Freezer Meal Exchange Club! Create Your Own!
In My Weekly Shopping post last week, I mentioned that I bought chicken for my freezer meals. As a busy, stay at home mom of two boys age 3 and under, wife to a full-time working husband, and a blogger, you can imagine time is short. I always thought it would be awesome to have a freezer full of meals that I could just pull out and serve to my family, but, let’s be honest, I don’t necessarily enjoy cooking. I mean, I like to cook for family/friend gatherings, family events, etc., but your every day meal preparing is just not something I enjoy.
Bring me to Fall 2012 when I joined a mom’s group and became good friends with another momma who has boys the same age as mine. She had been in a freezer meal group in the past, and the group had openings. Yay!
So, in January 2013, I joined a freezer meal group, and I LOVE it!! Our group consists of 6 people, and we exchange once a month during the school year giving ourselves a couple months off during the busy summertime.
Want to know how you can start your own freezer meal exchange club? Here’s what we did/do.
- Before we started exchanging meals, we created a private Facebook group and each person was able to share their likes/dislikes and any allergies their family may have.
- Each month, each person is assigned a meal category – beef, chicken, pasta, crockpot, casserole, and your choice. The categories rotate so you make a variety of meals throughout the year.
- Before our exchange, we decide what meal we are going to make and share it with the group to see if there is anyone who’s family would strongly disagree. (This has only happened once in the year I have been involved in my group.)
- Once the menus are given the okay, each person prepares their meal times five or six (one of each member of the group). I usually make six so I have one for my family, too – sometime we eat it the day I make it for my freezer group and sometimes it goes in our freezer for us to eat later. I suppose you could even make one extra so your family could eat one and freeze one.
- We use disposable aluminum 9×13 pans with lids from Sams Club OR freezer bags for most crockpot meals and other meals that wouldn’t be cooked in a 9×13 pan.
- Each pan or bag includes the recipe title, directions for cooking, date it was prepared and who prepared it. (In case we need to contact them for further clarification.)
- On exchange day, we each bring our meals and swap them with the rest of the group. Then, we have 5 different meals to add to our freezer!
This has been SUCH a blessing for our family. It’s wonderful to use the meals on those days when you just don’t have the time to prepare a meal for your family. I’ve also used it when I wanted to take a meal to someone and didn’t have time to make something. (They do not care that you didn’t make it…trust me.)
So, are you ready to start your own freezer meal group?
Here are just a few of my freezer friendly meals your family might enjoy, too!
- Homemade Chicken Pot Pie Recipe
- Tator Tot Casserole
- Tuna Noodle Casserole
- Shepherd’s Pie Recipe
- Sausage, Egg and Cheese Breakfast Casserole
See more money saving tips and recipes on Become a Coupon Queen.
You can also see the Top 10 Kindle Books on Freezer Meals.
(Note: Kindle book prices may vary.)
I love this idea! Have fun with some great people and save time (sanity) in the kitchen! Thanks for sharing this on Saver Tips Tuesday!
We have always wanted to do this. Just to clarify, each month each person makes say a beef dish, then the next month each person would make a chicken dish, etc,.? Or does one person make a beef, one a chicken, etc. each month?
Good question, Cheryl. No, actually, each month a person is assigned a category – beef, chicken, pasta, etc. So, you get one meal from each category every month.
So, do you cook the meal entirely, first, then freeze it? Then, re heat it at like 400 for 30 minutes or what? I really want to do this but want to be prepared first.
Faith – No. Depending on the recipe, you only cook the meat and/or noodles. You freeze and then thaw and cook. I do find that a lot of recipes need to cook a little longer than normal this way.
I don’t mean to sound ignorant, but I am about this topic, which is what I am trying to learn all I can. Do I put raw ingredients together and freeze or do I cook everything, freeze it, and then try to figure out what temperate and length of time to reheat?
Not ignorant at all! Hopefully my response above helped. 🙂