezer for a day you just do not have time to cook! It is so fun to try new things and learn new recipes---meals range from soups, casseroles, chicken dishes, mexican, etc. There are websites that you can find good recipes that are easy to freeze, too.