Sunday, February 1, 2009

A New Idea

So, tonight some of us Gines' were talking about our cooking group. We love having our frozen food dinners, and we love hanging with our family! We were thinking that sometimes it is hard to find a date where all of us can come. Also, for those that work, it takes a whole Saturday away from their kids and family.
We thought that we could try the idea that is in the "Girlfriends on the Go" book. Their idea is to have everyone pick a meal that they like. They make and freeze their meal for all 10 people at their homes. Then we pick a date that we can all get together and exchange the meals. We could eat lunch and just chat with each other! No stress, no mess, and all fun!! Since everyone would be doing their own shopping for their meal, everyone would save their reciepts. We would add up everyone's reciepts and split the cost evenly! What do you all think of this idea? I have put a poll on the side. Please vote!
By the way, don't try to blog with Jolene and Natalie editing eveything you type!

7 comments:

TravandNat said...

I love the idea! It will be nice just to get together and visit..and eliminate the stress. I ALWAYS feel guilty about leaving Susan's house in a mess!

Suz said...

Tell me more. Do we sign up for what we will make or do we choose recipes and people pick which one they want to make? Do people bring us their pans? How do we divide the bulk meat when we find it cheap? Would it cost more since the bulk buying wouldn't be easy? Often I have purchased huge cans that were divided between recipes. Cheese is another thing that is cheaper in the big bags and used for several recipes. When I did it with my neighbor I spent 203.00 for 20 meals so I spent 100.00 for the same amount of food I get with the family for around 80.00. I think the buying bulk is the difference.

Not opposed to the idea a bit....just wondering about the logistics.

Jolene said...

I agree that buying the meat in bulk is cheaper. But if you're doing a recipe for 10, you buy the huge can of spaghetti sauce or whatever and you've bought in bulk. I think we could tell each other on this blog what we are making and then others could look and try to find meals that weren't the same, kind of first come, first choice. Then we could get with the people using the same meat or cheese and buy that in bulk. I like the idea because I could make my meal one night after school when Keith is gone and freeze it and then enjoy my 1 day off. On the pans, I think we do just what we did the first month and use foil pans. Someone might have a better idea, like after we find out what we are making we could take our pans to one place in the north and one in the south (there are so few of us south) and have a central distributing place, but that just might not be worth the gas. (I'm thinking as I type.) Any other problem solvers out there?

The Whitney's said...

I for one do not like the idea. There is no way I could make a meal for 10 by myself. I don't want to keep buying the foil pans it gets too expensive. I like hanging out with the girls 1 day out of the month. If we did it this way I'm pretty sure I would make my mom help me do my meal and there will be a lot of crying involved.

Meghan said...

well, i think we have to decide what our goals and objectives are.

while hanging out and chatting sounds absolutely divine, i doubt it would be the most cost effective way to do it. i do love using my own pans specifically because they fit well in my skinny freezer (because they are all the same), and a multitude of diff sized disposable pans would make a mess of the freezer. small issue i know.
the bigger issue i see is if people are making things that others don't care for. i have been a little sick that jess has a freezer full of meatloaf she'll never cook, and if we don't have some way of voting or caring about what else everyone is doing you could end up with a bunch of stuff you don't like. smallish issue there too.

personally, i could make the meals one night after the kids go to bed at 9, but i couldn't do cooking on that scale with my kids around - they stand at my feet and try and climb in the oven... generally it works well for me to have a day set aside to do it and i get out of the house guilt free because i am "working to provide meals for my fam".

we can always try it one month and if it is substantially more expensive or doesn't work for other reasons, we scrap it and go back to the other way.

ps. i don't really feel guilty about leaving susies house a mess.

Suz said...

maybe those that want to gather to cook can do that and those that want to do it on their own can do that and come at the end of the day to swap food.

Angel said...

My friend does it this way with 3 other friends and they have a set menu that they all agreed on and she loves it. One person is still in charge of the shopping (it rotates) and delivering the raw goods to the others and then they meet for dinner with their meals, visit and exchange. The group of 4 has been doing it for 3 years but they had a hard time with they had 8 people in the group. This way would be difficult to deliver the raw products but we could pick it up at a neutral location instead.