These are the five other ladies that are part of my group. I told you they were gorgeous. And yes, that is Kindra Stevens for all of my Chaparralians out there. In the picture I'm holding the antibacterial cleaner. We had to use a ton of that stuff. There was raw meat juice all over the place. As hostess, I got to store all of the raw meat and other refrigerated items in my fridge for a day. I wish I got a picture - the only things in my fridge that were not for the freezer group were some condiments on the door and a gallon of milk.We each got assigned a different job as part of the group. We're supposed to rotate jobs after every get-together, but I think we decided that we each liked what we did so much that we are sticking with our original jobs:
Leslie - The Shopper (She's in charge of buying ALL of the food we need for the meals, which is a ton of food. And I'm glad she likes that job first of all because she is a great bargain finder and secondly because I cannot imagine trying to buy 64 pounds of chicken, 15 pounds of hamburger, tons of canned veggies and soups, and the list goes on and on, with three little kids.)
Krista - Food Preparer (Some of the meat needs to be cooked and cut or shredded beforehand to save time when we get together. Krista was in charge of cooking and preparing 30 POUNDS of chicken. Phew. That's a lot of chicken.)
Alli - The Shopper (Alli is Leslie's sister, so she gets to help Leslie do all of the shopping. Alli - I don't think you realize how much I appreciate you are your sister doing this job.)
Kindra - Food Preparer (Kindra got to brown 15 pounds of hamburger meat. Can you imagine all of the grease that would need to be thrown out from that?)
Rachel - The Organizer (Rachel was the pro who had done this with another group twice before, so she sent out the emails containing the shopping list, the recipes, and our responsibilities in our specific jobs. Rachel loves being in charge, which is awesome because I don't.)
Emily - The Hostess (I'm in charge of getting my house cleaned for everyone to come over and prepare the meals. I also call the prep girls to let them know when Leslie and Alli have dropped off all of the food so that the prep girls can pick up their stuff to prepare. Then I organize the remaining ingredients by what meals they are going into. I love this job.)
We had a few minor mistakes being that this was our first time doing this together. I think we will get better as we go along. Here are some of the fun things that happened that we just had to laugh at:
- Rachel didn't put sliced Swiss cheese on the shopping list, so I had to run to Smith's to get some. We needed some chocolate to snack on anyway, so I was glad that I had to go.
- Cooked chicken was used to put together the Chicken Parmesian meals when raw chicken should have been used. No big deal - we just had to cook a few more pounds of chicken at my house. We did that while we continued putting other non-chicken meals together.
- All of the hamburger was used up before we put together the 6 lasagne meals. We thought only two recipes called for hamburger when it was actually three. So we made meatless lasagne instead.
Here's a picture of all of my finished freezer meals (and my frozen chicken):
All of these meals just need to be thawed and put in the crock pot or the oven. I've had other things to make for dinner in my pantry, so I've been making dinner instead of using my freezer meals. I want to have all of my frozen meals when the baby comes. It will be so nice to not worry about what to do for dinner when I'm trying to get used to having three kids. And the six of us marked our calendars to get together on March 12 to do this all again. I can't wait.
Thanks for getting this together, Rachel, and for getting me to be a part of it. Life should be a little easier while I'm a part of this group.
16 comments:
I LOVE this idea and talked about doing it with some friends once but never quite followed through. $100 bucks for that many meals is amazing! And how darling are you?! I love your cute belly...you look awesome!
How long did that take you guys? I would love to try that sometime. What did you guys end up making? Looks like fun!
This is such a good idea. And sounds like a real money saver too. And it looks like you had a fun time on top of it all!
I wish I was living in Vegas- I would totally invite myself to be in your freezer meal group- that is right up my ally!
You look fabulous- perfectly round little belly and pretty as ever!
How fun! Not only are you cooking yummy meals but having so much fun doing it! I agree that you and your belly look very cute:) Also, your V-day sounded like so much fun. I love the Newlywed game.
Are you getting excited/nervous/scared/happy???
So, we do ours totally different. Right now there are 18 of us in the group. We have a group of A meals and B meals that we rotate through. Some people buy half portions and some buy whole. So like last month, I shopped for 12 whole meals of Enchiladas. Then, I prepared 5 whole pans 13 half pans. Then we meet together and exchange meals. I left there with 18 different meals. I purchased half size so it ended up being like $4 to $5 a meal. I love, love, love this!!! :-)
What a good idea. I can't imagine how much time that saves. What meals did you end up with? I need to get some ladies together to try that out. And you do look so cute with your preggo belly! Only one more month!!
What have you eaten so far? The chicken parm and chicken cordon blue were really good :)
Emily, I can't remember if you are having a boy or a girl.
We started at 8 pm and got finished around 11:30 pm, so we took about 3 1/2 hours to put all of the meals together. Some of the things we made are chicken soup, chicken fajitas, BBQ pork for sandwiches, Cafe Rio style pork, sloppy joes. I'd have to look at them again to see what else there is. It all looks really good except for sloppy joes. We told Rachel to leave that recipe off next time.
30 POUNDS OF CHICKEN? Mother of glory.
You look adorable with your belly!! I think that freezer meals are the best thing ever for a woman about to have a baby. You should get a chest freezer and just tell people to forgo baby presents and bring you freezer meals so you'll have enough for a month or two. Because cooking while listening to a newborn wail? Not. fun.
I totally need to do that. You look so good you only have a little belly no fair.
Some of my friends and I have talked about doing this, but dont know where to begin. I think that it is such a great idea! What were the other meals you prepared??
P.S. You are the cutest prego lady ever!!!
Look how cute your little tummy is! What a great idea to make freezer dinners, especially right before you have your new little guy :)
Oh, and what a great Valentine's day. Kevin's poem was AWESOME! :)
What a great idea! So what were the recipes you made?
I bet it is great having those meals on hand, and it looks like fun too. Heard that you are having your baby soon! Good luck, I bet you're glad it's almost over. I'll be right behind ya.
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