Procrastination has its own rewards.
I needed to write out a bunch of instructions for y’all about freezing marinades, and then one of my fab, fab, readers did it for me. Here is a perfect (and succinct) description of how to freeze marinades from Mary at Canay’s Corner (BTW, adorable blog!) Here is what Mary had to say:
Thanks for all you have done so far. You have really inspired me. I marinated two flank steaks the other night. I had bought three like you suggested but I ended up having one that night. I didn’t use the recipe I put in the previous post because I found a recipe that I used to make when I was first married and decided to use that. I haven’t read how to do the marinated meats yet. But what I did was just put the meat and the marinade in a Ziploc bag and then put that Ziploc bag in another Ziploc bag with the zipper part going the opposite way. Looking forward to seeing how you recommend. Rest up and we will see you later…
Thanks for the break Mary!
Now – on to Meal Swapping or Six Chicks Freeze and Fix
When my kids were in elementary school, there were a few years where I was working flexible, but full-time hours and I needed to do the whole Freezer Cooking thing on speed.
I believe it was my friend Vikki who came up with the idea of six of us doing a Freezer Swap. (But I do say with a stupid amount of pride that I came up with the name Six Chicks Freeze and Fix.)
At first we tried to all cook together. It was a lot of work and a lot of fun, but then we realized we were giving up one of the greatest benefits of Freezer Cooking – the ability to cook when it is convenient to you.
After our first time, we each cooked at our own homes and then met to swap.
Here is how our group worked:
Each of us chooses three recipes to cook for our group and then we each send out the suggested recipes to the rest of the group for discussion. (Example: if someone suggested doing a bell pepper dish, I, being a hater of all things bell pepper, would ask for either a different dish or swap a substitute dish.)
Here are the three types of recipes that we would exchange:
1 Marinade (half the group does chicken breasts, the other half would do another meat such as flank steak, pork roast or pork chops. Then we would swap meats the next month.)
1 Casserole
1 Wildcard (this is something like a soup, another marinade, another casserole, a chili, etc.)
Each of these recipes would be x6.
So here is a sample of what I would make:
Six family sized-meals of Teriyaki Chicken
Six family sized-meals of Baked Ziti
Six family sized-meals of Chicken Cacciatore
Once I had all my meals prepared, packaged and frozen, I would pack them all into my cooler and go to the pre-determined time and place of “the swap”. (Usually at church or in the parking lot of our local Costco before it’s open.)
That way, each of us would go home with 18 different meals. Cool, huh.
OK, now you have the basic concept. Tomorrow I will give you some of the etiquette of meal swaps and how to remain friends while swapping Dreamy Spaghetti.
Here are the winners:
*J. Wong
August 26, 2009 at 8:07 pm
*Christine
August 25, 2009 at 10:50 am
*Jessica Fall
August 24, 2009 at 10:35 am
Ladies, please send me your mailing addresses and the books will be in the mail.
OK – I am going to give away three more books this week – leave a comment and I will put you in the drawing (yes, I love y’all that much.)
The rest of this week I will be answering your questions.
Hello! I’ve been reading your website for a while now and finally got the courage to go ahead and give you a shout out from Humble Tx! Just wanted to tell you keep up the excellent work!
You can easily organize your own meal swapping team on heyfood.org. Currently me and 30 friends organize our own weekly meal swap on http://www.heyfood.org.
We each feature what food we will bring to the swap online before the swap so we can plan who we want to swap food with at the future food swap. This way we know what food we will be receiving and how many portions we should cook and bring to the swap. After the swap we all come home with all kinds of delicious meals to eat during the busy work week.
what a great blog, thanks!
I am so excited and can’t wait to try the freezer ideas! Being a teacher with 3 kids the last thing I want to do is cook dinner. Can’t wait to stock the freezer!
This has been a great series of posts!
Bummed I didn’t win, but so thankful for this blog series, very interesting!!
Oh, girl! I am sooo sad that I didn’t win the first round of books. If you could see my hand waving frantically and hear my voice for the second round of give-aways it would be like this: “Oh, oh, oh! Pick me! Pick me! Pick me!” Reminds me a bit of the kid on ‘Welcome Back Kotter.’ Horseshack? Oh, I just sooo dated myself.
Proud to have been a “Chick” at one point, and yes, you coined the very cool name 😉
I’m trying the marinade tonight. Going to Costco to stock up on the meat.
I’m anxious to hear about what to do if you can’t stomach someone else’s food 🙂 Maybe you could give those to someone in need…a new mom or new neighbor or something? They’re still being put to good use, and it’s something you would have (or should have!) done anyways.
omgosh.. At first i was like meal swapping..huh? i don’t understand. but iget it now. This is why you are so special Kathi because you are not an isolater. I tend to isolate some hence my fear of asking another mom to try this w/me. I’m too shy. Another fear is what if i don’t like their dish. hmm seems like You are teaching me more than cooking kathi! maybe oneday i will try this.
That sounds like such a great idea with your swap. I am just a little bit scared to do it with my friends because my husband is such a picky eater. Will have to work up the courage!
ooohhhh, how fun! I love giveaways! Come see my football post on how to win brownie points with your honey if he likes football. Basically, it is football 101 for girls. 🙂
Blessings to you!
http://ilovemy5kids.blogspot.com/2009/08/football-101-mostly-for-girls-pass-me.html
Some friends of mine did this with an organic theme. I thought that was a great way to set the bar for the quality of ingredients each person should use. It’s probably more expensive, but if you eat organic anyway (or want to) buying in bulk will save money. Although, they ended up with a bunch of soups and chilis b/c they didn’t discuss who should bring what. I liked the way you girls discussed and divided!
Looking forward to the next post…I’m wondering what to do with the meal swapping idea if you don’t like the meals that are being made from one or more of your friends! Could get touchy…
I am inspired. I’ve been freezer cooking for the last two weeks on a smaller scale… each time I have a free day, I try to do a few different meals. I now have three weeks worth of dinners. Definately love the exchange idea. My question is: What do you do with a casserole that turns out great, but your family doesn’t love. I would be happy to give it to another family, but it seems rude! What are your thoughts?
I have been looking for advice on cooking and freezing, and found you via Jessica Fall (dear college friend)! So stoked! Will be reading here most of the morning…
Ann Kimmel
You’re a rockstar girl! Thanks for making my day. This has been such a fun thing and I’m so glad I won!