Sharing the Creativity and Work

I am finally returning to my freezer meal series for this edition of:

My tip this week is to find a friend to share the load! Once a month I meet with a friend of mine whose family preferences are compatible to mine, and whose kitchen meets my finicky standards (my friend says the same about me), so we are very well matched to do this. Before we meet I prepare two sets of meals, one for us, one for her family, and the we swap!

So I end up with 4 meals for my family out of this, which keeps Sunday's mostly covered!

This encourages me to try new things, and blesses our friendship! We plan our meals together so things are basically even, and include the recipe with each meal!

When choosing a friend to swap with:

• Make sure you have similar tastes, because if she loves spicy and you love bland it is not going to work!
  
• Make sure you are comfortable serving food from her kitchen to your family.
• Agree to meat standards (cuts of beef, chicken, etc. to use)
• Agree to serving size
• Agree how often to meet and how many meals will be swapped
  
• Brain storm together
• Share resources
• Always clearly label your package with name of meal and date
• Always include a copy of the recipe
• Always rank the meals so that the favorites rise to the top and the forgettable meals are forgotten!
• Be willing to try different things for different holidays (we are doing a cookie swap in December when we meet mid month!
• Take turns hosting
• Make sure to talk about concerns!
• Only add people if you both agree to increase in numbers and to include that particular person.
  

And while not vital, but spiritually important, while you are preparing the meals, pray for your friend and her family!

Next up in the series, apparently in no particular order:
- Planning your shopping, prep and cooking
- Storing your meals revisited and revised
- Keeping track of what is in your freezer and what is the oldest
- Freezer lunch stash complete with ideas
- Freezer breakfast stash complete with ideas
- Recipes I used in my marathon cook that have not yet been posted
- What little I know about having a group of friends who share freezer meals
- Books and resources I love
- Successfully freezing cookies and baking
- Answers to questions you post for me or email to me (email button is in my profile).


Previously in the series:
Introduction to the series
Why Freezer Meals?
My Usual Method
Chicken Breasts Stuffed with Pesto Butter and Chicken Cordon Blue
Chicken Enchiladas
Kitchen Day - Tortilla Soup and Enchiladas (How To)
Blessing of Freezer Meals
Lazy Lasagna - A Freezer Meal
Sauce for Freezer Meatballs
Pineapple Tuna Cracker Snack
Freezer Cooking with Limited Space
Orange Beef and Broccoli Stir Fry
Orange-Apricot Glazed Pork Chops
Converting your Casserole Recipes to Freezer Recipes
Converting your Meat Recipes to Freezer Meals
Triple Chocolate Cookies
Bacon-Macaroni Bake
Once A Month Freezer Cooking Simply Explained
Planning Your Freezer Cooking Shopping Session
Zip Top Bag Method
Italian Sausage and Tomato Sauce
Menu Planning
Freezer Cooking Online Resources
Asian Beef Kabobs
Honey Mustard Chicken